## The Empty Seat

By six o’clock, Emma’s condition had worsened.

Michael remained beside her while doctors moved quietly in and out of the room. Emma was awake, but speaking had become difficult.

Robert stood near the door with his coat on.

Michael noticed the flowers and school program.

“You can’t seriously be leaving.”

Robert wanted to tell him everything.

Then Emma opened her eyes and looked at her father.

She gave the smallest nod.

Robert understood.

If he revealed the promise, Michael would never let him go. Daniel would be taken from the school and brought to the hospital—the one thing Emma feared most.

So Robert accepted the anger.

“I made my choice,” he said.

Those four words followed him all the way to the school.

When Daniel saw only his grandfather in the front row, he tried to hide his disappointment.

“Where’s Mom?” he whispered before the curtain opened.

“She found a way to watch.”

“How?”

Robert held up his phone.

Daniel looked confused, but a teacher called him backstage before he could ask another question.

Robert placed his phone against a stack of programs on the empty seat beside him. Its camera faced the stage.

At exactly seven o’clock, the screen lit up with an incoming video call.

A nurse adjusted the hospital tablet.

Emma’s face appeared.

She looked pale and tired, but when she saw the stage, she smiled.

“Can you hear me?” Robert whispered.

Emma nodded.

“Is Daniel there?”

The curtain began to rise.

Robert turned the phone toward the stage.

“He’s right in front of you.”