James opened the folder between us, but before I could see the first page, he closed it again.
Around us, the airplane had become a crush of people pulling bags from overhead compartments and shuffling toward the aisle.
Sophia stirred against my chest.
I barely noticed.
“What is that?” I asked.
James glanced toward the line of passengers, then back at me.
“Not here.”
My heart started hammering.
“You just said my sister needs to know something before she marries Daniel.
She’s getting married in two days.
You can’t say that and then tell me not here.”
“I’m not trying to frighten you.”
“You’re doing a terrible job.”
For the first time since I’d met him, James looked uncomfortable.
He slipped the folder back into his leather case.
“Daniel Cole worked for Whitmore Industries.”
I stared at him.
“Worked?”
“Until three months ago.”
The aisle moved forward.
James stood, reached into the overhead bin, and pulled down my battered carry-on before I could stop him.
“Come with me,” he said.
I stayed seated.
“Was he fired?”
James didn’t answer immediately.
That was answer enough.
I thought of Carmen sending me a photograph six months earlier of Daniel standing beside her in a charcoal suit, one arm around her waist.
She had written, He’s everything I prayed for.
I’d replied with a heart because I hadn’t known what else to say.
Carmen and I had once shared everything.
Clothes.
Secrets.
A bedroom when we were teenagers.
Dreams about leaving our neighborhood and becoming the kind of women who never had to count change before buying groceries.
Then I got pregnant.
Sophia’s father vanished.
Carmen told me I should have been more careful.
I told her careful women got abandoned too.
Neither of us apologized.
Now James Whitmore was telling me the man she planned to marry had been removed from his company.
I stood.
“Tell me what happened.”
“I will.
But privately.”
We left the plane together.
People noticed James immediately once we entered the terminal.
An airport employee approached him.
Another man in a dark coat waited near the jet bridge and nodded.
James said something quietly to him, then turned to me.
“There’s a private lounge nearby.
Ten minutes.
After that, you decide what you want to do.”
I almost laughed.
“You think I’m going anywhere before you explain this?”
His eyes softened for half a second.
“Fair.”
