Chapter 1 - The Empty Space
The girls stopped laughing when Émilie’s father rolled into the gym.
Then he looked past her shoulder, saw the man standing beside the principal, and whispered, “Sweetheart, don’t let him take you anywhere.”
Twenty minutes earlier, Émilie had been watching the clock.
7:10.
7:20.
7:30.
Every time the gym doors opened, she straightened.
Every time another father walked in, she looked down again.
Her blue dress had a loose thread near the hem. She wound it around her finger until the tip turned white.
“Did he forget about you again?”
Brianna Ellison stood in front of her with two friends. Their dresses looked expensive. Their smiles didn’t look friendly.
“He works far away,” Émilie said.
That was easier than explaining the rehabilitation center. Easier than describing the metal frame beside his bed or the way he gritted his teeth when he tried to stand.
Brianna tilted her head.
“That’s what you said last time.”
The other girls laughed.
Across the gym, the principal lifted a microphone.
“All right, dads. Find your girls.”
Music filled the room.
Fathers reached for small hands. Shoes squeaked against the basketball court. Someone spun beneath the paper stars hanging from the ceiling.
Émilie stayed beside the wall.
Her aunt June had offered to wait in the parking lot, but Émilie had insisted she leave.
“He promised,” she’d said.
Now she wished she hadn’t sounded so sure.
The gym doors swung open.
A wheelchair bumped over the threshold.
Émilie saw the familiar brown hair, the scar near his eyebrow, and the crooked smile he used when he was trying not to show pain.
“Dad!”
She ran so fast one shoe slipped halfway off.
Daniel Carter opened his arms.
She hit his chest, and he caught her with a small gasp he tried to hide.
“You came.”
“Of course I came.”
Four men followed him inside, wearing matching navy jackets. Émilie recognized two from hospital visits. One carried a folding cane.
The whispering spread through the gym.
One of the men, a broad-shouldered electrician named Luis Ortega, looked toward Brianna.
“Her dad wasn’t gone because he didn’t love her.”
His voice stayed quiet.
“He’s been learning how to walk again.”
Brianna’s smile vanished.
Émilie pressed her face against her father’s shoulder.
Then she felt his body stiffen.
Across the room, Mark Ellison lowered his drink.
Daniel’s hand closed around hers.
“What is it?” she asked.
Her father barely moved his lips.
“The letter I got before the accident.”
She pulled back.
“What letter?”
May you like
His eyes stayed on Brianna’s father.
“It had his name in it.”
