48
Trinity
My chest ached as I walked down to my father’s office. Preston’s words cut deep. He knew how important it was for me to beseenin my job. He also knew that I wasn’t interested in Krew. His words were careless, and even though he broke a piece of my heart, my gut was telling me that there was more to the story.
I wasn’t even sure why I was coming to my father. It was not like I was going to tell him what was wrong. I just needed comfort and he was the only other person here who could provide that in some capacity.
The light was on, but he hadn’t made it back from the locker room yet. I scanned the full walls, taking in all the family photos of him, Jodie, and the twins. They looked like the perfect family. My throat swelled, the combination of my fight with Preston and the time I’d lost with him coming together like the perfect storm. On a corner shelf, I noticed a picture. The outfit was familiar. It was taken from afar, but it was no mistaking that it was my high school graduation. The one I thought he didn’t attend. I wassmiling, accepting my diploma from a man on stage. I stepped closer, noting the other photos scattered along the same shelf. Me at my college graduation. Me and him at what looked to be a stadium. This must have been before the split.
Voices from the hallway had me turning. I moved to walk back around his desk when a piece of paper caught my eye. It was a highlighted monthly schedule. In bright yellow was the wordchemo.It was marked on every Tuesday for the last month, through the current.
Confusion and panic swirled inside of me, my head only lifting from the alarming news when I heard my name.
“Hey, Trin.”
My dad smiled, but it fell when he saw what my fingers touched.
“Dad,” I croaked. “What is this? Chemo?”
His face softened, his shoulders sagging with a slight relief. Like he was finally free of keeping a heavy secret. “I was going to tell you, sweetheart. When the time was right.”
“When the time was right? How long have you known?” I gasped, tears forming in my eyes. “Since before I came here?”
He stepped toward me. “Yes. I have lung cancer. But I’m fighting it. I didn’t want anything to distract us from getting to know each other. I swear I planned to tell you when I was certain the chemo was working. We wanted to have all the facts before we shared.”
Cancer. He had cancer. He wasdying.
My hand rubbed at my chest, the feeling of the time slipping away a physical blow. “But I just…we just got here.”
Tears filled my eyes as he approached me, wrapping me up in his arms. Tears leaked down my face as he pressed a kiss to my crown. “I know, but it’s not over yet. I’m still here.”
I nodded, leaning back to look at him. “Jodie knows?”
“Yeah. We’ve been managing between the chemo and the twins. We’ve done what we can to keep this private. You know how the press can be. This is not something I wanted plastered all over the internet.”
A piece of me wished I had known, but there was nothing I could do to change the past. But I could help shape the future.
I swiped a tear. “Does anyone else know?”
His palm squeezed my shoulder. “Just our family and Coach Rusk. I needed to have someone on the team I could trust to step in when I couldn’t.”
And just like that, I was crushed. Again.
My knuckles knocked on Preston’s front door, then I shivered as I wrapped my arms around my waist. The evenings held a chill that hadn’t been present when I arrived.Very fitting for this situation. It was late, and after I stewed at home for the last hour on what my dad had shared with me, I finally got pissed enough to come over here.
It took him a few minutes before he came to the door, freshly showered.
“Hey.” His expression pinched, like he was replaying the awful things he said to me. “I was just about to come talk—”
I brushed past him, not letting him finish his sentence.
“You knew.” The words were sharp as they spilled from my mouth. When I spun to face him, I ignored his bare chest. “You knew he was sick.”
His eyes widened before he took a step toward me on his bare feet. “He told you?”
I scoffed, shuffling backward just out of his reach. “I found his chemo calendar on his desk. He didn’t have a choice.”
“I’m so sorry. I hated keeping that from you, but he asked me to keep it private. It wasn’t my secret to tell.”
