Fifteen Years After My Father Changed the Locks, He Seated Me at Table Twenty-Two

Every incoming and outgoing number shows up on his monthly statement.”

“So that’s why the wedding invitation came without a return address,” I said.

“She drove to the post office in Wilmington to mail it,” David said.

“She had to make sure you got it before Gerald realized the drawer key was missing.”

I looked out the diner window at the empty sidewalk across Main Street.

“She spent fifteen years believing I walked away.”

“She spent fifteen years knowing something was wrong,” David corrected softly.