Page 122

“Just like that?” I ask.

“Just like that. I thought for sure you were coming here after you graduated, so I already did all the prep work to get you in. I just need your signature on the papers, and there are a handful of training videos for you to watch. Once that’s done, you get your passwords and clients.”

“Wow. Fancy. Okay, send it on over.” It feels like exactly the distraction I need.

“Done. It’s in your inbox. And we have a guest room you’re more than welcome to stay in while you get your feet under you here. If you decide you want to work remote from Chicago a while, that’s fine, too. Whatever you need.”

“Thanks, Madden,” I say softly. “You’re the best, and I will take you up on the guest room. I need a fresh view, you know?”

“I know. I just wish I wasn’t getting you because some asshole did you wrong.” His voice is low.

“Me, too.”

“Stupid fuckin’ hockey player,” he mutters, and it almost prompts a laugh from me. Almost. I’m not quite there yet.

“I’m visiting Dad in a little while,” I say, changing the subject.

“That’s nice of you,” he says.

“I’m wavering between whether I want to lay into him for making me pick fashion or just being the good, quiet daughter visiting her father.”

“Go with your gut. I guarantee he’ll respect honesty more than whatever version you think you need to be.”

I’m not quite sure I care about my father’s respect anymore. I’m not quite sure I ever actually had it in the first place, anyway.

And I’m not quite sure why I’m going to visit him, but I feel pulled to do it.

So I get into Everleigh’s car since she’ll be here all day working, and I navigate toward the federal prison.

I find the check-in desk first, and I feel very out of place here. I’m nervous as I hand over my license, but the clerk finds me on my father’s list of visitors. She nods toward the security screening area next, where I go through a metal detector and have my purse searched.

I wait in a holding room with other people from all walks of life. I feel a pair of eyes on me, and an older man across the way is staring at me.

I sink down into my seat as fear seems to take hold.

I wish Cash was here with me.

Wait, no, I don’t. He’s an asshole.

The fluorescent lights are giving me a headache.

I glance at my watch. It’s been three minutes.

I heave out a sigh. It’s nearly twenty minutes before my name is called, and I spend that entire twenty minutes staring at a stain on the floor just to avoid eye contact with Creepy McCreeperson across the way.

I avoid his eyes as I make my way to the guard, and he takes me back to another room with rows of glass partitions. He nods to a seat, and I sit. A moment later, my father takes the seat across from me.

He looks…so different.

He was always this powerful businessman, but right now, he looks weak. Older. Broken.

I barely recognize the man sitting across from me, but even as I think it, I realize how I actually never really knew him at all.

We both reach for the phone on the wall beside us at the same time.

“Ivy.” His face softens. “How are you?”

“I’m okay,” I murmur. “I’m here to see how you’re doing.”