His mind was already skidding into closing mode. All the pieces were finally coming together, and he was confident this opening would prove he’d earned that promotion.
“Dad, I have to talk to you.”
“Absolutely. Let me shower and change and we’ll talk at dinner when—”
“No!” Fury rattled her voice and he stared at his daughter in shock. “Do you even know what people say about me online?” Her words tumbled out, fast and messy. “You don’t, because you don’tlook. Because you’re too busy fixing your stupid hotel or saving your stupid clients, and I’m just ... this ... thing you move from one place to another like it doesn’t matter.”
Everett blinked. “What are you talking about?”
“School,” she said, as if it were poison. “That stupid prep school you keep bragging about. Everyone there hates me. They hate how I talk, how I dress, the stuff I like. They post about me, Dad. They tag me on socials and call me Waikiki Barbie and say my mom didn’t want me. They say I’m fake. That I only got in because you paid for it. You never even asked if I was okay going there!”
He froze, stunned by the speed of her words, the violence of them. What was she talking about? She loved her friends, didn’t she? “Wait. I thought you wanted to go there? I had no idea you were having problems with these girls or that you weren’t happy.”
“Because you don’t want to listen. You don’t even want to ask! I tried to give you what you want—this perfect image so you can tell all your friends and pretend I’m happy—but I can’t do it anymore.”
The words slammed him like a sucker punch. His skin chilled. “Kelsey, slow down—”
“No!” she shouted. “You don’t get to tell me to slow down! You don’t evenseeme!” She clenched her fists by her side and trembled. “Rowan says I should tell you how I feel instead of pretending I’m fine all the time, so here it is. I hate New York. I hate that school. I hate that you don’t listen unless you need to fix something. I hate that you’re always on your phone.”
He took a few steps forward, careful and clumsy all at once. “You told Rowan about all this?”
“Sheactually listens,” Kelsey cut in. “She wants to know. You don’t even notice.”
His first instinct was defense. “That’s not fair. I tried to get you to talk to me last night! I love you, Kels. I know it’s been hard, but this job is temporary and things will settle. I had no idea you were getting bullied. I swear, I’ll take care of it. I’ll call the school or the parents and get this settled.”
She shook her head in pure mockery. “Do you hear what you’re saying, Dad? Oh my God, you still don’t get it. Things will get worse when we’re home. They were never my friends; they’ve been torturing me for the past year, but I didn’t want to tell you. I’m afraid to tell you anything because you just care about that stupid promotion and now you got it and I’ll be trapped and even more—”
Her voice broke. His heart broke. “More what?”
“Lonely.” The word spit out. Her skin flushed as if embarrassed she had to admit it.
His head spun. “I’m sorry I didn’t see what was going on. I work so you can have choices. Opportunities. I want to give you the world and a home I never had, but you’re wrong. You’re the most important thing in my life and always will be.”
“I don’t want your opportunities!” she cried. “I just wantyou. Not the one who answers emails while I’m talking. The one who goes surfing with me and Rowan and stays for dinner and laughs at jokes because he’s not on the phone. You’ve been different here, but it’s getting bad again, and if we go home, it’ll be even worse. I want what we have here with Rowan.”
The air whooshed out of his lungs. For a long second, the only sound was the ocean outside and Kelsey’s pain.
He’d spent years learning to manage boardrooms, disasters, grown men with million-dollar egos—but nothing had prepared him for his daughter, thirteen years old and standing barefoot in his mistakes. He wanted to reach for her, but she looked at him from behind a wall.
“I didn’t know,” he said quietly.
Her chin trembled. “You didn’t want to.”
That one landed exactly where she meant it to. He could feel the blood pounding behind his eyes, the old instinct to order the chaos, to argue, to win. But this wasn’t something he could fix with a simple phone call. He couldn’t throw money at the problem or work more hours for a solution.
He sat down hard, elbows on his knees, head in his hands. “You’re right,” he said. “I didn’t. Because if I looked too closely, I’d see how bad I am at this. But I can’t pretend anymore and you can’t keep being this unhappy.”
Kelsey scrubbed her face with her sleeve. “I don’t want to go back there. To that school. Please don’t make me.”
He lifted his head and studied her. The sunburned nose and scattering of freckles. The big blue eyes still wary and hurt. The crooked ponytail. The body he’d known from birth, growing inch by inch until she barricadedbehind closed doors and stopped holding his hand. A wave of love rushed through him and almost brought him to his knees.
“I’m sorry, Kels. I’ll figure it out.” For once, he didn’t mean a plan or a meeting. “We’ll figure it out. Together.”
She didn’t rush into his arms—just nodded once, a cautious truce. But her shoulders eased, and she finally sat down beside him. They let the quiet fill the space for a while, both of them deep in thought.
Everett reminded himself that he was the adult. It wasn’t her responsibility to come to him. He needed to be the driver in the relationship, and he’d forgotten while he chased greatness and perfection.
“Will you tell me more about what’s been happening? I promise I’ll listen.”
