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I shook my head and gave him a sad smile. “No, Dad. No should haves. There’s no changing the past. We can only go forward from here.”
He swiped a tear starting to fall and drew another deep breath. “I know you think your mother instigated the job offer, but it was Mitch’s idea.”
“Are you sure you want me there? I mean, I understand if you don’t. It screams nepotism.” Not to mention I had a reputation his firm would have to deal with, no matter what Mitch had claimed.
“Yes,” he said eagerly. “I would love the chance to work with you. Spend time with you.” His eyes turned glassy again. “I’ve wasted so much time, Harper. I’m sorry.”
I choked back a sob. “Dad.”
“I’m going to make this right, Harper. I swear,” he said earnestly, then his eyes turned serious. “I’m leaving your mother.”
My mouth fell open.
“As I said, she’s a hard woman to live with, and she’s treated you terribly. Honestly, we both did. You needed love and support and all you received from your mother was condemnation, and ambivalence from me. But that display last night…” He shook his head. “I confronted her after Mitch and John David left.”
“Dad…” I wasn’t sure what to say. Thank you for finally being a parent? After all this time, you don’t have to stand up for me anymore?
“I’ll be moving out. My secretary is in the process of finding me an apartment or a rental house, but I suspect your mother will kick you out.”
My heart sank. “Oh.”
“I’ve asked Donna to look for a two-bedroom if you want to crash with me.”
The waitress brought out our food and we fell silent as we picked up our forks and started to eat.
“You won’t be homeless, Harper,” he said insistently. “You can stay with me.”
“Will she kick me out today?”
He made a face. “Well, legally, she can’t. There are laws about eviction, all of which take time. But I figured we should have a place lined up before she exhausts her legal options.”
Evicted by my mother. I wasn’t surprised, but it still hurt.
I nodded.
“If you’re agreeable to it, we were thinking you could start at the firm next week,” he said, trying to sound cheerful. “As Mitch said, we’ll have you start with filing and such, but maybe once you get started, you’ll like it enough to want to be a paralegal, or even go to law school.” He held up a hand. “No pressure from me. You can do whatever you want. I just want you to know you have options.”
“Thanks.”
We continued to eat, but it was difficult making small talk. I still wanted to ask him about Andi’s kidnapping, but it would have felt like kicking him while he was down. He’d just decided to divorce his wife of thirty-nine years. Still, I needed answers, and the only way to get them was to ask questions. I just needed to figure out when to do it.
God love him, he must have sensed there was something else I wanted to discuss because he looked up at me with worry in his eyes. “Now that my news is out in the open, why don’t you tell me why you wanted to talk.”
I picked at a piece of lettuce in my bowl with my fork. “I have questions about Andi’s kidnapping. About John Michael Stevens, to be more precise.”
The color faded from his face, and he picked up his iced tea and took a long sip. When he set it down, his gaze met mine. “Sorry. I wasn’t expecting that.”
“I’m sorry.”
He patted his hand in the air toward me. “No, no. I’m sure you have questions. It was very much a taboo subject in our house.” He sliced off a piece of his pot roast with his knife, then stabbed it with his fork. “I’m not sure what I can tell you about him, but I’ll tell you what I can.”
“Did they have any other suspects?”
He blinked, caught off guard again. “No. I don’t think so.” He nodded toward me. “You gave the chief a really good description, and they found him within a week of finding Andi.” He set down his fork and knife. “He’d already started stalking another girl and they think he was planning to kidnap her soon. So you saved her life, Harper.”
I hadn’t known any of that. “So he really did do it? I didn’t pick the wrong guy out of the lineup?”
Confusion clouded his eyes. “Have you questioned that you did?”
