What Happened at Prom
Ryan pointed toward the photograph on his phone.
“My dad works with Mr. Bennett,” he explained. “He’s been to our house for dinner.”
I could barely breathe.
“How did you recognize him?”
“Iris’s locket opened while we were taking pictures. I saw the old photo inside.”
The locket had once belonged to me. On one side was a picture of Iris as a baby. On the other was the only photograph I still had of Thomas and me together.
Ryan had recognized him.
“At first, I thought I was wrong,” Ryan continued. “Then Iris said the man was her father and that he died before she was born.”
Ryan had stepped away and called his father.
David Cole had been Thomas’s business attorney for years. He knew about the accident. He also knew about the young woman Thomas had unsuccessfully tried to find.
When Ryan showed him a picture of Iris, David recognized my face immediately.
“He told me not to say anything until he could talk to you,” Ryan said. “But Iris deserves to hear this from her mother. Not from gossip. Not from a stranger.”
“I know.”
“Do you?”
The question hurt because I had earned it.
The kitchen faucet turned off.
Ryan lowered his voice.
“She trusts you more than anyone. Don’t make her discover this another way.”
I looked toward the hallway.
“How much does she know?”
“Only that I recognized the man. I told her I might know someone connected to him. That’s what she was texting you about.”
He checked the clock on the wall.
“You have about three minutes left.”
