I couldn’t process this. My father was alive. This entire time, he was trapped in another dimension. And my mother … was most likely alive as well. How? I never did get to see her body when she died. She had requested that my last memory of her not be of her being dead. Was that really all a lie? Did she fake her death and leave me? Where was she now?
I sat down on the bed, trying to wake up from the shock. I told Darren to go and get cleaned up, that I just needed a moment to process everything. He hesitated, not wanting to leave me. I promised I would wait for him, that I needed a moment to think. I knew he was afraid I would be upset with him for leaving my father behind. Never. I’d lived without my father for years, but I couldn’t survive without Darren. I needed him back, and then we
