Page 31 of Gifts

Keelie looks at her watch. “I’m behind on everything, but I’ll walk you out while you wait on Emma.”

Levi doesn’t argue and is up and out of the room before I can say another word. When we all get to the office, Maggie exits another door with her parents filing out behind her. She’s red in the face with swollen eyes from crying and her parents look like they could wring her neck.

“What’s going on?”

I turn when I hear Emma’s voice. She’s got her backpack slung over her shoulder, white knuckling the strap. That’s when I realize she and Maggie have made eye contact. This only makes Maggie hightail it out of the office even faster.

I move next to Emma and pull her into my side. “It’s been a crap day and I’m taking you both home early. I’ll explain when we get out of here.”

We start to leave, but we’re stopped again when from the back hall of the main office, two police officers exit and one is holding a kid by the bicep with his hands cuffed behind his back who looks to be about Levi’s age. The kid doesn’t look happy. I assume this is the asshole, Terry Mosher, who tried to fuck with my son.

Just thinking about the possibility that Levi could be in that position is infuriating. But this thought barely crosses my mind when I realize Mosher is glaring at my kid—but not Levi. I feel Emma tense under my arm as the cops escort Mosher, the whole time his eyes never leave my daughter. Right before they pass us, his glare transforms into a sneer.

When they clear the door, I mutter under my breath, “What the fuck was that?”

Levi looks just as confused and Keelie is staring at Emma. When I look down at my daughter, her expression is laced with fear and panic—but panic wins.

Emma looks quickly between Levi and me. “What’s going on?”

I don’t answer. “Do you know that guy?”

She pulls away from me, close to tears. Desperately, she shakes her head, whispering, “No.”

Keelie asks, “Are you okay, Emma?”

Levi steps closer and lowers his voice. “Em, that guy is bad news. What was that about?”

Forgetting where she is, she takes another step away from all of us and raises her voice. “I don’t know him, I don’t know what that was about—I don’t know anything, all right? I don’t even know why you’re here!”

I notice the ladies behind the desk watching the show we’re putting on, so I decide to put a stop to this. “We’ll talk when we get home.” I still can’t believe the way the day has unfolded, so I turn to Keelie. “I’ll call you.”

She gives me a small nod and I direct Emma to leave with Levi following. How I’m going to get to the bottom of this, I have no idea.

*****

I cross my arms and lean back against the counter in my brand-new but very plain kitchen as I watch the tears well in my daughter’s eyes once again. This time, they’re tears of pure frustration.

She throws her arms out to the side and yells at me, “I don’t understand why I’m the one being interrogated when they found drugs in Levi’s locker!”

“You think I wasn’t interrogated? I fucking was, Em. By the police and Mr. White!” Levi blurts from where he’s standing off to the side.

“Enough.” I look to Levi and half-heartedly add, “And stop with the fucks.”

Levi rolls his eyes and I can’t blame him. After filling Emma in on what happened, she was shocked, as she should’ve been. Over the last few months, aside from being quiet and pulling away from us, I’ve never seen her like this. Now she’s agitated—almost in a frenzy—and bordering on hysteria. When I started asking her about Terry Mosher, she was more insistent than necessary she knew nothing about him.

If I hadn’t seen her hide out in her room every minute of the day she wasn’t in school, I’d seriously be worried she’d gotten herself into some bad shit. But there’s been no time for her to get into anything. Basically, she’s transparent but she’s not.

This is making her lash out. “You’re not a cop anymore, Dad. You’re not working with the CIA, or even Crew and Grady. I have nothing to tell you, and even if you want to stand there and ask me all day, I know nothing!”

“Emma.” I lower my voice. “Drop the attitude. Something happened in that office. I saw it, your brother saw it, and I’m pretty sure Keelie saw it. That kid was caught with a master key to the lockers and your ex-best friend was playing lookout for him when he was setting your brother up to be arrested for possession of drugs and paraphernalia. Yet when he walked by us today, he didn’t give your brother the time of day, but instead glared at you like you were expected to read his mind. I wanna know why that is.”

“Of course, you do.” The tears fall from her face. “You’re used to demanding all kinds of things and getting them, aren’t you? Well, guess what? I have nothing to offer. I don’t know why that guy glared daggers at me. He’s obviously a drug dealer—I doubt anything he does makes sense. But here you are, yelling at me because of the way some slimeball looked at me.”

I sigh and shake my head. She has no idea what yelling is. “I’m not yelling at you, baby.”

“I’m going to my room. Leave me alone!” She swipes the tears from her face and runs from the kitchen.

I drop my head and close my eyes. Either Danielle’s been hiding the dramatic shit from me for years or I suck at parenting worse than I thought.

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