Page 112 of Never Forget

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I couldn't answer her. "Jamie, please."

"I need some time and space to think about this."

"Jamie—"

"Please, Sam."

I looked at her.

Her face was wet. Her hands were at her sides. She wasn't going to let me near her.

Something in me went cold.

I picked up my keys off the counter, walked to the door and closed it behind me. I was in my truck before I let myself breathe.

Amber.

I needed to see Amber.

The Henderson estate sat at the end of a tree-lined drive in Mount Pleasant. I'd driven it a hundred times. Every one of those drives, some part of me had felt like a guest being tolerated—boots too heavy for the floors, the wrong kind of watch on my wrist, the wrong kind of everything. Today I didn't feel that. Today the house was just a house and Amber was just a woman who had hurt the person I loved.

The housekeeper opened the door a few seconds after I rang the bell.

"Sam."

She was on her feet before the housekeeper had finished backing out of the doorway. She crossed the patio and came at me with her arms already opening.

I held up a hand and stopped her.

She stopped.

"Amber. What is this?"

I held out the letter.

She looked at it. Then at me. A small smile started at the corner of her mouth.

"Oh good. You got it."

"I never submitted an application."

"My father took care of it."

"I said no. And you still sent an application in my name anyway?"

"Sam." She tilted her head. "Don't be like that. He did it because he believes in you. We both do."

"You used my name. My information. Without asking me."

"You would have said no."

"I did say no."

"You would have kept saying no. You say no to everything, Sam. It's a reflex. Daddy thought if you actually held the letter in your hand, you'd think about it differently."

"You and your father decided my life for me, Amber."

"We opened a door for you."

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