Isabelle’s POV
I stared at the phone like it might disappear if I blinked. My hand trembled slightly, but the voice on the other end was too real, too calm, too certain.
“You figured it out yet?” he asked again.
A second passed. Then another. My mouth opened, but the words caught behind the lump forming in my throat.
“…D-Dad?” My voice cracked so softly I almost didn’t hear it myself.
A pause stretched between us like a held breath, until finally, he sighed, low and bittersweet.
“Yeah, Sunshine. It’s me.”
I didn’t know whether to scream, cry, or drive my car into a ditch. The man I thought was dead—no, the man I was told had abandoned us—was now breathing in my ear like he hadn’t been missing my whole life.
“What the hell is going on?” I snapped, voice rising with every syllable.
