Page 142 of Sincerely, Your Enemy

I nudge the door shut as soon as I’ve entered the house, and Lacey takes off toward the kitchen, gesturing for me to follow.

“I’m surprised you reached out, to be honest. I didn’t think you’d be ready to hear me out so soon,” I say to fill the awkward silence.

“I’m not,” she says, shattering all of my hopes and delusions in one fell swoop.

Called it.I knew it was too good to be true.

“This isn’t about us,” she adds before turning the corner and walking into the kitchen.

That’s when I see him.

My father.

Sitting at the kitchen table with a serious expression on his face. My body immediately pulls the panic cord, my legs forbidding me from taking another step.

I’m not sure what the hell Lacey was trying to accomplish by asking me here, but it better not be peace and reconciliation because I have no intention of forgiving the motherfucker for abandoning us when I was seven years old.

“Hi, Mathias,” Daniel says, and my fists contract at my sides, pain and anger bubbling in my chest.

“What’s he doing here?” I say through clenched teeth.

“You two have a lot to talk about,” Lacey answers in a flat voice. She doesn’t sound like herself. It’s as though she cried until there wasn’t a trace of emotion left in her system. “You should sit down.”

I scoff. “Like hell.”

“TJ, this is important. Sit down.Please,” she insists, taking a seat at the table herself.

I must be more desperate than I thought because I actually consider it. For some reason, I get the feeling that what I do next will determine whether or not Lacey and I make it in the end.

I drop onto the chair next to Lacey with a sigh, my eyes burning with anger as I stare Daniel up and down. He’s changed. He doesn’t have a beard anymore, for one. His hair is also shorter than I remember, and his face bears more wrinkles. I almost didn’t recognize him that time he and Lacey had lunch at the Grill House. I was working the bar that day, and even though I’d found out Lacey was his stepdaughter a few weeks prior when I was doing some digging, it was the first time I’d seen them together with my own eyes.

“Just spit it out,” I hiss, slouching into my seat. “Whatever half-assed apology you’ve got prepared, just say it so we can get this over with.”

Daniel looks torn. Hell, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he looks like he’s hurt. Like seeing me sitting there in front of him ishurtinghim.

He proceeds to inhale and exhale a deep breath, as if to prepare himself.

Then he cuts to the chase. “I’m aware that this isn’t going to be easy for you to hear, so before I tell you, I just need you to know that I never would’ve left you and your sister if I’d had a choice.”

Is this a joke?

“Wow… I figured you were going to try and avoid taking accountability, but playing the victim? Now, that’s on a whole other level.”

“I’m not trying to play the victim, Mathias. But I’m also not the villain you think I am.”

There’s a beat of silence.

“I’m sorry, I wish you didn’t have to find out this way, but I…” He can barely bring himself to say it. “…I’m not your father.”

The news hits me so hard it momentarily knocks me out of my body.

I’m not your father.

I’m not your father.

I’m not your father.

His words echo in my head like a broken record. My brain’s concocted a million scenarios since the day he left. I imagined a million different apologies and a million different excuses, but never… not once in my entire life, did I imagine that he’d saythat.

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