rescue him.
Because Lily had deserved to hear it.
Please answer.
Please come home.
Please be her father.
Instead, David Vance’s first desperate plea during those fourteen days was for himself.
I went outside.
Susan touched my arm.
“You don’t have to.”
“I know.”
Last night’s rain still darkened the pavement.
David watched me cross the street.
He suddenly looked older.
“Sarah.”
I stopped twenty feet away.
“What happened?”
I stared, initially confused.
Then realized he wasn’t asking about his arrest.
He meant Lily.
“What happened to her?”
Everything inside me went still.
“Meningitis.”
He closed his eyes.
“Oh God.”
“She woke up once.”
He opened his eyes.
“Did she—”
“No.”
His mouth trembled.
“No what?”
“She didn’t ask for you.”
I hadn’t intended to say that.
But it was true.
He looked devastated.
“She said she was cold.”
He started crying.
In twelve years, I’d seen David cry only
