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“Noted.”
He lets me lead the way to my front door. Cat and Xavier fall into step behind us, with the dogs gladly staying by our sides. Shadow, of course, lingers next to Cat.
I’m not sure what the etiquette here is, but I knock on the door. And wait.
It feels like an hour before someone opens the door but, in reality, it’s more like fifteen seconds. I wasn’t ready to face my dad. I never treated him the way I should have. I was always sure to keep myself just a little reserved with them, and it was so wrong of me.
“Daphne?” he whispers, disbelief in his voice. He looks older. He was already balding, a sharp widow’s peak eating away at his hairline, but it looks so much more dramatic now, and there are more lines on his face than before.
We all dressed down. I didn’t want to overwhelm my parents with crowns and titles, so I’m wearing a plain light-blue T-shirt with a black skirt that shows just a hint of bump. In hindsight, I should have gone with something looser. My hair is free in curls, just the way he would remember me looking. Essos stands beside me in worn jeans and a dark-blue shirt that hugs the planes of his muscular chest. He couldn’t leave all formality behind and has a sports coat on over it. Xavier is dressed in a matching outfit, only he’s got on a grey shirt, and Cat is wearing low-rise jeans and a white blouse.
I feel like I’ve done this all wrong, and I don’t know what to say.
“Hi, Dad.” The words come out like a whisper.
“Hey, Phil,” Cat greets with a broad grin.
“I don’t understand,” my dad says, looking at all of us. “You died. You died months ago, and we buried you. We had a memorial service for you. We spent countless days grieving you.”
“Can we come in? I can explain everything, sort of.” I am a goddess, but I feel like a teenager who has to explain to her father why she was sneaking out to see a boy on a school night.
“I don’t understand,” he repeats, but after a second he steps back and lets us in. “Your mother is going to have a heart attack.”
The dogs lead the way, sniffing around. Dave must catch the scent of Waffles, because he lets out a plaintive little cry from the back of his throat as he looks around for his friend.
“He’s not here, Dave,” I tell him, scratching behind his ears.
“Who’s there, Phil?” I hear my mom call.
I slide my hand into Essos’s and squeeze. My heart wants to crawl out of my throat. I had no idea I was missing my parents so much.
“You should come here, Melinda, and don’t freak out. I might be having a sensory hallucination.” He still sounds wary.
“Catch her,” I whisper to Essos, and he nods.
Melinda Hale emerges from a room upstairs while putting earrings in under her black bob. Her eyes find me right away. Essos immediately transports to her side, catching her as she slumps.
“Oh, we’ve got another one,” Cat warns, as my dad’s eyes roll back into his head and he passes out too. Xavier catches him, thankfully. We set them both on the couch and wait for them to come to.
“So, this is where you grew up?” Xavier asks, looking at the photos on the fireplace mantle.
“Sort of. I was nine when I was placed with Phil and Melinda. My birth parents died shortly after I was born, and I was raised by my grandma till I was five, and then in a few foster homes before I landed here. I didn’t call them Mom and Dad till I was fifteen, and even then, I would call them Phil and Melinda sometimes just to, I don’t know, distance myself from them? I think in a way I was always waiting for that other shoe to drop, but they never gave up on me. Frustrating as it was at the time, I know they loved me.”
Essos rubs my back. “Do you need anything? A ginger fizz or water?”
“A ginger fizz.” The words are barely out of my mouth before he’s handing me one.
Cat drops into the chair she usually occupied when she would visit. “Phil and Melinda were super chill, but I think they got caught up in trying to respect Daph’s boundaries. Like, they wanted her to love them as much as they loved her, but they knew that pushing it on her was the wrong thing to do and would only drive her away, so they matched her emotional distance. I think that further drove home to Daphne that she was right to feel like they loved the idea of a daughter more than they loved Daphne as their daughter.”
I glare at Cat. “I’m sorry, I don’t remember you taking psych classes.”
She sticks her tongue out at me. “It’s a basic human condition. Anyone who spent more than an hour with the three of you together could see it.”
I harrumph and drop onto the loveseat. Essos pulls my legs onto his lap so he can reach my feet. He starts to massage my arches, and I moan at how good it feels.
That, of course, is when Phil jerks awake and stands up. When he sees me sitting there, he blinks rapidly. “Not a dream.”
“Nope, not a dream,” I assure him, my voice cracking. Him thinking it was a dream that I came home makes me wonder how many times that dream has haunted him since my mortal death. I brush the tears away quickly. “Do you want to wait for Mom to wake up for me to explain?”
