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“Still miss you.”
My chest tightens.
Quietly, because admitting things like this has always felt difficult, I say, “I miss you too.”
His perfect smile widens. Mine, on the other hand, is smaller, but it’s there.
“Lucan!”
My mother’s voice echoes from somewhere off-screen and makes Dad glance away from the camera.
“Is that my littlest?”
“Yes.”
“Stop hogging her! I’ve been trying to get her to answer me, and now I know why she hasn’t.”
That’s not the reason why.
“I missed my baby.”
“You saw her a week ago.”
“That’s an eternity.”
“It absolutely is not.”
Dad looks back at me, completely unbothered. “It is when you’re deprived of your favorite child.”
Mom laughs. “You tell all three of them they’re your favorite.”
“That’s because all three are my favorite.”
“That is not how favorites work, dear.”
“That is exactly how favorites work, wife.”
“No, that’s literally the opposite, Lucan. I swear… you and your old age.”
“My old age? May I remind you how old y—”
“You do that, and I’ll divorce you.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose.
After almost three decades of marriage, my parents’ love language is arguing. It is deeply disturbing.
A long silence falls and then Dad looks back at me. This time, his expression is more serious. “Whatever’s keeping you awake at night, my girl...”
I freeze.
Because somehow, he always knows. Maybe he doesn’t know the details. But he always knows when something has found a way through my armor. “It doesn’t have to, Artemis,” he says gently. “If I can’t kill it, I’ll help carry it.”
My father’s words hit me deep in my soul.
I think about telling him everything. About the mess in my heart. About the way a man I’ve known for barely any time has me completely confused. But I can’t explain something I don’t understand myself.
So instead, I give him the only truth I can manage right now.
