She’d cried again when she’d hung up. Talia had been the person to start Charlie’s healing when she’d gotten to Key West, so calling her last on her way off the chain of islands felt…weird.
She hadn’t known where she was going when she’d written that letter, but as she crossed the final bridge and left the Keys for the first time in nine months, she knew exactly where she was heading. The original destination she’d had months ago when she’d been heading in the opposite direction: her parents’ house.
She’d been texting her mom every day and knew they would be home that evening since her father had an eight a.m. class the next morning. They never went out the night beforeearly classes. He’d once said, “If those students are dragging themselves into my classroom at that ungodly hour, you’d damn well better believe I’m going to be there too, well rested and ready to teach.”
She didn’t tell them she was coming, so nearly nine hours after she left the yoga studio, when her tires crunched on their gravel driveway, she saw the curtains move and her dad’s head pop into the gap. She watched his face go from brows knitted and lips pursed to a wide, relaxed smile.
She was pulling her small duffel bag out of her trunk when the front door opened. “Charlie!” her mom said as she ran down the handful of front steps. “We’re so happy to see you, but what are you doing here?” The large smile that had been on her face fell as she seemingly caught the expression on Charlie’s. “What is it, sweetheart?”
Something about her mom’s immediate caring broke something in her. She dropped her bag and fell into her parents’ arms, tears pouring down her face, raw sobs racking her body.
She couldn’t see their faces, but their arms were around her, holding her tightly for what felt like an eternity. Soft pats, soothing syllables. The moments all bled together with nothing but those sounds and sensations as all of Charlie’s hopelessness, horror at her own actions, and despair rushed out of her.
Finally, Charlie remembered that they were standing on her parents’ front lawn, and embarrassment started to creep in. She couldn’t have done thisinthe privacy of their house? “Sorry,” she finally managed. “Can we, uh, go inside?”
“Of course,” they said at the same time.
Charlie’s dad grabbed her forgotten bag, and her mom wrapped an arm around her shoulders and guided her in.
When they were settled at the kitchen table with a mug of herbal tea in everyone’s hands, her father said, “Talk to us, Charlie. What has you showing up unannounced and so upset.You’re always welcome here, but we weren’t expecting you for a few weeks.”
“I’ve ruined everything,” she said, knowing her words seemed like an exaggeration but feeling the truth of them.
“What do you mean?” Mom said.
“Things with Harper, the peace I’d found in Key West, the future I was starting to envision.” She choked back another sob. “Probably things with you all once you know the truth. And I don’t know how to fix any of it. I don’t know if I can.”
“There are never problems so big that we can’t figure them out,” her dad said. “Why don’t you start at the beginning, and we’ll put our heads together.”
Charlie was exhausted after such an emotional night and long day of driving, but she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep anyway and hoped maybe talking to them would help, at least enough that she might be able to sleep.
So she told them everything. She started at the beginning with getting fired and signing the NDA and taking the payout, driving to Florida, becoming a yoga teacher, and continued through the SEC showing up the day before to question her and ask for her help. She told them about Harper’s wife and how Harper now blamed her—at least in part—for her wife’s death. How she now blamed herself for Harper’s wife’s death. Because she was complicit working for a company that, if she’d done a little digging, she would have known was not a good organization. “So every sin, everything I’ve done to feel guilty about over the last two decades, is coming back to haunt me now and destroy the little peace I’ve found.”
Her parents looked at each other briefly before they each took her hands. “Charlie, we love you no matter what,” Dad said.
“Nothing you just told us is going to change that,” her mom said. “No one is an angel, and it wasn’t like you were intentionally hurting people—”
“But I could have done something at any point in my career,” Charlie didn’t want them to rationalize her bad behavior. It made her feel queasy all over again.
“But based on everything you said, doing the right thing here is a no-brainer. You should get a good attorney and talk to the SEC investigator. You can stop being complicit now. It’s never too late to do the right thing,” her mom said.
“What about the NDA? I’m afraid I’m going to go to prison if I violate the terms.”
“I don’t think you will. But to keep your integrity, wouldn’t you be willing to?” Her mom’s eyes looked so kind as she said it, even though the words themselves cut deep. Her mom was right. She would be willing to go to prison if it meant putting a stop to all the wrongs she’d already been a part of.
Fuck.
“I need to find an attorney.”
“We would love for you to stay here for as long as you’d like, but talking to an attorney is the right first step,” her dad said.
Charlie lay in bed, staring at the ceiling that night, which had turned into the longest day ever, and mentally went through her Rolodex, trying to remember who she could reach out to about the best attorney for her current situation. It was hard, though, because she didn’t have anything physical to flip through. Not even contacts on her phone since she hadn’t been allowed to take anything when she’d been escorted from the building nine months ago. She could google it, but googling an attorney felt like a last ditch backup plan.
Thoughts of Harper kept popping into her mind, but she tried to push them away. Yet, the harder she tried to focus on an attorney, the more Harper’s smiling face kept popping into her mind.
She wondered if Harper was happy that she’d left. Sad? Relieved? Angry?
She felt guilty that she’d left so abruptly. In the moment, it had seemed like the right decision, but now? Now she wasn’t so sure.