"Every time I know, Daddy. " He looked at the oak tree. "I want to tell you something," he said. She looked at him. "There are things happening that are bigger than the school," he said. "Things that connect to the man who's been setting Garrett's temperature.
I'm working on it. I have people helping me. " Mia was quiet. Processing. "Is it dangerous? " she asked. Not in a physical way.
Not at this point. He was honest. He'd promised himself years ago that he would not lie to her about risk. She'd built her entire sense of him around the parts he was honest about. He couldn't afford to let that erode.
It's a man who uses systems and money and influence, not violence. Are you sure? He thought of Dot's husband. The road Gerald Fitch drove everyday reasonably sure, he said. She looked at him for a long moment.
The oak tree moved. A dog barked somewhere down the block. Okay, she said. Okay. You told me.
She turned to face him more directly. You didn't try to keep it from me like I was 10. You're not 10. He said, "No. " She looked at her hands. Daddy, can I ask you something personal?
Always people in your past. The club, the life before, she chose her words carefully. He could see her being careful. "Did you ever was there a point where you knew it needed to be different or did it just stop? " He thought about how to answer honestly. "There were points where I knew," he said.
And I chose not to do anything about them yet. Not yet. I told myself it's not that bad yet. I can leave when I'm ready. But but leaving on your own schedule when you're ready, that rarely happens.
What happens is something makes the decision for you. A line that gets crossed that you can't uncross. A consequence that can't be taken back. He paused. For me, it was your mother.
She made me want to choose it rather than have it chosen for me. That's different. Wanting to leave is different from being forced out. Mia was quiet. Were you a bad person?
She said simple, direct. The way she asked all important things. I was a person who did some bad things, he said. Some things that weren't bad, but that existed in a world where the line was blurry. And I didn't always look at it carefully.