TWENTY-ONE
"Bye, Dad," I said softly and batted the button to end the call. I heard a few seconds of dial tone before I managed to silence it.
I lay back and sighed. Part of me wished to have a hero for a father, who'd have come charging in the day those bastards took me, before they could do any damage. But my dad wasn't like that. He had too many of his own fears to face up to.
He and I both knew he couldn't stand to see me hurt. It'd remind him of losing my mother. I wasn't surprised that he'd been away the whole time I'd been gone and he was planning a longer stint – even the faint possibility of losing me would've turned him into a bigger workaholic than before. One day I'd have to sit him down properly and get him to tell me what had really happened to her. But not before he'd wor
