Isla’s expression shatters.
“Of course, he did,” she explodes, standing so fast the bench scrapes against the floor.“Why wouldn’t he?He gave everything to everyone else.Everyone but me.”
Callum stiffens.“That’s not?—”
“He taught you,” she barrels on, voice rising, brittle and sharp.“He taught his bandmates.His friends.His protégés.He poured himself into strangers and called it generosity.But his daughter?Oh fuck, no.”
Her hands shake at her sides now, fists clenched.“And then he sent checks and thought that made him decent.”
The blow lands hard in Callum’s chest.Loyalty flares, hot and automatic.
“That’s not the man I knew,” he says, too quickly.
Isla laughs, harsh and broken.“Then you didn’t know him the way I did.”
The second the words leave her mouth, Isla goes still.
Color drains from her face.
“I—” She swallows.“I didn’t mean?—”
Her hand rises, then drops, useless.Her voice turns small in spite of her.“I’m sorry.That wasn’t fair.”
“No,” Callum agrees.“It wasn’t.But I fear it's true.”
For a moment, Isla looks like she might bolt, as the room has suddenly become too small to contain her grief.She takes one step, then stops, jaw clenched, forcing herself to stay.
“I don’t want to be like this,” she says, voice low.“I don’t want… you.”
It comes out wrong, not what she meant, and her eyes widen with fresh panic.
Callum’s pulse kicks.“I know what you mean.”
Isla huffs out a breath, then drags a hand through her hair, pulling loose strands tighter as if she can tie her emotions back into place.“I didn’t want you to see that,” she mutters.
“The anger?”Callum asks.
“No.”She gestures between them, then toward her own chest.“The… need.Always the need to know what he thought about my career.About me.About the young woman I’ve become.And now…nothing.”
Callum’s throat tightens.He understands need.He’s lived with it like a second skin.
“You listened to the tape,” he says.
Her eyes flick up, wary.“You knew.”
“I guessed.”
She nods once, jaw tight.“I did.And it was nothing.”
“Nothing?”he repeats.
“Song ideas,” she says.“Fragments.Him counting beats, humming melodies, muttering lines.Nothing personal.No confession.No apology.No mention of me.”
She tries for a shrug and fails.“It shouldn’t have disappointed me.It’s exactly what I should have expected.”
“But you hoped,” Callum says quietly.
Her eyes flash.“I’m not stupid, but yes…I got my hopes up I’d found a message he left me.”
