Page 125 of Fierce-Hyde

“Why don’t we meet later today? I want to go over a few things with you, just in case. Or at least let you know where things are. Even if you don’t get the job, I’ve recommended to Molly to let you take the lead on some things. After today, I’ve only got three days left.”

“I know,” Brianne said. “Which is why I had hope that it’s going to be me.”

“I’ve got my fingers crossed too,” she said.

Brianne left and Tori went back to composing her notes for the next person.

When her cell phone rang, the last name she expected to see was her father’s.

He’d texted her Christmas Day like he’d been doing for years. She texted back. Nothing more. She saw he looked as if he was trying to type more the minute she hit send. It’d surprised her since that never happened.

But she brushed it off when nothing more showed up and she went about her day with Hyde’s family.

“Hello,” she answered. “Dad?”

“Tori,” her father said. “It’s your father.”

“I know,” she said. She kept the roll from her eyes over the fact she answered and said Dad to him. “What’s going on? Everything okay?”

“No,” her father said. “It’s not. I’m sick. It’s not good.”

“What’s wrong?” she asked. She didn’t know what to feel for the man whose voice she hadn’t heard in over ten years.

“It’s cancer. Stomach cancer. They aren’t giving me good options or prognosis.”

She felt cold at this point.

Her father was all but a stranger to her and now she finds this out. “I’m sorry,” she said.

“I’d like to see you,” her father said. “There is so much I have to say and don’t know when I might be able to. I’m going to start treatment next week and well...”

“So it took this diagnosis for you to call me?” she asked. Her voice was as calm as it could be.

“It’s wrong of me,” her father said. “I know that. I guess life has gotten in the way and we both went our separate directions. You haven’t tried either.”

He wasn’t wrong there. “You were the adult in this relationship,” she said. “Not me. I was eighteen when you walked away.”

“I don’t want to argue with you,” her father said. “I’m not in any shape to travel and have appointments this week and then I won’t know how I’ll feel. It’s a big ask. If you can’t come to see me, maybe we can set up a time to talk more. Even a video chat.”

Could she be so cold to not give him the time?

No. She couldn’t be.

She wasn’t sure what she was looking to accomplish going there, but it had to be done for her to move on in her life.

She was pretty sure she’d regret it if she didn’t at least talk to him.

She was sick of having regrets.

For too long everyone else took priority over her, and if she could do this for herself, regardless of the outcome, she was going to.

“I’m starting a new job on Monday, Dad,” she said. “I can’t take time off. I’m finishing up at my current job this week.”

“It’s only five hours,” her father said. “If you’re still in Durham. Are you?”

She frowned, not sure how he knew that. She’d moved a few times since college to now and never said those things to him.

“I am,” she said. “How do you know that?”

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