what I meant.”
“That is exactly what you said.”
His gaze stayed lowered.
“Laura had made her choice.”
“At sixteen.”
“She understood what she was doing.”
“No sixteen-year-old understands what forty years feels like.”
He flinched.
“What happened the night she left?”
Dad rubbed his forehead.
“I caught her at the gate with Thomas. I told her to come back inside.”
“And when she refused?”
His voice cracked.
“I told her that if she walked away with him, she shouldn’t expect to come back.”
My eyes burned.
“You said that
