“I screwed up, Stella. I was trying to keep you safe. I thought… I don’t know what I thought. It was wrong. I should have just told you everything.”
“Yeah, you should have.” She pauses and reaches for her coffee. “I spent all these years wondering if you were gay.”
Galen barks out a laugh at Stella’s confession.
“No, Stella. I’m not.”
“Well, you and Calvin have always spent a lot of time together, so…”
He shakes his head, scrubbing his hand down his face. “I guess I only have myself to blame. But, for the record, Calvin is straight too.”
I narrow my eyes at him, sensing more of a story there as he chuckles at the end.
Stella doesn’t miss it either.
“Right,” she says, moving the conversation on. “So what happens now? Toby said he doesn’t know if you’ve seen Maria, or what’s going on.”
“I have. Penny, Maria’s sister, has arranged it.”
Stella lets out a pained breath. “H-how is she? Really?”
“Better than I was expecting.” Leaning forward, he places his mug on the coffee table. “I don’t know what Toby told you, but the doctors are hopeful that she can come back from this. She might never beat it, but there’s a very good chance of a future.”
Stella nods. “Can I… can I meet her?” Finally, her voice cracks as the weight of all of this begins to shatter her hardened resolve.
Galen’s smile is so wide I almost find myself doing the same.
“Of course. We just need to wait until the time is right.”
“Does she want to see me?” I hate the uncertainty in her tone, but I understand it.
“Stella,” Galen sighs. “She’s spent eighteen years desperate to be your mum.”
“O-okay,” she squeaks, her eyes filling with tears. “Then I want to meet her. As soon as we can arrange it. I don’t want to put her in danger with Jonas.”
“I’ll arrange it,” he says with a firm nod.
Now everything is out, an awkwardness settles around us.
“Stella, if you want to come ho—”
Panic hits me that she might agree now they’ve cleared the air, that she might be about to pack up her shit and walk away from me once more.
“No, Dad,” she says, her voice unwavering.
All the air I didn’t know was stuck in my lungs rushes out at her refusal. She turns to me, a soft, knowing smile playing on her lips.
“I’m staying here. I know Calvin’s increased the security, but he was in my room. I just… I can’t yet.”
Or ever.
“Okay, can’t blame me for trying. I wasn’t expecting to move here and immediately lose you to someone else.”
“You haven’t lost me, Dad. But all of this, all the lies and secrets… it’s going to take some time to come back from that.”
“I know. I—”
“You’ve lied to me every day of my life.”