Page 31 of The One Who Changed Everything

He was keeping his distance.

And for reasons I couldn’t begin to untangle, that realization stung far more than it should have.

After the plates had been cleared, Evan rose to leave. “I better head out. My shift starts tomorrow morning. Thanks for having me over tonight. I had a lot of fun getting to know you better, Sophia.”

Sophia was quiet, her fingers fidgeting with something on the table. Then, in a move that seemed both achingly sweet and unbearably painful, she held out a friendship bracelet toward him.

"Here," she said, her voice soft but steady. "I made this for you."

Evan's face softened as he took the interwoven threads, colors vibrant against his calloused hands. "Thank you," he said solemnly.

My heart splintered a little more with each word. It was just a simple bracelet, but it felt like she was weaving them closer together, stitching a new family tapestry where I was merely a background shade.

"Promise you'll wear it?" Sophia's hopeful eyes met his.

"Every day," he replied, securing it around his wrist.

The door clicked shut behind him, and I was left standing there, the remnants of our shared meal cooling on the counter. Sophia sank back into her chair, her shoulders drooping ever so slightly.

"Mom?" Her voice quivered just enough to betray her upset. "Are you mad?"

"Me? Honey, I should be asking you that." I pulled a chair up beside her, trying to sound more light-hearted than I felt.

She gave a small shrug, a gesture that carried all the weight of her thirteen years of wisdom and worry. "I'm fine, just... I don't know. Sad, I guess. He's really great, isn't he?"

“I think he really cares about you,” I replied, the words tasting bittersweet on my tongue.

"Then why…" She hesitated, biting her lip in that way she did when she was mulling over her words. "Why didn’t you tell him about me?"

I pulled her in for a hug, pressing my lips to her hair. “I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I did what I thought was the best thing for us. I wasn’t sure how your dad would react to the news. And I wasn’t very brave.” Admitting you were wrong was always hard, but somehow it felt even harder when you were admitting it to a child.

“Is it wrong if I want to keep seeing him? Will you be mad?” She picked at the frayed edge of the tablecloth, not meeting my eyes.

"Sweetie, if having Evan here makes you happy, then it's the right thing. You deserve all the happiness in the world." My voice was firm, even if my heart was quivering like a leaf in the wind. “I could never be mad at you for wanting to spend time with your dad.”

"Thanks, Mom." She finally looked up, her gaze clear and searching. "You deserve to be happy too, you know."

I forced a chuckle, pushing down the surge of emotions her words brought. "Well, my happiness is a work in progress."

"Maybe my dad can be part of that progress?" There was an innocent hope in her voice that made my chest tighten.

“Don’t get your hopes up, Soph. He’s here for you, okay? Not me.”

I was at work,with a thousand things to do, but my focus was on Sophia and Evan, two tables over, their heads bowedtogether over her history homework. It had been three weeks since Evan came over for dinner, and the two of them were finding every excuse to be together. School had just started, and I knew Sophia rarely needed help with her assignments, but I couldn’t bring myself to talk her out of it when she asked if she could invite Evan to the library after school.

Evan’s voice was low but steady as he pointed to something in her textbook, his brow furrowed in concentration. Sophia nodded along, tapping her pencil against her chin, the picture of deep thought.

I knew that look. It was the same one she got when she was pretending to struggle with a concept just to keep a conversation going.

“She already knows the answer,” I murmured under my breath, shaking my head with a small smile.

It was obvious, the way she leaned in just a little closer, the way she hung on his every word. She wasn’t here for the homework—she was here forhim.

And what startled me most was that he was here for her, too.

I wasn’t sure what I had expected from Evan when he first demanded to meet Sophia. Hesitation? Awkwardness? A slow, uncertain dance of trying to figure out his place?

But instead, he had stepped into the role like he had always belonged there.

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