18: Chase.

There’s a knock on my office door, and I look up from my desk to see a man I don’t recognize. “Can I help you?”

Sometimes parents of students want to speak with me, but normally it’s done over email. As the man comes into my office, there’s a hint of recognition, but I can’t place it.

“You’re Chase Davies?” he asks, and I nod, standing from my desk.

“I am, and you are?”

“Walter Evans.”

It takes me a second to realize that’s why he looked so familiar. Cathy has his eyes. She hasn't said much about her family, but I know that she’s an only child, and once she turned eighteen her mom sent her on her way. I don’t know anything about her father, but seeing this man standing before me, it has to be who this is.

“We live in the same neighborhood. I’m number nineteen.” He adjusts the cuffs on his shirt as he looks around my office.

“But that’s not why you’re here, is it?” There is no reason for this man that claims to live in my neighborhood, but is clearly related to Cathy, to be in my offic