Page 219 of Dream On, Liar

I could hear footsteps outside.

A laugh.

Someone shouting a name.

The celebration continuing without us.

Dad watched me. “What happened, Maeve?”

I swallowed.

For a moment, I thought about lying.

It would have been easier.

It would have been safer.

But the problem with lying was that he already knew me well enough to hear it before I spoke.

So I stayed silent.

And somehow, that told him more than an answer could have.

For a few seconds, I couldn't make myself speak.

Dad waited.

He didn't fill the silence. Didn't push.

He simply stood there and watched me, and somehow that made it easier to finally stop trying to hold everything together.

“Two years ago, I was in Manchester with Samyra...” His brow furrowed. I looked down at my hands. “We’d gone out to celebrate our final night of summer. I was going back to school for my post-grad, and Samyra finally had her dream job. Only after being ten minutes inside the club, I ran into Rihaan.”

I nodded at his surprised expression. “Yeah, I didn’t write the paper on him over nothing.”

And then I told him everything.

Finally, Dad stared at me for a long moment digesting my words. “I thought you didn't date cricketers.”

I gave him a tired smile. “And that's the reason why we aren't together.”

His eyebrows rose. “You aren't?”

I shook my head.

He leaned back slightly. “I thought this was all leading up to a reveal that that had been the reason you two were being weird.”

A sigh left me.

“No.” I rubbed my palms together. “We aren’t together.”

My voice dropped. “I can’t make the same mistakes you and Mum made.”

Dad’s expression softened. “Oh, trouble.”

I looked up.

“Our separation had nothing to do with my career.” He paused. “We were kids.”