The television was on because Lily thought cartoons were for mornings and evenings were for "real things." The volume was low; the anchor's voice ran under everything else. Arianne had accepted this.
The twins played on the rug near the sofa. Leo sat cross-legged with his tablet on his knee, while Lily sorted colored blocks into neat stacks, which she would later say were a city.
Arianne sat at the long end of the table in the sitting room with her laptop open and a folder of documents beside it. The light outside was fading into evening. Montreal's winter brightness had faded into pale grey against the windows.
She had just finished one call about a licensing contract and was halfway through reviewing a revised clause when the television volume suddenly increased, with no one touching the remote. It wasn't louder. It was sharper.
"...breaking from our earlier segment—an incident during filming this afternoon involving international television star Noah Hart..."
