Page 69 of Cause and Effect

“Whoa.” I chuckled. “Hey, girls.”

“Hi,” they both said.

“Everyone sit down. It’s time to eat,” Laurel said.

Her phone rang, and she declined the call when she glanced at it.

“Another unknown number?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Maybe it was Daddy,” Sophie said.

“Sophie!” Stella reached over and smacked her arm.

“Why would you say that, Sophie?” Laurel asked her, sitting down.

“I don’t know.” She looked down.

“She thinks she saw him,” Stella said.

“I did!” Sophie exclaimed.

I furrowed my brows and looked at Laurel, who had the same look as I did.

“Does she see ghosts?” I leaned over and whispered in her ear.

“No! Sophie, where did you see Daddy?”

“At recess. He was standing on the other side of the fence, staring at me. I waved, he waved, and then he was gone.”

“Sweetheart, Daddy isn’t here anymore. You know that. The person you saw might have just looked like him.”

“That’s what I told her,” Stella said.

“And I told her not to tell you because you’d be upset,” Sara said.

“Did either of you girls see the man on the other side of the fence?” Laurel asked them.

Both Sara and Stella shook their heads.

“Listen, Sophie. I know it’s been hard, and I know how much you miss your dad. Sometimes, when we miss someone so much, our brain can manifest someone that looks like the person we lost. The mind plays tricks. We talked about this before,” Laurel told her.

Her phone rang again. This time, I stood up andgrabbed it from the island, furrowing my brows when I saw it was the precinct calling.

“It’s the precinct.” I handed her the phone.

“Laurel Evans. Okay, I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Who was that?” I asked.

“Probably my teacher. She got arrested today,” Stella said.

“What?” I nearly choked on my chicken.

“She’s having an affair with a high school student. At least that’s what I heard the other teachers saying.”

My eyes widened as I glanced at Laurel.

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