Chapter 2
For a moment, I thought I had misunderstood Jason.
“What did you say?”
“He’s been asking about your finances.”
I stopped in the middle of my driveway.
Across the street, someone was mowing their lawn.
A dog barked.
A delivery truck rolled past.
Everything around me looked painfully ordinary.
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Jason.”
“I really don’t.”
His voice sounded strained.
“I only heard part of one conversation. Emily got mad at him.”
“When?”
“Last week.”
“And you didn’t think I should know?”
“She begged me not to tell you.”
I laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
“Seems to be a theme.”
“I know.”
“No, Jason. You don’t.”
Silence.
Then he said, “She’s scared.”
“Of him?”
“I’m not sure.”
That answer changed something.
“What exactly did Michael ask?”
Jason hesitated.
“He asked whether the house was in your name.”
My eyes went to the two-story home behind me.
The house where Emily had grown up.
The house where I had measured her height on the kitchen doorframe until she was sixteen and told me it was embarrassing.
The house Sarah and I had worked twenty years to pay off.
“He asked about my house?”
“Yes.”
“What else?”
“Your business.”
I felt my jaw tighten.
I owned a commercial electrical company.
Nothing glamorous.
Thirty-two employees.
Four service vans.
A warehouse.
Enough work to give us a comfortable life after years of twelve-hour days.
“Did Emily answer him?”
“I don’t know.”
“Jason.”
“I don’t know,” he repeated. “But she told him it was none of his business.”
That was something.
Not enough.
But something.
“Where is Michael staying?”
“I shouldn’t—”
“Jason.”
Another pause.
“The Riverstone Hotel.”
I ended the call.
Sarah was standing in the doorway when I turned around.
“Who was that?”
“Jason.”
“What did he want?”
I walked past her.
“Michael has been asking about our money.”
Sarah followed me inside.
“What?”
“He asked whether this house was in my name. He asked about the company.”
Her face changed.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
That scared me more than anything.
“You know something.”
“No.”
“Sarah.”
“I don’t know anything.”
“But you recognize this.”
She sat slowly.
“Michael always cared about money.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
She looked down.
Years disappeared from her face.
Suddenly she looked like the exhausted twenty-eight-year-old single mother I had met all those years ago.
“There was a reason I never pushed him for child support.”
I stared at her.
“You told me it was because you wanted him gone.”
“That was part of it.”
“What was the other part?”
“He threatened me.”
The room went silent.
My heartbeat became the loudest thing in it.
“When?”
“After I filed for divorce.”
“What kind of threat?”
Sarah swallowed.
“He said if I came after his money, he would come after Emily.”
I took a step toward her.
“What does that mean?”
“He said he would fight for custody just to make my life miserable.”
“And you believed him?”
“You didn’t know him then.”
“I knew enough.”
“No, David. You knew the version of him after I had already escaped.”
She pressed her palms together.
“He could be charming one minute and terrifying the next.”
My anger shifted.
Not gone.
Redirected.
“Did he ever hurt you?”
Sarah didn’t answer.
That was an answer.
I sat down slowly.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because it was over.”
“It wasn’t over.”
“It was for twenty years.”
“Until now.”
Her eyes filled.
“I’m sorry.”
I stood again.
“I’m going to see him.”
Sarah shot to her feet.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No, David.”
“I am not letting a man walk back into Emily’s life, ask questions about my assets, and hide behind cancer.”
“What if he really is dying?”
“Then he can answer quickly.”
I grabbed my keys.
Sarah moved in front of the door.
“Please.”
“Move.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Talk.”
“You’re furious.”
“I have been furious before without punching anyone.”
“That isn’t what I mean.”
“Then what?”
She looked at me with an expression I couldn’t read.
“Michael knows how to get inside people’s heads.”
“So do toddlers.”
“This is different.”
I opened the door.
“Then I guess I’ll find out.”
The Riverstone Hotel was twenty minutes away.
I spent every minute replaying Emily’s words.
My real dad.
He’ll understand.
By the time I reached the hotel, I had convinced myself I could stay calm.
Then I saw Michael.
He was sitting in the lobby café.
Twenty years older.
Thinner.
Gray around the temples.
A cane leaned against his chair.
For one brief second, pity hit me.
Then he looked up.
And smiled.
“David.”
Like we were old friends.
I sat across from him.
“You know who I am.”
“Of course.”
“You’ve been asking about my finances.”
His smile faded slightly.
“Emily told you?”
“No.”
“Jason.”
I said nothing.
Michael leaned back.
“He never liked me.”
“He has good instincts.”
Michael laughed softly.
The sound made my skin crawl.
“You came here angry.”
“I came here for answers.”
“All right.”
“Why are you asking about my house?”
“I wasn’t asking about your house.”
“Wrong answer.”
“I asked Emily whether she had any financial security.”
“She’s twenty-four.”
“She’s getting married.”
“And?”
“And fathers worry.”
I stared at him.
He actually said it without shame.
“Fathers worry.”
“That’s right.”
“Where were you when she had pneumonia at eleven?”
His face tightened.
“David—”
“Where were you when she broke her wrist at thirteen?”
“I know I made mistakes.”
“Where were you when she called every phone number she could find on her sixteenth birthday because she thought maybe you had forgotten her number?”
He looked away.
I leaned forward.
“Do not sit across from me and use the word father like you earned it.”
His jaw tightened.
There.
For the first time, the charm slipped.
“I know you raised her.”
“Then act like it.”
“I’m grateful.”
“I don’t want your gratitude.”
“What do you want?”
“The truth.”
Michael studied me.
Then something strange happened.
He smiled again.
“You always were predictable.”
I froze.
“What?”
“Sarah told me you were.”
“When?”
His silence lasted half a second too long.
I felt it.
“Michael.”
He picked up his coffee.
“When did Sarah tell you anything about me?”
He took a sip.
“Maybe you should ask your wife.”
My blood went cold.
“Answer me.”
“She and I have been in contact.”
“How long?”
“David—”
“How long?”
“About a year.”
The chair scraped loudly when I stood.
People turned toward us.
I didn’t care.
“You’re lying.”
“Sit down.”
“You’re lying.”
“Ask her.”
I stared at him.
He didn’t blink.
I grabbed the edge of the table.
“What does Emily know?”
“Enough.”
“What does that mean?”
“Sit down.”
I hated him for saying it.
But I sat.
Michael lowered his voice.
“I didn’t come back three months ago.”
I could barely hear him over the blood pounding in my ears.
“I came back last year.”
“Why?”
“Because I found out I was sick.”
“You said three months.”
“That’s when Emily found out.”
I stared.
“And Sarah?”
“She knew before Emily.”
“How long before?”
“Almost nine months.”
My mouth went dry.
Nine months.
My wife had known.
My wife had spoken to him.
My wife had hidden it.
“What did you want from Sarah?”
Michael’s fingers tightened around his cup.
“For her to tell Emily the truth.”
“What truth?”
He looked almost pleased.
That frightened me.
“There are things Sarah never told you.”
“I’m getting tired of everyone saying that.”
“You should be.”
“What truth?”
Michael leaned toward me.
“Ask Sarah why I really left.”
I held his gaze.
“She told me.”
“I’m sure she did.”
“You cheated. You drank. You threatened her.”
His expression shifted.
“Some of that is true.”
“Some?”
“I drank.”
“And cheated?”
He looked out the window.
“Yes.”
“Threatened her?”
His face hardened.
“I said things I regret.”
“That sounds like a politician’s apology.”
He ignored me.
“But I didn’t abandon Emily because I wanted to.”
I almost laughed.
“You packed a bag.”
“Yes.”
“You disappeared.”
“Yes.”
“For twenty years.”
“Yes.”
“So explain the difference.”
He looked directly into my eyes.
“Sarah paid me to stay away.”
I stopped breathing.
He continued before I could speak.
“She offered me money and told me if I ever contacted Emily again, she would make sure I lost everything.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I have proof.”
“Of course you do.”
“I kept the checks.”
I stared at him.
“What checks?”
“For three years after the divorce, Sarah sent me money every month.”
“No.”
“She wanted full control.”
“No.”
“She wanted Emily to forget me.”
“You’re lying.”
“Ask your wife.”
I stood again.
This time Michael didn’t stop me.
As I turned away, he said, “David.”
I looked back.
His face was pale.
Tired.
But his eyes were sharp.
“I’m not asking you to trust me.”
“Good.”
“I’m asking you to ask yourself why Sarah never told you.”
I walked out.
I drove home too fast.
Sarah was in the kitchen.
She looked at me and knew immediately.
“What did he say?”
I closed the door.
“He says you paid him.”
Her face lost all color.
That was when I knew.
Not that Michael was telling the whole truth.
But that he wasn’t lying about everything.
Sarah sat down.
“David.”
“How much?”
“It wasn’t like that.”
“How much?”
“Please let me explain.”
“How much money did you give him to stay away from Emily?”
Her eyes filled with tears.
“Twenty thousand dollars.”
I stared at the woman I had slept beside for nineteen years.
“Where did you get twenty thousand dollars?”
She looked down.
May you like
Then whispered something even worse.
“From you.”
