“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then you’ve already done the hard part.”
“It doesn’t feel like it.”
Andre let that sit.
“You know what Sarah would tell you?”
“A dozen things. Most of them impolite.”
Andre laughed. “She’d tell you that being calm doesn’t mean you have to disappear. You can defend yourself without making somebody bleed. That applies to courtrooms too.”
Joseph looked at the notebook.
“I didn’t want Khloe learning what I used to do by watching strangers argue about it.”
“Then tell her yourself. The parts she needs. Not the stories that keep you awake. The truth about why you made the choices you made.”
After the call, Joseph knocked on Khloe’s door.
She was drawing at her desk, but he could see the phone lying face down beside the crayons.
“Can I come in?”
She nodded.
He sat on the floor because it was the only place not covered in stuffed animals.
“I need to tell you something,” he said.
Khloe turned toward him.
“Did you do something bad?”
He looked at her for a moment.
“I did some difficult things when I was in the Navy. Sometimes people were hurt. Sometimes there was no way to keep everyone safe. I don’t want that to be the only thing you know about me.”
“Did you fight a lot?”
“More than I wanted to.”
“Then why wouldn’t you fight Trent?”
Joseph felt his eyes sting.
“Because I knew what could happen if I did. And because I don’t want you growing up thinking the strongest person is always the one who hits hardest.”
She thought about that.
“He said he’d put you in the hospital.”
“He did.”
“Were you scared?”
“Yes.”
That surprised her.
“You didn’t look scared.”
“Being afraid doesn’t mean you have to let fear drive.”
She leaned against him. The gesture felt like permission to breathe.
“I still hate him,” she whispered.
Joseph kissed the top of her head.
“You don’t have to like him. But I don’t want him deciding what kind of people we become.”
On the desk, her phone vibrated again. Joseph didn’t ask to see it.
