“Is it going to upset me?” Riley asked.

 “Probably.”

 Riley hesitated. “Sit down. Let’s get it over with.”

 Emma told Riley about Bethany’s house, Bethany so frail and pale, Emma leaving her phone number and Bethany calling it. “You have got to be kidding me,” Riley said.

 Emma shook her head. “And I don’t regret it. She sounds better since the holiday is past, but I have no idea how to help her. The family situation sounds so sad—her stepmother wearing her dead mother’s clothes? My God, I don’t know what to say or do. I just know that it won’t help her if I cut her off, if I don’t take her calls. Mostly I just listen. Are you going to fire me?”

 “You’ve put me in a terrible position here,” she said. “You know perfectly well I can’t fire you. My family will only come down hard on me if I do that. My mother, who I have learned you’ve been seeing, my brother, who is your current champion...”

 “Adam has been a good friend. He’s the one who suggested your company, which, by the way, I happen to like.” She laughed and shook her head. “I actually look forward to work. The girls I work with are fantastic. The clients range from difficult to weird to sweet. Some of them I would actually miss.”

 “Employees with a high school education and citizenship usually stay with this company for an average of nine months. And I am stuck with you.”

 “I should think it would give you great satisfaction,” Emma said. “But tell me truly, Riley. Just for a second put aside whatever differences we’ve had and tell me—if you’d been in my position and saw that note, would you have done something? Anything? You have a fifteen-year-old daughter—what if she were that lonely? And had no one? Would you wish someone had answered her call, even if it was a lowly cleaning lady?”

 “First of all, cleaning ladies are not lowly. Haven’t you learned yet? We know more about our clients than they know about each other! Second, I don’t know that I’d have done that!”

 “Oh, you would, too,” Emma said. “Just as you’d have called the police on Mr. Andrews.”

 “I wouldn’t have left my number,” Riley asserted. Then her own phone chimed. She looked at it and pressed a button, sending it to voice mail. “I admit I would have watched. Waited. Tried to think of a solution. A counselor...”

 “She has a counselor,” Emma said. “A counselor who asks her if she’s jealous of the new stepmother.”

 “Dear God, what an imbecile! I knew of Mr. Christensen’s marriage. When he filled out his contract, we always ask them to list the family members and pets in the household and I knew he had a teenager and was engaged to be married. But I didn’t know he’d been widowed.”

 Riley’s phone rang again. Again she looked at it. “She really wants me. I’m sorry,” she said before clicking on. “Yes, Maddie?”

 “Mom! We were in an accident! Someone hit us. We’re taking Daddy to the hospital. Mom, he’s hurt! He’s hurt!”

 “Slow down, Maddie,” Riley said. She completely forgot about Emma as she put the cell phone on speaker so she could gather her purse, keys, coat. “Are you hurt?”

 “No. Not really. But they couldn’t get Daddy out right away and they wouldn’t let me go in his ambulance because they needed the room to work on him. Oh, Mom, what if he dies?”

 “He’s not going to die,” Riley said. “What hospital are you going to?”

 Maddie asked someone. “Petaluma.”

 “Are you sure you’re all right?”

 “A couple of bumps, that’s all.”

 “All right, I’m coming. I’m on my way.”

 Riley ran around her desk, past Emma and out the door. Two seconds later she ran back in and said, “Jock and Maddie were in an accident.”

 Emma grabbed her tote and ran out with Riley. “I’ll come. Lock the door, I’ll be right behind you. You might need me.”

 For just a moment Riley was thinking, Why would I need you? But she didn’t say anything, she just locked the door without bothering to check the office, turn off the lights or anything. She bolted for her car and without looking back at Emma, she jumped in and flew out of the parking lot and down the road.

 She still had Maddie on the line. “Okay, I’m driving. Tell me how you are,” she nearly shouted into the phone.

 “We’re here! I’m going in with Daddy! No more phones!”

 Riley growled as they were disconnected.

 It took thirty minutes to get to the hospital and Riley ran from the parking lot into the ER. She asked for Jock Curry or Maddie Kerrigan and was directed to the waiting area. “But are they all right?” she asked in a booming voice.

 “Mom?” a voice called. “Mom?”

 Ignoring all protocol, Riley pushed people aside to go into a treatment area where a series of beds were enclosed by curtains. “Maddie?” she called.

 “Here!” Maddie said.

 Riley found her sitting on a bed, holding an ice pack to her forehead, tears running down her cheeks. She embraced her and squeezed her too tight.

 “Mom, Daddy is hurt. They took him upstairs to see if he needs surgery. I had to call Gramma and Grandpa because I’m not old enough to make decisions for him.”

 “Maddie, is he conscious?”

 “He was talking a little. He has pain in his shoulder and stomach and he got a cut on the head that bled everywhere and he said he was bruised all over. He says he’s fine. But the doctor says he’s not fine and needs X-rays and stuff and to be checked for internal injuries and a head injury, so he’s gone upstairs.”