“She told me you had not failed your program. She said you had received an opportunity she couldn’t discuss and that she believed I would eventually understand.”
Margaret’s voice was barely audible.
“Robert, you never told me.”
“I know.”
Samantha turned the card over in her fingers.
There was handwriting on the back.
One sentence.
Your daughter chose service. She simply chose a different door.
Samantha recognized Shaw’s handwriting.
Her father had possessed those words for twelve years.
Twelve years.
She looked at him.
“Why?”
Robert opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Daniel stared at their father.
Margaret’s expression was one of stunned disappointment.
Finally Robert said, “Because I didn’t believe her.”
Samantha’s fingers tightened slightly around the card.
Robert looked at her.
“And because if she was right, then I had been wrong about you almost from the beginning.”
The silence that followed was not angry.
It was worse.
It was honest.
Samantha slowly placed the business card on the table.
Her father had not simply lacked the truth.
A piece of it had been offered to him.
And he had chosen not to trust it.
Robert looked down.
“There is more,” he said.
Samantha’s eyes lifted.
“What more?”
He took a slow breath.
“Captain Shaw didn’t call me only once.”
