I put my food away and made myself an easy dinner. Frozen pizza. It was surprisingly just what I was craving, and it fueled my evening writing session. I got two whole chapters in before I started to feel sleepy.
Just as I was closing my laptop for the night, my phone started ringing.
I picked it up from its face-down position on the sidetable, and my heart immediately dropped into my stomach when I saw the name on the screen.
Dad.
I stood up slowly from the couch, letting the phone ring three more times before I found the courage to answer.
“Dad,” I answered, my voice going cold as stone. My lungs constricted, and I struggled to take a breath.
“What are you doing, Hope?” he asked. The disappointment in his tone was so evident that it felt like a physical blow to my chest.
“I’m being an adult. Living on my own and figuring things out for myself.”
I couldn’t hide the contempt in my voice. I didn’t want to hate him, but I did.
My fingers became numb, and I tried desperately to keep hold of the phone.
“Come home. If you want an apology from Dr. Pike, I can work something out, but you are not going to just give up your chance at dental school?—”
“Stop.” My skin crawled, and my blood ran cold at the mention of his name. I leaned on the side of my bed to steady myself. I would not crumble on the phone. “Don’t call me anymore if you’re just going to ask me to come back.”
“You’re being unreasonable. I didn’t raise you to be so difficult?—”
“What could you possibly still want from me?” I whispered.
“I want you to live out your full potential, Hope. I don’t want the Elmswood name to be associated with people who give up. I didn’t go to all this work to have our legacy die.”
“So this is about appearances?”
“No, it’s not just about appearances. I care about you, Hope. About our family.”
“You have a funny way of showing it,” I scoffed, feeling like I was talking to someone who was actually insane. He had to be, if he had the guts to call me like this and tell me I was being unreasonable after everything.
“Please. Come home.”
“I don’t want an apology,” I said, clenching my eyes closed. “I don’t want to see that man ever again. And I most definitely don’t want to apply to dental school. Don’t call me anymore, Dad.”
“Hope—”
“Goodbye.”
I hung up the phone and threw it onto the ottoman. Then came the tears, followed by shuddering sobs.
I fell to the floor and put my head between my knees, trying desperately to breathe. My whole body was going numb; it radiated clear up to my face, my nose, my tongue. My heart was pounding so loudly it felt like my whole world was thrumming.
“Breathe. Breathe. Breathe,” I told myself between hiccuping sobs. The tears fell down my cheeks, warm and hot. I felt better when I cried; I wished the tears could melt away whatever this feeling was, eating away at my chest.
I stayed curled up on the floor the rest of the night until my anxiety couldn’t beat out my exhaustion any longer and I fell asleep on the rug.
CHAPTER 25
Iwas not in the greatest of moods when I showed up to work Tuesday, and my day got worse when I realized I had completely forgotten about our office bonding experience. With the Wellness Fair and now this, my whole schedule was out of whack. I really wanted to get back to normal clinic days again. I was the kind of person who thrived on schedules, and when those schedules got changed, I didn’t cope well.
We were going zip-lining, and with the phone call from my father the day before, I had completely spaced it. The office was closed for the day, and when I pulled into the parking lot, a big black van was idling out front.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I groaned as I parked and got out.
