Page 114 of The Professor's Wife

And I’d pushed her away at the end.

I kept thinking about that message. About the way she said, “It’ll be okay.” As if she were comforting me. As if she knew what was coming.

Oh, God.

I couldn’t breathe.

I couldn’t sleep.

I couldn’t forgive myself.

Oliver tried to console me. “She was troubled, Daisy. You did what you had to do.”

But I didn’t believe him.

Because somewhere deep down, I had begun to wonder if June hadn’t been trying to sabotage me at all.

What if she had been trying to save me in some kind of way?

I still didn’t know what it was.

I didn’t try to, either.

I hadn’t listened.

Rocking back and forth, I relived moments from the past. Moments when it was just her and me.

It was late. Rowe had finally fallen asleep after a tantrum that left me drained. I was curled up on the couch, staring blankly at the TV when June came in from her shift at the daycare. Her hair was pulled back, her face tired, but she still smiled when she saw me.

“You look like you’ve been through war,” she teased gently.

I groaned. “Rowe wanted to build a rocket ship out of cereal boxes. Then he cried because it wouldn’t fly.”

June chuckled and dropped her bag. “He’s got ambition.”

I nodded, rubbing my eyes. “I just wish I could give him more than…”

“More than what?”

I waved my hand around. “This.”

She sat beside me, pulling the blanket over both of us. “You give him everything, Daisy. You give him you.”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t think that’s enough anymore.”

June didn’t speak for a moment. Then she said, “You know, when you were little, you used to say you wanted to be an astronaut.”

I laughed softly. “I did?”

“Yeah. After that Magic School Bus space episode, you said you wanted to fly away and join the constellation. You had this thought in your head that the stars were lonely. That you could make them feel happy if they knew they were being watched. If they didn’t feel so alone.”

I turned to her, surprised. “I don’t remember that.”

“I do,” she said with a soft smile. “You were always trying to escape. Even back then.”

I looked away, pulling at the pilling in the blanket. “I guess I still am.”

June reached out and set a hand on my shoulder. Its weight felt soothing. “You don’t have to escape anymore. You’re building something. A life. A future. In time, you’ll get into that nursing program, and you’ll find a place for you and Rowe, and you’ll be the master of your own world.”