Page 135 of Fierce-Hyde

She wouldn’t let those words hurt her. They couldn’t hurt her any more than she’d been most of her life with the knowledge that her father didn’t want her.

“Then why have them?” she asked.

“Because your mother found out she was pregnant. I did what I thought was the right thing. I tried. It wasn’t for me.”

“So you just discarded us so easily?” she asked.

“I don’t think it was easy,” he said. “I just thought you felt the same way. Your mother always told me you were busy and didn’t like coming. I didn’t want to force anything.”

And because her mother all but confirmed that recently she couldn’t argue it. Wish she’d known that before.

“I get it,” she said. “We can’t go back in time and I’m not going to be one of those people that wishes for something like that.”

“I’m glad to hear you’re not like that,” her father said. “Your mother, Emily, always wanted what wasn’t attainable.”

She snorted. No reason to say her mother was still like that. This wasn’t about throwing her mother under the bus like her mother did to her father for years.

It solved nothing and she didn’t know she even wanted to.

At what point was any of this going to matter?

“I think that is why I’m more realistic,” she said. “Which doesn’t explain why I’m here.”

“I’m glad you came,” her father said. “If for no other reason than to tell me everything you’re feeling. I owe it to you.”

She started to cry. “You don’t owe me a damn thing.”

Shelly rushed in. “Give him hell,” Shelly said. “Yell at him. Tell him what a jerk he was. I wasn’t able to have kids. I’m upset that I didn’t even get a chance to have a stepdaughter.”

The fact Shelly had tears in her eyes told her the truth to those words.

Her father held his hand out and Shelly went over to take it and he pulled his wife onto his lap. “I needed this in my life,” he said. “Not someone that I had to constantly be the caregiver for. We are both independent, but she holds nothing back.”

Her mother only let it out when it affected her for selfish reasons. She’d never do what Shelly was doing. Being supportive.

“Do you know how messed up I am over not having any type of male figure in my life?” she said. She put her hand in front of her mouth. She hadn’t planned on saying that.

“No,” her father said. “Tell me. I can’t change it, or make it better, but maybe you’ll feel better to at least say it to me.”

“I can’t let anyone in,” she said. “I don’t trust them to stick around and don’t trust them to stand up for me or help because I never knew why you just walked away from me.”

Shelly slapped her husband’s arm. “Tell her what you told me.”

“It doesn’t matter,” her father said grimly.

“It matters to me,” Tori said, battling back the tears.

She watched the two of them looking at each other. “You still have communications with your mother, right?”

“What did she say to you?” she asked, staring her father down.

“I told you. She said you had friends and didn’t want to come around anymore,” her father said.

“Which wasn’t true, but there has to be more to it,” she argued. She knuckled a tear away.

“If Kevin won’t tell you, I will,” Shelly said.

“No,” her father said. “Shelly only knows what I said and it’s hearsay for Tori to hear it. I don’t want it to be that way. I’ve made enough mistakes in my life and listening to your mother was wrong. Maybe there was part of me that wanted it to be true and then I wouldn’t have to worry anymore.”

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