Page 110 of Heartstring

“Can’t. Breathe.”

I let her go. “Oh right. I guess that’s an important vital activity if we want to have this talk.”

She groans. “I don’t want to have this talk.” And then she looks down at her hands.

“We have to, honey. I’m trying to be real calm about this, and I want to hear you out, but do you know how scared I was when we couldn’t find you?”

She nods.

“And then to find out you didn’t go into town or to your friends’ place. You crossed state lines, Kay. How did you even…?”

“I bought the bus ticket online, and the ticket officer didn’t check my age.”

“Why did you do it?” I keep my voice as steady as I can when I really want to rip someone a new one.

“Because this is all my fault, and I don’t know how to make it right, and now I’m scared you’re going to move us to a new place where I don’t know anybody.”

“What exactly is your fault?”

Her eyes go red and tears start spilling.

“Baby, you can talk to me. I love you more than anything in the whole world, and there’s nothing you can say that will change that.”

She nods, running the back of her hand over her eyes.

“Okay, maybe if you tell me you’re joining a Rock Plasticity tribute band. I have my limits.”

The joke has the intended reaction, and it’s nice to see her smile. I grab the box of tissues from Tyler’s coffee table and give it to her. She blows her nose and seems to be steadying herself.

“The photographers found you because of me,” she says.

I doubt it, but I don’t interrupt her.

“When we moved here, I was really angry with you. I thought if they found out you were here, we’d go to Bastian’s place, so I reported you to the Find a Celebrity app. No one believed it at first because there were no photos. All the comments called me a liar and attention seeker.”

She looks at me. “I’m so sorry, Dad.”

“It’s okay. Tell me the rest of the story.” I tuck her hair behind her ear.

“I didn’t have any photos, but then one day, someone said it was true because they talked to you at the grocery store.”

I sigh. “That’s my fault, sweetheart. I let my guard down. I’ve spoken to people when I’m out, and no one ever gave me the impression they recognized me.”

She nods.

“Nothing happened for a while, so I thought people forgot about it or didn’t believe it,” she continues. “I was glad because I enjoyed helping Tyler. Did you know his filing system is atrocious? And he doesn’t know how to name documents. How he ever finds anything in that office is beyond me.”

I laugh. “You should see how he writes music. It’s chaos.” I ruffle her hair. “I think he really likes having you help out. Who’d have thought my little Princess Mayhem was such an organizational freak?”

“Daad.”

“Anyway. Thank you for telling me what you did. Okay, so I might need to think about a suitable punishment for giving away our location, but it was bound to happen at some point. I’m not naïve enough to think we can live anywhere without ever being found out.”

She wrings her hands around the hem of her sweater.

“It’s not the whole story.”

“Okay.”