I felt cold all over.
“I paid because we were trying to survive.”
“I know.”
“Then why does any of this matter now?”
“Because incoming residency files were being reviewed. Marcus thought if the school escalated it, your name could get pulled into it too.”
There it was.
A reason.
It didn’t explain everything, but it gave me one thread I could start pulling.
I looked down at the envelope in my hands.
Because I still loved him, I grabbed onto the only answer that hurt a little less.
“So this was to protect me?”
Daniel hesitated too long.
“He said that was part of it.”
Part of it.
I looked back at the graduation crowd.
“Where is he?”
Daniel exhaled hard.
“At the motel on Carver Road. I drove him there last night.”
Marcus opened the motel door on the second knock.
He was still in his dress shirt, sleeves rolled up, tie loose, graduation clothes hanging off him like they belonged to somebody else.
