Chapter 3 - What Emma Was Keeping Inside
Later I found her in her room with a book.
I sat on the edge of the bed. "Did you have fun today?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
I kept it light. "Did Dad talk to anybody at the park?"
Her eyes went straight down to the page.
There was my answer.
"Emma?"
She started picking at the corner of the page. "Dad says we're not supposed to bug him when he's talking to his friends."
Friends. Plural.
I felt sick. "Does he talk to friends there a lot?"
A shrug. "Sometimes."
"Women friends?"
Another shrug. Then, in a small voice: "Are you mad?"
"Not at you. Never at you."
She finally looked up. "Dad said grown-up stuff is private."
I pulled her into my side. "You don't have to keep grown-up secrets for anybody. Not even Dad. Okay?"
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That night I lay next to Kevin while he slept. Twelve years, and for the first time he felt like somebody I'd never actually met.
I didn't wake him. By morning I knew exactly what I was going to do. I just needed him to believe, for one more week, that I had no idea.
