Chapter 2 - THE MAN AT THE BACK DOOR
The applause followed us into a narrow faculty corridor like rain against a roof.
Emma held my elbow while Lily carried the folder and Sophie checked every doorway.
“Don't say another word until we get home,” I told them.
“Mom, please,” Lily said.
“You cannot announce that you found Daniel in front of hundreds of strangers and expect me to smile politely.”
Sophie stopped walking.
“We wanted the foundation to be public before he could interfere.”
“Interfere with what?”
She didn't answer.
A security guard appeared at the corridor's far end, speaking urgently into a radio.
Behind him stood a gray-haired man wearing a cheap dark suit.
I recognized him immediately, although twenty-two years had carved deep lines beside his mouth.
Daniel.
His face collapsed when he saw me.
“Em,” he whispered.
The sound of that old nickname struck me harder than the sight of him.
I had pictured this reunion thousands of times.
In every version I demanded explanations, and in every version he had none.
Instead he glanced behind his shoulder.
“You shouldn't have brought her here,” he told the girls.
Sophie stepped between us.
“You promised you would tell her the truth.”
“And I will,” he said, “but not here.”
I studied his trembling hands.
“What truth excuses leaving infants outside in freezing weather?”
“Nothing excuses it,” he answered.
I believed that part.
Before I could move closer, his phone vibrated.
He looked at the screen, and every bit of color drained from his face.
“They know,” he said.
He reached into his coat and handed Lily a tiny black flash drive.
“If I disappear again, give this to your mother.”
Then the corridor door behind him slammed open.
A woman in a charcoal coat walked toward us with two men at her heels.
“Daniel,” she called pleasantly.
“Your agreement says no contact with the family.”
He backed toward the emergency exit.
“Emily, don't believe the death certificate,” he said.
The woman stopped smiling.
“Your sister-in-law Rebecca did not die the way they told you.”
May you like
Then he ran.
