she wished you were outside school because she wanted to show you some stupid leaf she’d found.”
“It wasn’t stupid,” Emma called from the hallway.
We froze.
She stood there in her pajamas.
Ryan’s face crumpled. He moved toward her but stopped several feet away.
“Em. I’m sorry. You told me the truth, and I should have listened.”
Emma didn’t run into his arms.
She simply nodded.
It hurt him. I think it needed to.
An apology was only the beginning.
I looked at Ryan. “And this doesn’t happen again. You don’t change Emma’s arrangements behind my back, and you don’t keep questioning her until she gives you the answer you want. If you’re worried, you come to me — not our seven-year-old.”
Ryan nodded. “You’re right.”
The next day, Ryan went to the school.
He told the principal that Travis had done nothing wrong and admitted he’d caused the confusion
