“What happened?”
“Someone is here asking for Emma. He’s sitting in my office right now waiting for you.”
“What’s going on here?”
The principal lowered his head. “He didn’t introduce himself. He only said that you know him.”
The principal was waiting outside his office.
“Where is Emma?”
“She’s in the counseling room. She’s okay.” He glanced at the office door behind him. “The man inside asked to see her first. When we told him we needed to call you, he said that was fine. He’d wait for you.”
I put my hand on the handle and stopped.
I knew, even before I opened the door, that whatever was on the other side was going to change something.
I pushed it open.
Whatever was on the other side was going to change something.
He stood when he heard me come in.
For one full second, my brain refused to make sense of what I was seeing. It was like looking at someone from a dream I had buried so deeply I no longer believed he was real.
Then it hit me all at once.
My knees weakened. I sat in the closest chair.
“You,” I said, but it came out broken. “What are you doing here? This can’t be real!”
It was like looking at someone from a dream.
He looked older. Of course he did. So did I.
His hair had gone gray at the temples, and he was thinner than I remembered, and more tired, like life had sanded him down.
But it was unmistakably him.
“Hello, Anna,” he said quietly.
“Don’t.” My voice sharpened. “You don’t get to reappear in my life after all these years, after what you did, and act like this is normal!”
It was unmistakably him.
Behind me, the principal shifted.
“Should I give you a moment?” he asked.
“No. Stay here.”
I wanted someone else to hear whatever he had to say to me. I wanted proof that I wasn’t imagining it because I could barely believe it myself.
Daniel, my husband’s former business partner, the man who’d made it sound like Joe’s death was some kind of righteous punishment, was standing before me.
And part of me was deeply afraid to find out what he wanted with Emma and me.
I wanted proof that I wasn’t imagining it.
Daniel sat back down.
“Why did you want to see my daughter?” I asked him.
“Because of what she did for my son, Caleb.”
My mouth went dry. “Caleb is your son?”
He nodded. “I just wanted to thank her. But when Caleb told me her last name so I could ask for her, I realized who she was.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “I also realized that this might be my only chance to tell you the truth about Joe and what he did.”
My heart rate skyrocketed. “What are you talking about?”
This might be my only chance to tell you the truth.
Daniel looked at me for a long second.
Then he said, “Joe didn’t lose that money. He didn’t cause the business to collapse. He was covering for someone else.”
“What? Who was he covering for? Why would he do that?”
“He was covering for me.” He dragged a hand down his face. “I made a risky decision. I pushed forward after your husband told me not to. I thought I could fix it before anyone noticed how bad it was.”
I thought I was going to throw up.
“He was covering for someone else.”
“When it all started collapsing, he found out,” Daniel said. “I told him I would take responsibility. I swore I would, but he wouldn’t let me.”
“Why not?” I snapped. “Why would he take the fall for you?”
“Because I was the one with a business degree from an Ivy League school. I was the one the investors trusted. He said that keeping my name clean was our only hope of bouncing back from that disaster.”
Fury burned inside me.
