I made a sound. I don’t know what kind.
“I’m Danny,” he said. “Your daughter saved my life. And then she died. And I’ve been trying to find you for three years to tell you I’m sorry.”
I sat down.
Right on my front steps. In my bathrobe. With the newspaper article crumpled in my lap.
My legs just stopped holding me up.
Vanessa sat down next to me. She didn’t touch me. She just sat there.
David Reyes stood on the sidewalk with his hands in his pockets. Danny stood next to him. Nobody said anything.
The street was quiet. A dog barked down the block. Mrs. Abernathy’s curtain moved next door.
“I knew,” I said finally. My voice didn’t sound like mine. “I knew they stopped. The police told me. They told me Lisa and Tom stopped to help at an accident and got hit by a truck. They told me Ellie was in the car, on the shoulder, and she was safe.”
