It was David.
I immediately woke up at the sight of his face and sat straight up in bed with a fit of tremors as if I had a fever, which I didn’t. Adam sat up with me when he felt me jolt up and wrapped his arms around me.
“What happened?” he asked. “Was it another dream? Are you okay?”
I nodded my head and told him I was fine and that I just needed a glass of water, which he went to go get for me.
I should have told him about that dream.
I should have told him that I didn’t think we should go to the dinner.
When we got to Lineage that night, David was already waiting by the tree for us, just like he said he would be. The guys all said hello, and I smiled at David even though it felt like it was forced. Adam stayed close to my side. I think he could tell after last night that something wasn’t sitting right with me. He kept glancing over at me to make sure I was okay, and he seemed hyper vigilant about watching what was around us all night.
“Where are we going?” I asked when I saw that it looked like we were heading back toward the Main Hall. I had figured that we would be having dinner in David’s apartment or dorm (I wasn’t sure which he had), since it was just going to be the five of us.
“Just say the word, Lisette,” Adam whispered in my ear as we followed David into campus. “And we’re out of here.”
I nodded my head. I knew that all three guys would be happy to leave if anything started to seem out of place.
We walked into the Main Hall and sat down to eat at the same table we ate at the night that my father announced David’s existence. I thought it was a strange choice or a strange coincidence. Either way, I should have listened to my instincts again.
“So, David,” Julian asked, once we were all seated, and the food was placed. “What are your plans for after college?”
“I was thinking about going into business,” he answered.
“Cool,” Julian nodded as he took a piece of steak off his plate.
“What kind of business?”
I should have known, I thought, as the foreboding feeling came over me again.
“The family business,” my father said as he walked into the room to join us.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Michael said.
All three of the guys stood up.
“Sit down, sit down,” my father laughed. “No one is here to do anything stupid tonight.”
The guys didn’t sit down. They stayed in positions poised to grab me and run out of the room, or to fight if need be.
Jack held out his arms. “I knew that if I had invited you to dinner that you wouldn’t have come.”
“You think?” Michael snarled. “Why did you invite us here again?”
Jack’s eyes met mine. “It might be the last time I get to see my daughter if I’m correct in assuming that all of you might leave after graduation, and I wanted to make amends.”
“Amends?” I huffed from my seat. “There is nothing that you could ever do to make amends with me.”
“Well, at least give me the opportunity to try. Please.”
He looked at the guys and put both palms up in a gesture of surrender. After a couple of minutes, they sat back down at the table. Michael squeezed my hand and told me the same thing that Adam had said; that we could leave at any moment I wanted to.
But then, my father started talking.
“We have all done things that we wished we would not have,” he said. “I admit some of us have done more than others. I am getting older now, and I have been able to learn and understand a few things that I didn’t understand before. And it’s all thanks to David.”
He reached over and gave his son a pat on the shoulder. I looked at David, and he stared back at me with a smile.
“He and I were able to get to know each other, after nearly a lifetime of not knowing each other at all. I feel like I don’t know you at all, either, Lisette. And for that, I am sorry.”
“Don’t be,” I said bitterly. “I’m very glad not to know you any better than I do.”
My father nodded his head solemnly. “I understand why you feel that way. It’s my fault.”
“Yes, it is.”
“And I know that I will probably never see you again after tonight,” he continued. “And I have no one to blame for that but myself as well. I can’t go back and change what I’ve done, but I hope you’ll accept a small token of what I’m about to do as a gesture of the father I would have liked to have become for you and didn’t.”
“I don’t want anything from you,” I said. “Keep your money.”
“Oh, it’s not money,” he said.
He handed me a thick folder that was bursting at the seams.
“What is this?” I asked.
