I couldn’t get my father’s words out of my head.
They looped in my brain like a broken record as I paced the narrow hospital corridor. My palms are damp, and my chest too tight to draw a full breath. Dad had never spoken about the accident, not once since he woke up after the surgery. Not to me, not to Sophia, not to anyone. And now, out of nowhere, he’d chosen those words. Why? Why now?
I pressed my back against the wall and closed my eyes. I wanted to believe Daniel wasn’t hiding anything. But Dad’s voice was raspy and desperate, cutting into the fragile little hope I’d been piecing together.
And the worst part? A part of me had always known Daniel was keeping something from me.
The next morning, I dragged myself into the nonprofit office, only to be hit with another blow. Ellen, our
