Violet’s hands trembled as her father held them with tears in his eyes.The door opened, and a nurse walked in, grinning when she saw Violet.A piece of chocolate cake sat on a plate, with a single candle in the middle.
“This was the best I could do,” the nurse said as she set the cake down on the tray and moved it in front of Violet’s dad.“We’re not allowed to light the candle, so you’ll have to do your best to imagine that it’s lit.”
“Thank you, this is perfect,” her dad said, smiling at the nurse and waiting until she left before he spoke to Violet.
“I know this isn’t the same as what your mother would have done,” he said, his voice shaky.“But I didn’t have many options while stuck in here.Happy birthday, Violet.”
He let go of her hands as he gently pushed the plate with the cake toward her.The room was filled with silence as he softly sang to her; the effort it took for both of them not to fall apart was noticeable.But it was also one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.While I didn’t forgive her father for abandoning her over the years, I could get on board with him wanting to be there now.
“Thank you, Dad,” Violet said, wiping her eyes as she leaned forward and pretended to blow out the candle.“You didn’t have to do all of this for me.”
“Well, when you texted me this morning and said you wanted to come by, I knew I had to do something to celebrate your birthday,” her dad replied.“I’ve spent so many years neglecting it that...”He shook his head, a mix of anger and sadness washing over his face as he struggled with what to say.
“It’s okay, Dad,” Violet assured him.“I don’t want to obsess over the past.I just want to move on and focus on the future.”
She looked over her shoulder and smiled at us.Her dad leaned slightly to see what she was looking at, and his features shifted.Unsure of what to do, I raised my hand nervously and waved, suddenly feeling like a creeper for lurking in the corner.
“You guys can come sit down,” Violet said, waving us over.
I shoved off the wall I was leaning against and sat in one of the empty chairs on the other side of her dad’s bed while Enzo took the other one.Violet sat down and used the fork the nurse had brought with the cake to cut it into four small pieces.She giggled as she made a slight mess, licking the frosting off her fingers before handing a small piece to me, then Enzo.
I could feel her dad’s eyes on us, taking it all in as the silence stretched between us.
She smiled at her dad as she pushed the piece on the plate toward him, nodding for him to take it.
We were all eating our cake when her father’s attention caught on the necklace Asher and I had given her this morning.I chewed the last bite and wiped my hands on the piece of paper towel Enzo had handed me.
“That’s a pretty necklace,” her father said, his voice quiet.
“Thank you.I got it this morning.It was a birthday present.”I could hear the hesitation in her voice as she considered her next words.We had talked this morning about whether she wanted to tell her dad about our special relationship now or wait.But Violet had said she was done hiding things and wanted him to know.
“It was a present from Asher and Enzo,” she continued, glancing at us before returning her focus to her father.
I pressed my lips into a thin line as he looked at us, studying both of us the way only a protective father could.
“The three hearts stacked on top of each other represent our relationship,” she said, swallowing so hard we could all hear it.“I know that it’s not what you consider norm—”
“Violet, stop,” he said, holding his hand up.
“Dad, I—” she whispered, her voice breaking as tears filled her eyes.
“If you think that I’m going to be upset because you fell in love with two men who very clearly love you, well, you would be wrong.Lord knows that I haven’t given you the love you needed over the years, so how the hell could I be mad that you havetwomen who love you the way they do?I’ve been stupid over the years and have made more than my share of mistakes, but I knew the moment I saw them look at you that they were madly in love with you.As a father, I couldn’t ask for anything better than that for my daughter.”
Violet let her head drop as she cried, the weight of the world seeming to lift from her shoulders as her dad gently patted her head as comfortingly as he could.
