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Tina walked out to the living room and found her father staring at the TV the following day like he was in a coma. He looked miserable. It didn't even look like he'd slept.
"Dad?"
"Hey, honey."
"Are you OK?"
"I'm sad," he admitted. "Anna says she needs a break."
"A break?"
"A break from me . . . her ex is causing problems. That's what was going on last night."
Tina came to sit next to him on the couch and pulled his arm around her.
"I'm sorry, Dad."
"This hurts like hell," he said, tearing up and not even trying to hide it.
"You know you'll work this out, right?"
"You think so?"
"Of course you will, she loves you."
"I was just sitting here wondering if she really did after all."
"She does, I can tell."
"I'm such a fool," he sighed. "I thought this was finally it for me."
Tina handed him a box of tissues, and he let himself cry a little. He knew that Tina would understand. They had called together a lot back in the day.
She rested her head on his shoulder to stare at the TV mindlessly with him. When he was hurting, so was she.
/
Daniel went for a drive that evening to pick up ice cream for Tina and couldn't resist stopping outside Anna's house.
Being away from her was so painful that nothing felt right anymore. The lights were on in her living room, and he imagined her on the couch reading to Ben. He wondered if she was thinking about him too. He had imagined them having a baby together, and this ex-husband was keeping them apart.
Something had to be done, and at that moment, he knew exactly what he needed to do. Daniel wasn't about to let a man terrorize the woman he loved when he could take care of it himself. Daniel knew his name and figured that maybe Ashley would be willing to help him, and Octavia would too.
/
The next day he took Tina to school and called Ashley from work to see if there was any chance she'd help him out. She worked at the DMV and had access to names and addresses.
"Daniel, hey!" she said, and he could hear her typing.
"How's my all time favorite sister-in-law?"
"OK, what do you want?"
"Can I get an address?"
"What? You know I can't do that?"
"Please, I just want to deal with this creep whose bothering Anna?"
