Precedent: Book Three: Covenant of Trust Series by Paula Wiseman

of weeks. He gently pulled Shannon’s note from its envelope, the envelope marked Mom and not Mom and Dad .
    You brought this on all of us. . . .
    He dropped the note on the desk. She was sorry. For what? The argument? No. If she was sorry for that, she would have apologized. To both of them. So what was she talking about? Unless . . .
    He yanked the closet door open and his heart stopped. Coat hangers. A dozen of them. She wasn’t off pouting for the day, she’d left home.
    Just remember that whatever happens, it’s your fault.
    His fault. Bobbi downstairs at her emotional limit. His fault. Jack blaming himself. His fault. All these years and his office was broken into now. Right after Brad. His wife. His children. His job. He felt a stab of pain through his chest, and he gripped Shannon’s desk. His health, too?
    He heard footsteps on the stairs, then in the hallway. Too heavy for Bobbi. Too quick for Jack. “Dad?” It was Joel.
    Chuck doubted whether he could let go of Shannon’s desk and turn around to face Joel. He felt Joel’s arm supporting him almost as soon as he made a move. “I’m okay.”
    “ Sure you are.” Joel leaned against the desk. “What happened?”
    There was no way he was telling Joel about the pain in his chest. It would go away. It always did. “Shannon and I had—”
    “ No, just now. What happened?”
    “ I checked Shannon’s closet. She packed her clothes.” He had to make Joel forget that he saw the chest pain hit. “This is more serious than just blowing off some steam.”
    “ Mom didn’t mention that.”
    “ Mom doesn’t know.” He slumped into Shannon’s desk chair. “She can’t . . . This is more than she can handle right now. Maybe more than I can handle.”
    “ What would make her leave home?”
    He stared across the room, chewing his bottom lip. A curse. Judgment he brought on them all. That sounded crazy. He understood that, but his world had come apart in the last two weeks. Crazy had new boundaries.
    “ Dad, whatever you’re thinking, it’s not true.”
    “ I’m not so sure, Joel.”
    “ All right, then let me ask you this—do you love that woman downstairs?”
    Love her? He’d give his life for her. He’d pay any price just to see her smile again. If he’d done this to her . . . “More than my own life.”
    “ She needs you now more than she ever has.”
    “ I know that, and I can’t—”
    “ Then fake it. You get downstairs and act like everything is gonna be all right.”
    “ Joel—”
    “ No excuses. Act like you’re in charge.”
    “ But I don’t know what to do! She’s gonna look at me and say ‘what are we going to do’ and I don’t know what to tell her.”
    “ You tell her not to panic. You tell her this is temporary. You tell her Shannon is safe.”
    “ But I don’t know that!”
    “ Yes, you do. Fear is the loudest, strongest voice you hear right now, but it’s lying to you. Fear always lies, Dad.”
    Chuck unclenched his fists and blew out a long, slow breath. Fight or flight. He had to fight. Bobbi needed him. Shannon needed him, and Jack needed him. He took the deepest breath the tightness in his chest allowed, and he squared his shoulders. “I’ll have the nervous breakdown next week. Tell Mom I’ll be down in a minute.”
     
    * * *
     
    When Bobbi saw Joel trot down the steps alone, she quit pacing the living room and caught him just before he ducked around the corner to the kitchen. “What’s wrong? Where’s Dad?”
    “ He’ll be right down.”
    “ Is he okay?”
    Joel nodded. “He’s in Shannon’s room.”
    “ He thinks this is his fault.”
    “ He mentioned that.”
    “ She told him he’d brought a curse on us. His affair was why you and Abby can’t have kids, and why Brad . . .” She swallowed hard, and Joel reached for her hand. “He thinks Shannon . . . that it’s part of it.”
    “ That’s ridiculous.”
    Words choked off, Bobbi nodded, and when Joel hugged her, she couldn’t hold