Chapter 20: What Dad Saw

Brynn stood in the hall with her hand still on the banister.

Nobody spoke.

"All right," she said at last, very quietly. "I'll get my bag."

She went upstairs with the detective behind her.

She came down four minutes later with a gym bag and without looking at either of us.

The front door closed.

Dad was still on his feet.

He looked at the door for a long time.

Then his knees gave, and he sat down hard in the chair.

"Lena," he said.

"I'm here."

"Sit with me."

I stayed where I was.

"I want to say it properly," he said. "I've said it wrong for years, and I won't do it wrong tonight."

He opened the top drawer of his desk.

A blue folder lay inside with a gold clip on it.

The trust.

He laid it on the blotter and put both hands flat on it.

"When your mother died, you were twelve," he said.

"I let you cry in your room for two weeks because I couldn't stand to hear it.

"I told myself you needed privacy."

"I remember."

"When Brynn's mother died, I did the same, and I left Brynn alone with it.

"Shane's mother took care of both of you, and I let her. I was grateful.

"I have been grateful to that family for fifteen years."

His voice cracked.

"The day after the rail broke I walked through the shed and saw a hacksaw on the bench.

"I knew it was Shane's. I knew the blade was new.

"And I stood there and I thought, I don't want to know."

"Dad."

"I thought, if I don't know, nobody has to be punished."

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