“Your father didn’t hurt me. He didn’t threaten me. And he didn’t behave inappropriately during our date.”
“Then why are you acting like this?”
She swallowed hard.
“Because after our date, I learned something I wasn’t prepared for. Something that may explain why those other women disappeared.”
My heart began pounding.
“What did you learn?”
Rachel looked down at her hands.
“I need you to listen to the entire story before you decide what it means.”
I nodded, barely able to speak.
She took another breath.
“Your father told me something about your mother. Something I don’t think you know.”
For a moment, the world seemed to go quiet around us.
My mother had been gone for twelve years. I had spent those years believing that I understood the history of my parents’ marriage, even if there were parts of their private life I could never fully know.
“What could Dad possibly have told you?” I asked.
