“I blamed you for a long time,” he said.

“For taking Robert to Franklin?”

“For helping him figure everything out.”

I shook my head.

“He had already figured it out.”

Daniel looked back toward the church.

“I know that now.”

He started walking away.

Then stopped.

“Michael?”

“Yeah?”

“If you had taken him straight home that afternoon…”

He didn’t finish.

He didn’t need to.

I remembered Robert sitting beside me in the hospital parking lot.

Pale after surgery.

His hands shaking slightly while he showed me the three withdrawals.

I remembered asking where he wanted to go.

And I remembered his answer.

Not home.

The lawyer’s office.

Two destinations less than forty miles apart.

But for Robert Harrison, the difference between them had changed everything.