Chapter 25
He placed another block on the tower.
“The same thing I did that day.”
“Show up?”
He looked at me.
“Ask what you wanted.”
That surprised me.
“You wouldn’t have told me to leave Daniel?”
“No.”
“Seriously?”
“Elena, I commanded people for decades. That does not mean I get to command my adult daughter.”
I laughed.
He continued.
“I might have told you what I saw. I might have told you I was worried. I definitely would have offered help.”
Lucas knocked the tower down again.
Dad sighed dramatically.
“But you would still have had to choose.”
I sat beside him.
“For a long time, I thought your rank was the big reveal.”
Dad smiled.
“For Marlene, maybe.”
“She looked like she’d seen a ghost.”
“I noticed.”
“You enjoyed it.”
“I maintained professional composure.”
I laughed.
“Dad.”
“A little.”
We both laughed.
Then he became serious.
“Those stars can make people listen.”
He pointed gently toward my chest.
“But they cannot give you what you needed most.”
“What was that?”
“Permission to trust yourself.”
I looked down.
That sentence stayed with me.
Six months later, my life looked different.
Not perfect.
Different.
I rented a small townhouse close to work.
It had two bedrooms, a tiny backyard, and a kitchen barely large enough for a table.
I loved it.
Every bill came in my name.
Every key belonged to me.
When Daniel picked up Lucas, he knocked instead of walking in.
Sometimes we talked for five minutes.
Sometimes twenty.
He had started seeing clearly how dependent he had become on his mother after losing his job.
He never asked me to pretend the past had not happened.
That was the biggest sign of growth.
One evening, while fastening Lucas into his car seat, Daniel turned to me.
“I owe you one more apology.”
I leaned against the SUV.
“For what?”
“For making you prove how much you could survive.”
I said nothing.
He looked ashamed.
“You always handled everything. Work. Bills. Lucas. Me. I think I started believing that because you could carry more, it was okay to let you.”
My throat tightened.
“It wasn’t.”
“I know.”
He looked toward Lucas.
“I should have been beside you.”
“Yes.”
He nodded.
“I’m sorry.”
This time, I did not need anything else from him.
No promise.
No reunion.
No dramatic punishment.
Just truth.
“I hope you never do that to anyone again.”