Chapter 3

I had just hoisted the suitcase onto my shoulder when my daughter's voice came from up ahead.

She glanced back at me, her tone offhand.

"Get the case up to the dorm in one piece. Don't bang it up."

"We'll wait for you there, so hurry."

Then she walked off, Richard on one side and Jacqueline on the other, each holding one of her hands, the three of them like a family.

The easy harmony of it settled like a weight in my chest.

Halfway across the lot, Richard turned slightly, his eyes drifting toward me.

The next instant, my daughter tightened her grip on his arm and pulled his gaze back.

Two hours later, I finally wrestled the suitcase into the dorm.

"You're finally here. I've been waiting forever."

I lifted my arm and wiped the heavy sweat from my temple with my sleeve.

"What happened to your neck?"

My chest jumped, and I opened my mouth to explain.

"You don't have something contagious, do you? Don't you dare pass it to me."

She frowned, covering her nose and mouth, her body shrinking back on instinct.

The hand at my side went stiff. I stepped away first, putting distance between us.

"It's not contagious."

"If there's nothing else, I'll go."

At the door, my steps stopped.

"You probably threw out the carrots in your bag. You're allergic to them."

The words fell, and I walked straight out of the dorm.

Inside, my daughter picked up the carrots and stood there alone, sinking into thought.

I had barely stepped out through the front doors of the dorm building when a warm, strong hand suddenly closed around my wrist.

It dragged me off without a word, farther and farther.

We stopped at last outside a coffee shop.

Richard pulled me inside and pressed me down into a seat.

He finally released the hand he had gripped the whole way. I frowned and shook out my wrist.

"All those years you were in prison, I thought about you every single night. I applied to visit you so many times."

"But you always refused me. Even when I brought up Blake, you refused me all the same."

I listened to his confession with lowered eyes, and nothing rose in me but a wave of cold, nauseated indifference.

But at the mention of Blake, something in me stopped short, and a doubt I couldn't help began to form.

The next second, Richard took my hand and went on.

"Louise, I don't care about that daughter of yours. Come back, and I'll treat it like none of it ever happened."

One weightless line to turn the page, and he thought he could erase five years of undeserved ruin.

All those nights and days of torment, and in his eyes they could be wiped out with a single stroke?

I let out a bitter laugh and lightly brushed his hand away.

"I'm not going back."

"If there's nothing else, I'll go now."

I stood straight up, my eyes no longer on him, and turned to leave.

Hurried footsteps chased after me from behind.

The next instant, he reached out and clamped both hands firmly on my shoulders.

"Give me a little more time. Let me get everything sorted out."

I turned my head, and my gaze happened to pass over the old scar on his wrist.

He had cut it there himself, the day I gave birth.

Back then he had knelt by the hospital bed, telling me sorry over and over.

Sorry that he had blocked the operating room door and wouldn't let me in.

When I stayed silent, he grabbed a syringe from beside him and stabbed it hard into his own wrist.

Blood ran steadily down his arm as he walked, step by step, up to me.

"Give me one chance. Just wait for me, all right?"

I waited.

But what came in the end was a lawsuit that put me behind bars.

I gave a small hum of assent.

His eyes lit up in an instant.

I smiled, the smile never reaching my eyes.

Just then I caught a faint glint of light in the corner.

I rubbed my eyes, and it was gone.

After a long standoff, I finally shook Richard off.

I checked the balance on my phone one more time and felt something loosen in my chest.

The phone rang.

"Sophie hasn't come to me all day. Is she at home?"