Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 117177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry for interrupting, but you were yelling, so I couldn’t help but hear everything.” Miranda’s eyes brightened. “I’m sorry for how you’ve been made to feel, Hallie. I want you to know that I was not aware, and it was never my intention for you to feel pushed out of your father’s life.”
I shook my head at her, my gaze returning to Dad, who still wouldn’t look at either of us. “I didn’t come here for your apology. I only came here to tell the truth for once and to say I . . .” I took a shuddering breath as more tears welled up from my chest. “I don’t want you to call me anymore, Dad. Not unless you’re ready to stop involving me in your divorce, to be my dad again. And to start respecting me and my time.”
When he still didn’t look at me, I moved toward the door.
Miranda blocked the way, glowering at my father’s back.
“Excuse me,” I whispered.
She looked like she wanted to reach out and comfort me, but I didn’t want comfort. I shook my head and strode past her and toward the door. Every step I took, I waited for my dad to call out to me, to stop me and hold me and to tell me he was sorry.
By the time I got into the car and pulled away from his house, I was crying again, this time with crushing disappointment.
TWENTY-FIVE
Hallie
Call me tomorrow. I want to hear that you’re okay.
I stared at the text from Chris the entire subway ride to work the next morning. Last night, I’d texted him when I arrived at my mom’s and then again when I returned home late. I hadn’t told him what happened. I’d wanted to. In fact, I’d wanted to call him and cry from a distance on his shoulder. Yet, I also needed to sit alone with what I’d done. There was a possibility my dad and I would never recover from what I’d said to him, and I had this horrible knot in my stomach.
Yet I also felt strong and in control in a way that I hadn’t in a long time. If ever.
It was overwhelming.
On the way into the office, I bumped into Althea.
“Hey, gorgeous, how are you this morning?” she asked, sashaying toward me with a hot drink in one hand, her phone in the other, and a large purse dangling from her elbow.
I took one look at her face, and without warning, tears welled in my eyes.
“Oh shit, okay. Follow me.” Althea veered past the elevator and into the ladies’ restroom. Trying to hold back actual sobbing, I hurried after her and watched as she kicked at all the stall doors with her six-inch heels to make sure the place was empty. Then she returned to the main door and locked it.
“Can you do that?”
“I just did.” Her eyes ran over my face. “Okay, why the hell do you look like you’re the only person on the planet who knows we’re all about to die in a meteor strike that no Ben Affleck–Bruce Willis deep-core-drilling team can save us from?”
“That was intensely specific.”
“Your expression is intensely Armageddon-like. Am I at least in the ballpark?”
“Perhaps in my own private universe.” I sniffed, holding my head back and pinching the bridge of my nose. “I cannot cry and ruin my makeup.”
“Hallie, what happened?”
I sucked in a breath and shook out my hands. “I kind of snapped last night and may have irrevocably destroyed my relationship with my dad.”
“Did you tell him you were pansexual?”
Feeling awful, I closed my eyes. “Althea, I should not be complaining about this to you.”
“Stop, stop. I’m sorry. You know I have an offbeat sense of humor.” She’d explained to her parents about her sexuality when she was nineteen. They were both much older, Althea being the youngest of five, and the gap between her and her eldest sibling was fifteen years. While her mom had been nothing but supportive, it had taken a few years before her dad accepted her relationship with Michelle. He apologized for making her feel unloved, and now their relationship was good. But I knew from what Althea had told me that those few years in between had strained everyone in the family’s relationship with her father. “This isn’t about me. I’m just saying, if anyone can empathize with shitty arguments with your dad, it’s me.”
I leaned against a sink. “I just . . . I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I people-please to a ludicrous extent.”
Althea raised an eyebrow.
“You disagree?”
“Hell no. I’m just surprised you’ve finally realized that it’s adversely affecting your life.”
I snorted. “Chris helped me figure some things out about myself. Anyway, it all came to a head last night, and I finally called my dad out for buying that house to deliberately hurt Mom and shoving me out of his life unless he needed something from me.”