Chapter 7 — Lucas Mercer Hears the Story for the First Time
Grant asked for one thing.
“Let me call Lucas.”
Noah looked surprised.
“He doesn’t know?”
Grant shook his head.
Lucas was thirty-five now.
He lived in Denver.
He had two children.
And he still believed the missing equipment incident had nothing to do with him.
Grant called.
He put the phone on speaker.
“Dad?”
Grant took a breath.
“I need to tell you something about Coach Henry.”
The conversation lasted almost twenty minutes.
Lucas remembered using Field 4 after hours.
He remembered his father screaming at him.
He remembered being told the equipment bag had vanished.
But Grant never told him it was inside his SUV.
And he certainly never told him another teenager had been blamed.
When Lucas understood, his voice changed.
“You let Noah get kicked out because of me?”
Grant answered immediately.
“Not because of you.”
Then:
“Because of me.”
No excuses.
That mattered.
Lucas asked to speak to Noah.
Noah hesitated.
Then took the phone.
“Hey.”
Lucas sounded devastated.
“I didn’t know.”
Noah nodded.
“I believe you.”
“I’m sorry.”
Noah looked toward Grant.
“You don’t owe me the apology your dad owes me.”
Grant lowered his eyes.
Noah was right.
Lucas had broken a rule as a teenager.
Grant had made the decision to protect himself by allowing somebody else to carry suspicion.
Those were not the same thing.