“I’ve asked Mom to contact you for years. Sophie’s class had family trees on the wall. I spotted hers while cleaning.”
“That still wasn’t your decision.”
“I know.”
I laughed once.
“One more question. Did Laura tell you where this charm came from?”
Dolly nodded.
“She said your father gave it back to her when she came home.”
Dad had held it the night Laura disappeared.
If Laura had it afterward, he’d seen her.
There was no room left for doubt.
“One more question.”
I picked up my bag.
“Where are you going?”
“To ask my father why he let my mother die believing her
daughter never came home.”
***
Dad was watching television when I entered.
“Emelia. You’re early this week.”
I placed the wooden sunflower on his tray.
“Where are you going?”
His face changed.
“Where did you get that?”
“Did you see Laura after 1986?”
“No.”
The lie came too quickly.
I laid the sweater across his lap.
“Where did you get that?”
“She came back.”
Dad looked away.
That was enough.
“When?”
His shoulders dropped.
“1992.”
The room seemed to shrink.
“She came back.”
“Was she alone?”
“No.”
“She had a little girl.”
Dad closed his eyes.
“Dolly.”
His eyes opened again.
“She had a little girl.”
“You met her.”
“Yes.”
Relief crossed his face.
That made me furious.
“What happened?”
“Emelia, this was decades ago.”
I pulled the chair closer and sat directly in front of him.
“You met her.”
“Not for me. I learned it today.”
His mouth tightened.
“Tell
me.”
Dad stared at the sunflower.
“Your mother was away. Laura knocked. She said she’d come home.”
My throat closed.
“I learned it today.”
“And what did you say?”
“Your mother had finally started sleeping again. You’d moved out. Things had settled.”
“Settled?”
“People had stopped talking.”
“About Thomas?”
Dad looked down.
“Settled?”
“About all of it. Laura leaving. Me not being able to control my own daughter.”
I stared at him.
“Control?”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“It’s exactly what you said.”
Dad looked down.
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“Laura had made her choice.”
“At 16.”
“She knew what she was doing.”
“No 16-year-old knows what 40 years feels like.”
He flinched.
“What happened before she left?”
“She knew what she was doing.”
Dad rubbed his forehead.
“I caught her at the gate with Thomas. I told her to come inside.”
“And when she refused?”
His voice cracked.
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