Page 97 of Saving Sophia

I’m not your father, Sophie. He sounds like a fucking fool. I am your Daddy. And I’m here to tell you, you will always be enough.

His words turned that burning shame and pain into something else for the first time. The man on the other end of this phone, the man who’d caused me to doubt myself about everything, the man who shriveled me with constant disappointment, was a fucking fool.

He was a tenured professor, and I was a stupid girl who played with dolls. But he was never going to make me feel worthless again.

“I’m not coming home.” My voice was stronger than I expected. “And I don’t care what happens at Mom’s symposium. That has nothing to do with me.” A giddy whoosh of air swept through me as I let the words come out.

“And … I don’t have to explain myself to you.” I stood up straighter, tossing a lifetime of not-good-enough off my shoulders. “I am not the disappointment. You are. I may not have lived up to your expectations. But … you didn’t live up to mine either.” I tapped the disconnect button with trembling fingers.

I clenched my eyes shut, waiting for the fear, the shame, the apology to bash its way back into my head, but it didn’t. I turned from the door, leaning my back against the wall and marveling at the lightness in my chest, like a boulder pinning me down had finally rolled away.

When I opened my eyes, Daddy was there. Right in front of me, solid, steady, his head tilted slightly, accentuating the crook of his smile, his dimple peeking out from his cheek. He raised a hand up to run through his perfectly tousled sandy hair, sliding down the back of his neck then reaching out to me.

“You okay, baby girl?” he asked, taking my hand and pulling me into him, his chest a haven, a shelter after a storm.

I leaned hard against him, gulping in his clean, comforting scent and counting the steady thumps of his heart before I tipped my head up and searched his handsome face. The amber flecks warmed the clouded gray in his eyes, and what I saw in them gave me peace.

His eyes held no pity or disbelief. No disappointment. No regret.

There was only love.

“Yes, Daddy. I think I am.”

26

ETHAN

She trembled in my arms, but there was fierceness in her eyes. I was glad to see it. Hayden’s information had hit her hard. I could tell by the way she’d folded in on herself, shrinking into her chair, her sweet pink cheeks going pale.

They’d gone even paler when she got that phone call. Her jaw set like she was going to her own execution when she excused herself. I was burning to know who called, and what they’d said, but I pushed that down. She’d tell me when she was ready. One step at a time.

I laced my fingers through hers. “Come with me.”

“I can’t go back in there,” she whispered, tugging back, her eyes darting toward the conference room.

“Do you trust me?” I asked.

“Yes.” She said it fast and sure.

I opened the door to my office, led her in, and closed the door.

She sat in a brown leather chair in front of my desk, her hands in her lap, her knees together, shoulders hunched. “I need to tell you about the phone call. No secrets.”

I sat down in the chair next to hers, my elbows resting on my knees near her, keeping my hands open, relaxed. “When you’re ready.” I reached out to touch her clenched fist. “Whoever it was upset you.”

“No,” she said, tipping her face up and looking right at me. “I mean … he did, but …” That little glint of ferocity sparked in her dark eyes. “It was my father. He demanded that I come home.”

I took a breath, forcing myself to be calm, even though I wanted to smash this asshole into the ground for having this much power over her. “You don’t?—”

“I told him that I’m done feeling bad about disappointing him. That he disappointed me too. That I’m not coming home.”

Pride bloomed inside me, watching my fierce little kitten break free of the shackles her father put her in.

Her brow furrowed, and her chin jutted out. “He’s a … fucking fool.”

I blinked in surprise at the swear on her lips. At my swear. And she didn’t flinch or whisper when she said it, though her eyes widened when she looked at me afterward, as if she might be in trouble for the curse.

“Did you tell him that?” I asked with a grin.

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