I smiled faintly. “I always do.”
“No,” she insisted. “Like, actually text me. Not just thumbs up my messages and pretend that counts as parenting.”
A laugh tried to come out of me and caught halfway. “Alright.”
She’d always hugged with her whole body, even when she was trying to act cool. I held her carefully at first, then tighter when her shoulders shook once against my chest.
“I love you, Dad,” she mumbled into my shirt.
My throat went thick immediately. “Love you too, sweetheart.”
She pulled back, blinked fast, and then her voice went quieter. “Be nice.”
I stared at her, caught off guard. “Nice?”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “To Tessa, give her a reason to come back to us.”
My chest tightened. “I promise.”
“Dad.”
“Yeah.”
“If you love her,” she said, voice steady but quiet, “you should tell her. Because people don’t always stay long enough for you to figure it out later.”
My breath caught so sharp it hurt.
Maddy climbed out before I could answer, closed the door carefully, and walked up the path toward her mother’s front steps. She didn’t look back. She didn’t need to.
I sat in the truck and watched until the door opened, andher mother pulled her into a hug. I watched until Maddy disappeared inside, swallowed by a life that wasn’t mine.
Then I put my hands on the steering wheel and let my forehead drop against it.
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe.
The thought of turning the truck around and driving away without doing what I’d come to do made my chest feel like it was collapsing. The thought of going to Tessa’s building and knocking on that door made my palms sweat. I could feel the memory of the last time too clearly, standing in a hallway that smelled like someone else’s cooking, delivering news that didn’t belong to me to deliver.
Tessa’s face had been so pale then.
Her eyes looked like they were trying to hold the world together by force.
I walked away from that door feeling like the villain.
I started the engine, put the truck in reverse, and backed out of the driveway.
My hands shook on the wheel, not enough to lose control, but enough that I noticed. My chest felt tight, my jaw clenched, my tongue pressed hard against the back of my teeth like I was holding words in.
Traffic picked up as I headed toward the core. I followed directions I memorized on the drive out, the turns, lights, and ramps that led to Tessa’s building. My pulse kept kicking hard against my ribs, impatient and angry and afraid all at once.
I shut the truck off and stepped out. The air smelled like exhaust and concrete warming in the sun. My boots hit the sidewalk too hard, each step heavy with intention I couldn’t pretend wasn’t there.
Inside, the lobby was clean and bright. Someone’s dog barked behind a door. A woman in workout gear carried a bag of groceries past me, her eyes sliding over my hat and work jacket with mild curiosity, then away.
I took the elevator up, my reflection staring back at me in the mirrored walls. I looked tired. Older than I felt. My eyes were bloodshot, my jaw unshaven enough to make me look rougher than usual.
When the doors opened on Tessa’s floor, the hallway felt too quiet. I stood outside her unit for a long moment with my fist raised, not touching the wood yet.
There were a hundred ways this could go wrong. Dani could tell me to get lost. Tessa could refuse to see me. Tessa could look at me like I was the last person she wanted in her life, and I’d have to swallow it.
