Page 110 of Engulfing Emma

It’s dilapidated and missing two numbers. The remaining one is askew. And the only reason we know it’s the correct door is because 210 is on one side and 212 is on the other.

Evelyn knocks on the door.

Loud music plays inside, so there is no way anyone heard her. Part of me wants to suggest that we just walk away now because I have a bad feeling about this.

She knocks again, much louder this time.

Still no one comes to the door.

Brett pounds on it with the side of his fist.

Finally, the door opens, and a tall blonde woman, haphazardly wrapped in a sheet, stares at us.

“Is Stefan Schmidt here?” Brett asks.

The woman looks us over and then closes the door.

Evelyn says, “Maybe she doesn’t speak English.”

Brett pounds on the door again. It opens with a jerk. “Vat ze fuck do you vant?” a man holding a cigarette asks.

My heart officially breaks. The emaciated half-naked man standing in the doorway has blond hair and is exactly the same height as I remember. And despite the fact that he looks much older than he should, there’s no mistaking the birthmark on his right cheek. It’s him.

Nobody says anything. I think Brett and Evelyn know it’s him as well.

Stefan looks at me as if he’s eyeing a piece of meat. But it quickly becomes obvious he remembers who I am. Other than my hair being a few inches longer and my waist a few inches thicker, I look very much like I did in high school.

He looks at Evelyn. I can practically see him make the connection.

“Vy are you here?” he says with a heavy German accent. It’s the same voice I remember, except a little deeper and rougher.

“Why do you think, Stefan?” I say.

He takes a drag from his cigarette and exhales, not bothering to blow the smoke in the other direction. “If you’re looking for an invitation to Sunday dinner, you von’t get one,” he says. “You’re vasting your time.”

Evelyn pulls out the strip of photos. “You’re my father.”

He drops his cigarette on the floor, grinds it into the floorboard with his bare foot, and takes the photos from her. He looks at them, then rips them to shreds. “I’m no one’s father,” he says and tries to close the door.

My first inclination is to lunge at him, hurt him for his deplorable behavior, but Evelyn stops me the same protective way Brett stopped her earlier. She shoves me behind her and sticks her shoe in the doorway, preventing it from closing.

Stefan looks down at her foot. “You came a long vay for nothing, kid.”

“I came a long way to find you. The least you can do is talk to me.”

Stefan looks at Brett, who has a hand on my and Evelyn’s shoulder. “There’s nothing to say,” he says, pulling another cigarette from his jeans pocket and lighting it. “Go back to verever the fuck you came from.”

Brett squeezes my shoulder, fingers tense. I wait for Evelyn’s tears. She’s been completely rejected by the man she wanted to find for so long.

Instead of crying, however, she does something that utterly shocks me. She steps forward, rips the cigarette from Stefan’s fingers, and throws it down the hallway. “You have no idea how grateful I am that you’re such a deadbeat, because if you weren’t, my life wouldn’t be nearly as amazing.” She touches my arm. “My mom is the strongest person I know. That’s probably thanks to you leaving her when she was fifteen and pregnant. You bailed on her and made her figure this out by herself. She’s the best mom anyone could ask for. She made it so I didn’t need a father. And she raised me to be just like her.

“So thank you for being an asshole who can never measure up to my fantasy about what a dad should be.” She glances at Brett and then back at Stefan. She picks up the torn picture and throws it at him. “Crawl back inside your hole and enjoy your pathetic little life,Stefan, because nobody needs you.”

After a stunned moment, he slams the door in her face. That’s when I realize we had an audience. An old lady in the apartment across the hall is looking at us through her cracked-open door.

Evelyn strides down the hall, not a single tear in her eye.

I reach out to her. “Sweetie?”

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