Promise of Safekeeping : A Novel (9781101553954) Read Online Free Page B

news that she’d left Albany. Lauren walked down the street as she spoke to him, searching for a gym. She would need a good hour on the treadmill after she got off the phone with her dad.
    “Is there a man?” he wanted to know. “Is that what this is? Some moonstruck-lovers kind of thing?”
    “Yeah, right,” Lauren said. “It’s business. In a way.”
    “How is apologizing to Arlen Fieldstone business?”
    “I have to be able to hold my head up in a courtroom, don’t I?”
    “Not if you lose your job.”
    Lauren stopped on the sidewalk and looked behind her, wondering if she’d walked past the gym. She’d decided that the best way to break the news to her parents that she was going to take a tiny little hiatus from work was to tell them over the phone,
after
she’d already done it. She would have preferred to drive over to their big stone house overlooking the Hudson River and then settle into their outdoor living room for a heart-to-heart. She wished she could tell them—could talk with them—about Arlen, about how his conviction had undermined everything she’d believed in.
    But her parents, who were always supportive, weren’t alwaysunderstanding. Her father had pushed her to graduate high school early—for her own good. He’d pushed her to earn her JD in an accelerated program. He’d coached her, and cheered her, and used his political connections to help make her what she was. But when it came to matters of the heart, “Go tell it to Oprah,” was what he liked to say.
    “So where are you staying?” he asked. “A hotel?”
    “No. You remember Maisie—my roommate from college. I’m staying with her for a while.”
    “What do you mean by ‘a while’?”
    “I don’t know. Not long.”
    “Well . . . what about Jonah?”
    A pang of longing for her brother swept over her as she crossed the street. The picture of him that she carried in her mind was a snapshot of the way he’d looked a few years ago—when his hair had been buzzed to protect against lice, and the severe cut had made his eyes look bluer, bigger, even more vulnerable. He would be horrified to know she still thought of him that way: her brother who used to make charcoal sketches of the night nurses and who’d worn his name on a bracelet at his wrist.
    “I said good-bye to Jonah,” she said.
    “Well, then, what about Dakota?”
    Lauren laughed. “She’s
four
. And I’m only going to be here a day or two. She won’t even notice I’m gone.”
    “Well, your boss certainly notices.”
    “It doesn’t matter. Dad—”
    “It most certainly does matter,” he said. His voice was scratchy on her eardrum. “You’ve dedicated your whole life to that firm. You can’t just go blow it all because you’re confused about how you feel right now.”
    “I’m not confused. Don’t you understand? I need this. Maybe . . . maybe Arlen needs it too.”
    “What could you possibly say to Arlen Fieldstone that would make up for nine years in prison?” her father asked.
    Lauren was glad her father couldn’t see her, because she winced.
    “And besides, it’s not your fault. All the evidence was there to convict him.”
    “That’s not what the appellate court thought.”
    Her father gave a frustrated
huff
. “If that woman’s cocaine dealer—what was his name?”
    “Chris Witte.”
    “Right. If he hadn’t gone and started bragging, Arlen would still be in prison to this day. There’s nothing you could have done differently.
Nothing
.”
    Lauren found the gym and leaned against the wall outside the door. She knew her father wanted what was best for her. To him, she was blameless. He simply couldn’t understand why she felt such personal responsibility about Arlen’s conviction, and because he couldn’t understand, he was annoyed. He was a man who loved with grit, gumption, and authority. He was pitiless—yes—but it was love that made him that way. He’d never held Lauren to standards that he didn’t hold for