"And we'll help," Cy told me. "I don't want you to go, but I prefer that over the idea of losing Faith."
"I'll be back all day long," I assured them.
"But we're not breaking up," Violet told me. "I'll give you two space, but we are not breaking up."
A sound in the hall made us all pause and look that way. A beep? More like a ding, and it sounded a lot like a phone. It was gone too fast to be sure, though. Still, the fact that we'd all heard it proved that it wasn't my imagination. I jumped up, took the two steps to the door, unlocked it, and pulled it open just in time to see Faith hurrying into her bedroom.
I glanced back. "Faith's running up the hall with her tablet. I'm going to go see what she's doing."
I left, closing the door behind me. My bare feet were quiet enough on the floor that she shouldn't hear me coming, because my daughtershould'vebeen asleep a while ago. When I got to her room, I knocked and opened the door without waiting for a response. Faith gasped from her bed.
"Dad!" she complained, sitting there with her tablet in her lap.
Everything about her pose made it look like she'd been there a while. That would've worked if I hadn't seen her in the hall. I had no idea what she'd heard or how long she'd been listening, but clearly she'd been trying to do both.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
She looked up and then turned her tablet to me. "Talking to Zeke."
"And why aren't you asleep?" I asked.
"Because I was talking to Zeke," she admitted.
"So why isn'theasleep?"
She rolled her eyes. "His mom's still at work. He doesn't have a bedtime because he's not treated like a child."
I just nodded. "Well, tell Zeke that your dad is distracting you for a minute." And I flicked my finger at her tablet to make it clear I wasn't moving until she did.
So Faith typed up a message and sent it off, then dimmed the screen and looked at me. "Ok?"
"I'm going to lease the trailer. You and I will move this weekend, which means you'll need to pack everything in here. I am still not breaking up with Violet, and I'm not mad at any of them. Now, you've been torturing them for two weeks, and you keep saying you don't want to live here. So, before I spend this money, is this really what you want?"
"I want her to say she's sorry," Faith snapped. "Don't you get it?"
Oh, but I wasn't going to let her get off that easy. "Why does she oweyouan apology?"
Faith sputtered. "Because she cheated on you."
"That's why she might owe me one. Why does she owe you one?"
"Then she should apologize to you!" she tried instead.
"Who says she hasn't?" I asked. "And yet you're still mad. So, try again."
For a long time, Faith sat there and stared at me. I could almost see her mind working, but her jaw was clenched and her stubborn steak was coming through. Standing there, I decided I had nothing to lose. No matter how this played out, it would suck for me, so I might as well make sure she learned something here.
I was done trying to bend over backwards to make up for everything that had happened to her. I wasn't doing her any favors by letting her push all my buttons. If we were going to leave behind everythingIhad worked for, then the least she owed me was an explanation.
"Because she was supposed to be my stepmom," Faith finally admitted.
"And who says she can't still be?" I asked.
"But she cheated on you," Faith said. "That means there's no way to save it."
"Says who?"
She paused, her mouth open like the answer had almost fallen out. "Mom," she breathed.
