I wince. I’m glad it’s coming out sooner rather than later, though. Some secrets can rot you from the inside out. “Yes, sweetheart. That was him.”
“I knew it!” she says proudly, as though she’s cracked some kind of secret code. “I knew that he was someone important. Someone special.”
Emma glances at me and smiles. “Well, you were right.”
“I’m sorry I lied to you before,” I continue. “I just wasn’t prepared to see him, and the truth is, at the time, he didn’t know about you.”
“You mean, you didn’t tell him?”
“Well, I wanted to make sure I could trust him.”
“I know, sweetheart. But it’s not as simple as that. He may be your dad, but he may be… a lot of other things, too.”
“I guess I just mean that I was scared when I saw him again. I was worried about how his presence might affect you
