“Mara.”
Mara came around the desk.
Rachel turned the phone toward her. “Look.”
Mara read without touching it. Her expression remained composed until Rachel moved the attendance sheet closer.
“These are the same dates,” Mara said.
“All of them.”
The classroom music stopped in the hall.
For one terrible second Rachel heard no sound at all.
Then teenage voices rose behind the wall, shoes squeaking, someone laughing about a turn she had nearly fallen out of. Ordinary life resumed around the office as if nothing had changed.
Rachel tapped one of Derek’s messages.
Drive-thru line was insane. Running late.
“He wasn’t explaining food,” she said.
Mara didn’t answer immediately.
“He was explaining time,” Rachel continued. “Every time they came home late, every time Audrey looked upset, he gave me some stupid little story before I could ask.”
Her mind flashed to the open SUV window the previous evening. Audrey gripping Derek’s sleeve. Derek smiling at Rachel with his forearm still half inside the car.
