Chapter 1
My father called me from downtown Chicago and said, “Emily, I just punched your husband.” Then he told me who Daniel had been holding hands with when he saw them.
I thought Dad was joking.
Then I heard traffic, shouting, and Daniel’s voice in the background.
“Dad, what happened?”
“I saw your husband walking down Michigan Avenue with another woman.”
My stomach tightened.
“What woman?”
Dad didn’t answer immediately.
He had been leaving a coffee shop when he spotted Daniel across the street.
Daniel was supposed to be in a client meeting.
Instead, he was holding a young woman’s hand.
They were laughing.
She leaned against his shoulder while they waited at the crosswalk.
Dad crossed the street before he could talk himself out of it.
“Daniel!”
My husband froze.
The woman immediately released his hand.
Dad walked straight toward him.
“You have a wife at home.”
Daniel raised both hands.
“Robert, you don’t understand.”
Dad looked at the woman.
“Does my daughter know about you?”
She stared at the pavement.
Daniel grabbed Dad’s arm.
“Stay out of my marriage.”
That was when Dad punched him.
Daniel stumbled backward and fell onto the sidewalk.
People around them stopped.
The woman screamed.
Dad pulled out his phone and called me before Daniel could get back up.
Now I was standing in our kitchen, barely able to breathe.
“Put him on the phone.”
Dad switched to speaker.
Daniel shouted, “Emily, this isn’t what you think.”
“Then tell me who she is.”
Silence.
The woman suddenly spoke from beside him.
“Daniel, you said you already told her.”
My hand tightened around the phone.
“Told me what?”
Daniel snapped, “Vanessa, stop talking.”
Dad went quiet.
May you like
Then Vanessa said the sentence that made my knees weak.
“Emily… Daniel told me you two were already divorced.”
