Dear Emily by Julie Ann Levin Page B

I'm the kind of
man that helped her get back on her feet. You
made your daughter believe that she couldn't turn to her
parents for help. Making her live up to your ridiculous
expectations. She was about to live out of her car and
you had no idea.”
    Diane's eyes were wide, and
she stared at Amy in disbelief. “Amy, is this true?”
    “I'm in love with your daughter, Mrs.
Knight,” Jack repeated.
    “And what do you want from us?”
Diane asked, her focus on Jack. “Our blessing? How can you expect
us to welcome you? I can barely stand the sight of
you.”
    “We still don't know why
Emily was out on that road. We don't
even know what happened that night. For all
we know you were out there with her,”
her father said through his teeth.
    Jack winced.
    “Dad, that's enough!” Amy
said, finally finding her voice.
    “Don't raise your voice to
me. You've completely lost your mind,” Phil said.
“You're supposed to be studying and you're having an affair with
this man. I don't know what's gotten into
you.”
    “You wouldn't know, would you?”
Amy said. “You have no idea what I've been
going through for the past four years. Because you never
asked me.”
    “Stop being so dramatic,” her mother
said.
    Jack stepped forward. “Mrs. Knight, I
didn't know Emily, but you can't keep comparing Amy to
her. You have to let Amy be her own person. Can't
you see what you're doing to her?”
    “Amy, get your things. We're
leaving,” her mother said.
    “Sir,” Jack said, trying
again.
    Amy turned and ran to her borrowed
room. She grabbed the worn envelope that was always
tucked in her jewelry box. The voices were loud in the
living room but she couldn't focus on them. Each
step that brought her closer to her parents and to Jack
brought her closer to cracking.
    Her father yelled, moving forward as if
he was going to strike Jack.
    “Listen to me!” Amy said.
    Her mother wrung her hands together.
“Emily would have—”
    “She killed herself,
alright? If she was so perfect...” Amy said,
her voice breaking on a sob. “If she was so
perfect, then why the hell did she kill
herself?”
    Her mother slapped her hard
enough that Amy almost fell over. She felt the
heat before the sting of the pain.
    “How dare you say a thing
like that?” her mother said, barely a
whisper.
    “It's true, Mom. I found this note
a few months after she died.” She held the note out to her mother.
“She left it for me in my favorite book on my bookshelf.”
Amy swallowed the lump in her throat and pushed
forward. Needing to purge the horrible
truth that she'd been holding in for so long. “She
jumped in front of Jack's
car that night. It could have been
anyone driving down that road.
Jack just happened to be the one when she decided to walk
out into the street.”
    Amy handed the envelope over to her
mother, who stumbled to the couch with her husband’s arms wrapped
around her. They sat and opened the purple envelope. The
paper, that Amy had unfolded and folded dozens
of times, threatened to tear under the intense pressure of Dianne's
grip.
    Amy knew they've read
the note in its entirety when they collapsed in each other's
arms. Terrifying sobs reverberated between them, echoing
what Amy had known for some time.
    But nothing compared to the awful
tear in her chest when she turned around to face Jack.
    His face was contorted in
pain.
    Betrayal.
    He grabbed his keys off the counter and
left the apartment, the door swinging open in his wake. Amy
followed him down the stairs and to the parking lot.
    “Jack, please. Just listen to
me. I didn't find the note until after you'd been cleared
of any negligence. Please, would you just talk to
me?”
    He whirled around and
the look of disgust on his face hurt worse than her
mother's slap. “Just talk to me,” Amy said.
    “Talk to you? I can't
even look at you.” He took a deep