Chapter 12 - the deployment he almost refused)
Andrew almost declined the assignment.
His commanding officer did not pressure him.
The Army had procedures.
Families had emergencies.
Adjustments could be considered.
But the temporary assignment mattered professionally, and Andrew had spent his entire adult life balancing duty with fatherhood.
Before Vanessa, Emily stayed with Laura during longer absences.
The arrangement worked.
After Vanessa, everything felt different.
Andrew told Laura first.
“I can stay.”
“You could.”
“I probably should.”
Laura poured coffee.
“Is that what Emily needs, or what your guilt needs?”
Andrew frowned.
“Don’t do that.”
“You asked me.”
“I didn’t.”
“You came to my kitchen at six in the morning with deployment paperwork.”
Andrew sat down.
Laura joined him.
“She just learned an adult she trusted was trying to separate us.”
“I know.”
“And now I leave.”
“For four months.”
“To her, it might feel the same.”
“Then ask her.”
Andrew shook his head.
“She’ll say whatever she thinks I want.”
“Not if you prove she doesn’t have to.”
The conversation stayed with him.
That evening he sat with Emily on the back porch.
“I need to tell you something.”
Emily immediately looked worried.
Andrew hated that.
“There’s a temporary assignment.”
“How long?”
“About four months.”
“Where?”
He told her.
“Dangerous?”
“Not unusually.”
She stared at the yard.
“When?”
“Six weeks.”
Emily nodded.
Andrew waited.
She said nothing.
“You can be angry.”
“I’m not.”
“You can be scared.”
“I’m not.”
He recognized the pattern.
The same blank calm she used with Vanessa.
Andrew leaned back.
“Then I’m going to say what I think.”
Emily looked at him.
“I think you are scared.”
Her eyes filled instantly.
Andrew continued.
“And I think you don’t want to tell me because you think I’ll feel guilty.”
One tear ran down her cheek.
He waited.
Finally she whispered.
“What if something happens while you’re gone?”
“Then Aunt Laura is here.”
“What if you meet somebody?”
Andrew blinked.
“What?”
“What if you meet a new Vanessa?”
His heart cracked.
He moved closer.
“Emily.”
“She was nice first.”
“I know.”
“You thought she was nice.”
“I know.”
“So how do you know next time?”
Andrew had no perfect answer.
That mattered.
He refused to invent one.
“I don’t.”
Emily stared at him.
“I can’t promise I will never misjudge anyone again.”
She looked frightened.
“But I can promise something else.”
“What?”
“You will never again be asked to stay silent to protect my feelings.”
Emily wiped her face.
“If I don’t like somebody?”
“You tell me.”
“What if I’m wrong?”
“Then we talk.”
“What if they say I’m jealous?”
“They can say whatever they want.”
“What if you love them?”
Andrew took her hand.
“Then loving them will not make you less safe.”
Emily squeezed his fingers.
“And nobody becomes part of this family because I’m lonely.”
She looked up.
“Were you lonely?”
“Yes.”
“Is that why you picked Vanessa?”
Andrew thought.
“Partly.”
Emily nodded slowly.
“Maybe you shouldn’t pick people when you’re lonely.”
Andrew laughed despite himself.
“That is disturbingly good advice for a nine-year-old.”
She almost smiled.
Then her expression turned serious.
“Do you want to go on the assignment?”
Andrew hesitated.
“Yes.”
“Then go.”
He stared at her.
“You don’t have to say that.”
“I know.”
“Really?”
Emily nodded.
“But can Aunt Laura stay here instead of me staying at her house?”
Andrew understood.
Emily did not want to leave home.
Vanessa had already tried to make home feel temporary.
“Absolutely.”
“And Mom’s picture stays.”
“Obviously.”
“And no boarding school.”
Andrew smiled.
“Never.”
“Even if I become annoying?”
“You are already annoying.”
Emily gasped.
Andrew grinned.
She hit his arm with a cushion.
The tension broke.
They spent the next six weeks preparing.
Not just logistically.
Emotionally.
Emily met with her counselor.
Andrew created a clear schedule for video calls.
Laura moved clothing into the guest room.
Andrew updated his family care plan.
This time he explained every page to Emily in simple language.
“You know why we’re doing this?”
“So Aunt Laura can make decisions if you can’t.”
“Right.”
“Can she send me to boarding school?”
Laura shouted from the kitchen.
“Only if it’s a boarding school for dramatic children who ask too many questions.”
Emily laughed.
Andrew did too.
Then he turned serious.
“No. She can’t just make major decisions outside what we agreed.”
Emily nodded.
The papers stopped being frightening because no one hid them.
On departure morning, Andrew wore his uniform.
Emily stood beside the car.
She hugged him tightly.
“Four months.”
“Four months.”
“You call Tuesday.”
“And Thursday.”
“And Sunday.”
“And any emergency.”
She looked at him.
“And thunderstorms?”
Andrew smiled.
“Especially thunderstorms.”
Emily stepped back.
Andrew looked at Laura.
His sister nodded.
He left.
The first two weeks were difficult.
Emily cried after calls.
Andrew sometimes sat alone afterward staring at his phone.
But nothing collapsed.
Laura did not try to replace him.
She maintained routines.
Emily went to school.
Therapy continued.
Sarah’s photograph stayed on the wall.
One evening a storm rolled across Colorado.
Emily called Andrew.
He answered from thousands of miles away.
They counted seconds between lightning and thunder.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Emily smiled.
“I’m okay.”
“I know.”
“I just wanted to call.”
“I know.”
That sentence marked a change.
She no longer needed permission to need him.
Two months into the assignment, another change came.
Vanessa accepted a negotiated resolution related to the wedding incident and agreed through counsel to no direct contact with Emily.
The exact legal process remained private.
Andrew preferred it that way.
He did not want his daughter’s pain turned into public entertainment.
Brooke faced consequences of her own regarding unauthorized access to the Mercer home and cooperated extensively.
Andrew never spoke to her.
Trevor disappeared from their lives.
Westbrook Academy confirmed Emily had never been enrolled.
For the first time, the future became boring.
Andrew discovered he loved boring.
Then, three weeks before his return, Laura found something inside the garage.
Not another secret from Vanessa.
Something Sarah had left years earlier.
A sealed envelope.
Andrew’s name was written on the front.
May you like
Beneath it, in Sarah’s handwriting, were four words.
For when you love again.
