Page 119 of Wright Together

“I love you, too.”

33

Whitton

Still no text from Eve the next morning.

I sent her a message, asking if she’d found Bailey and if everything was all right, but it was left on Delivered. Either she wasn’t looking at her phone or she was ignoring me. I was going to go with the former. She was probably too busy.

I was making my morning coffee when there was a knock on my door. For a second, I was certain that it was Eve, and she would walk through the door, and all would be well.

I yanked the door open and froze in place.

“Dad?”

“Hey, Whitt,” he said with an unassuming smile.

I stared at him in disbelief. I’d gotten the texts that he was coming into town. He’d messaged, asking to see us all. Despite the fact that I’d already said that no one else wanted to see him, he’d still shown up on my doorstep.

“What are you doing here?”

“Didn’t you get my message last night? I decided to stop by to see you.” He grinned broadly. “How’s Jordan and Julian?” When I said nothing, he quickly added, “And West and Harley?”

I blinked. This couldn’t be happening. I didn’t have time or energy for this.

“But what are you doing here?”

He tilted his head in confusion. “What do you mean? I wanted to see you.”

“I told you that no one wanted to see you.”

“Sure. That doesn’t include you though.” He clapped me on the shoulder. “We’ve always had a good relationship.”

I took a step back, forcing him to drop his hand. “Have we?”

“Of course.”

“Why do you think that is?”

“Because you’re the sensible one,” he said with a laugh.

My dad had no idea what he was talking about. He thought he was legitimately paying me a compliment. Because I was the pushover that wanted his company so desperately, wanted his attention and affection so bad that I’d do anything to have him in my life. Despite the fact that he’d only ever given me scraps my entire life. He might have put me on the right trajectory, but that didn’t make him a good dad.

Eve had been right. I’d given him a million chances, and I was still at the bottom of the barrel.

“I’m starting to think I’m the only one without sense.”

He frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Jordan and Julian don’t want to see you. Harley is completely no contact. West is only talking to you because I begged him to when Cosmere went big. And he’s sogo with the flowthat I don’t think he even cares as long as he can continue to play the keys. But me…I wanted this relationship.”

“Well, here I am,” he said, opening his arms.

“But I don’t anymore.”

His face fell. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t want a relationship with you anymore. You don’t care about anything but yourself. You want us all to forgive you for something that is unforgivable. Let alone the fact that you haven’t done anything to earn our forgiveness. You just want to feel better about the shitty person that you are.”