Single mother.
She looked pale.
Mason noticed.
“And you.”
Emily froze.
“Why do you look scared every time I ask her something?”
Emily’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
“Because I hate watching her get torn apart.”
“That’s enough.”
David stepped between Mason and the rest of the staff.
“You don’t get to turn everybody around her into suspects because you’re angry.”
Mason looked from Emily to Lena, the diner’s assistant manager.
Lena had worked there twelve years.
She was holding a stack of receipts against her chest.
Her eyes were down.
Mason saw that too.
“Then why does everyone around her know something I don’t?”
Nobody answered.
That silence made him certain.
He turned toward Margaret.
“Take off the apron.”
Margaret held up the folded apron already in her hands.
“You’re done,” Mason said.
“Get out of my diner.”
Margaret looked around the room.
She had known most of the people inside for years.
Some would not meet her eyes.
Some looked confused.
Some looked horrified.
The worst were the ones who looked uncertain.
After twenty years, uncertainty hurt almost as much as accusation.
“After all these years,” she asked, “that’s all I am to you?”
Mason had no answer that did not sound cruel.
David did.
“Fire her if you must.”
He looked at Mason.
“Don’t butcher her name just to justify it.”
“I’m done justifying anything.”
Mason pointed toward the door.
“Margaret, leave now.”
Margaret picked up her purse from the shelf beneath the counter.
She walked past the tables.
Nobody stopped her.
At booth three, an elderly man named Harold removed his cap.
At booth six, a woman Margaret had served coffee to for fifteen years lowered her eyes.
Margaret reached the front door.
“Margaret, wait.”
David followed.
She did not stop until they were outside.
The diner door closed behind them.
For the first time, Margaret’s composure weakened.
“Don’t leave like this,” David said.
Margaret looked back through the glass.
Mason remained near the register.
People were speaking again, but quietly.
“He already decided what kind of woman I am.”
David shook his head.
“He decided what he’s afraid of.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
Margaret looked down at the sidewalk.
“Then don’t defend me in there.”
David frowned.
“What?”
“Just walk with me.”
They crossed the small parking lot together.
Margaret’s car sat near the employee entrance.
She stopped beside it but did not unlock the door.
“Losing the job hurts.”
She looked toward the diner.
“Watching them believe him hurts worse.”
David leaned against the car beside her.
“Fear loves an easy villain.”
Margaret gave him a tired smile.
“Today he chose you,” David continued.
Margaret nodded.
Then the smile disappeared.
“If the truth humiliates people who never asked for this?”
David understood immediately that she knew more than she had said inside.
“Then protect them.”
She looked at him.
“Just don’t disappear with their shame.”
Margaret shook her head.
“If I speak, people get dragged into this who never asked for it.”
“Then don’t name them.”
“Tell Mason enough to save yourself.”
“I can’t save myself by exposing somebody else.”
David stared at her.
“Then don’t.”