“Yes,” I said softly. “That’s exactly it.”
We spoke for another few minutes before hanging up.
Afterward, I sat at the kitchen table and thought about the week that had changed everything.
I had initially believed the biggest problem was that Emily had lied to me.
Then I thought the problem was that Mark had helped her lie.
But neither of those things had been the real beginning.
The real beginning had been the first cruel joke.
The first time Emily walked toward a lunch table and watched the other students move their bags.
The first time she went home feeling ashamed of herself for something she hadn’t done.
The first morning she stood in front of the school entrance and felt that walking inside was more frightening than telling her parents a lie.
Those were the moments I wished I could go back and change.
But I couldn’t.
