Page 39

KATERINA

After talking to Alina and Aiden, I decided to meet with my father and talk. My nerves are killing me as I wait for him.

The coffee in my hands is lukewarm now, untouched since the moment the barista set it down in front of me. My fingers wrap around the cup, desperate for warmth, but my whole body feels cold. I shouldn’t be this nervous. It’s just a conversation. Just words.

Just… my father.

I take a slow breath, staring at the rain tapping against the café window, trying to ignore the way my heart is pounding. I hadn’t planned to answer his call last night. I hadn’t planned to hear his voice at all. But when I did—when I finally picked up—I heard something I wasn’t expecting.

Regret.

It cracked through the line like thunder. And now, here I am, sitting in a quiet café, waiting for a man I barely know to walk through the door.

He is doing so much for me that i thought a talk couldn’t hurt. A talk with a man I once convinced myself never wanted me. The door chimes, and my pulse stutters.

I don’t need to turn around to know it’s him.

I just know it. The way the air shifts. The way the weight in my chest grows heavier.

I finally force myself to look.

He’s standing just a few feet away, scanning the room, his movements hesitant, unsure. The same dark hair as mine, streaked with a bit of gray, lines on his face and the same eyes as mine.

His gaze lands on me, and for a second, he just… stares, then gives me a weak smile.

Slowly, he walks toward me. “Kat,”

he says, almost breathless, like he’s been waiting forever to say my name.

I nod, swallowing thickly. “Jake.”

He flinches. Just barely. But I catch it.

I don’t call him Dad. I’m not ready for that. Not yet.

He clears his throat and hesitates before pulling out the chair

across from me. “May I?”

I nod again, and he sits, his hands clasped together tightly, like he’s trying to keep himself steady.

For a few moments, neither of us speaks. Until he does. “Ever since i went to Russia to see you, you have ignored me.

Making it clear you want no relationship with me, but i need you to know the truth.”

Then, finally, he exhales shakily and says the words that have haunted me for years.

“I never left you.”

A bitter laugh escapes before I can stop it. “You’re sitting here saying that like it’s the truth.”

“It is the truth,”

he insists, voice quiet but firm. “I didn’t know, Kat. I swear to you—I didn’t know.”

I shake my head, looking away.

“I don’t understand. How could you not know? You were with my mom. You left her.”

His face twists, like my words physically hurt him. “I left

because I thought she wanted me to.”

“She didn’t,”

I say sharply. “She never did.”

He looks down at his hands, exhaling deeply.

“I know that now.”

My throat tightens. Jake—my father—drags a hand through his hair, his frustration evident.

“She never told me, Kat. I swear to you, if I had known, I never would have left. I would have been there. I would have been your father.”

His voice cracks, and something in my chest clenches painfully. I want to believe him.

But how do you undo a lifetime of hurt with just words?

“Then why—”

I hesitate, my voice barely a whisper. “Why didn’t she tell you?”

He looks away, jaw clenching before he finally mutters, “She did.”

The room spins. I blink, my heart hammering. “What?”

His hands tighten into fists. “She did, Kat. She sent me a letter.”

A thick, suffocating silence falls between us.

A letter.

My mother told him. And he still left?

I knew this was a mistake. I knew meeting him would only— “Kat,”

he says urgently, pulling me from my spiral. “I never got

it.”

I stare at him, barely breathing.

“What?”

He swallows hard. “I never got the letter. I only found out about you a few months ago. Precisely two weeks before your lawsuit, was in every news outlet out there. And the reason I didn’t get it…”

He hesitates. “It was burned.”

I shake my head. “I don’t understand—”

“My wife at the time,”

he says, voice laced with anger and something close to shame. “Your stepmother.”

My blood runs cold.

“She found the letter,”

he continues. “She was drunk. Con-

fused. I don’t know what the hell was going through her head, but she burned it, Kat. She destroyed it before I ever even knew it existed.”

I can’t breathe.

“She didn’t even remember doing it until recently. And the moment I knew—the moment I knew you existed—I dropped everything and went to Russia to find you.”

Tears blur my vision.

No.

No, no, no.

I spent years hating him. Thinking he chose to leave. Thinking I wasn’t enough to make him stay. But he never even knew.

I choke out a sharp breath, covering my face with my hands.

“Oh, Kat,”

he whispers. “I’m so sorry.”

I should still be angry. I should still push him away. But suddenly, all I can think about is how much time we’ve lost.

Years.

Years of him not knowing. Years of me thinking I didn’t matter. When all this time, I did.

I did. When I lift my head again, his eyes are wet.

“I missed your entire life,”

he murmurs, his voice trembling. “I missed everything.”

A sob breaks from my throat. “I don’t—I don’t know how to—”

“You don’t have to,”

he says quickly, shaking his head. “I don’t expect anything from you, Kat. But if you’re willing… I’d like to try. To be in your life. In any way you’ll let me.”

I close my eyes, my heart aching from everything we’ve lost. Then, slowly, I nod.

And for the first time in my life, I let myself believe that

maybe… just maybe… I don’t have to carry this hurt alone anymore.

The second I step inside the house Aiden is waiting sprawled out in our living room couch.

I don’t even get two steps in before his arms are around me, pulling me against his chest.

“How’d it go?”

he murmurs into my hair. I take a deep breath, melting into him.

I don’t even realize I’m crying until I feel his hand in my hair, soothing, grounding.

“It wasn’t what I expected,”

I whisper. “I thought I’d hate him. I wanted to hate him.”

Aiden’s hold on me tightens, silent, patient.

“But he didn’t leave me, Aiden,”

I whisper, voice cracking. “He didn’t even know about me. He never knew.”

Aiden’s lips press against my temple. “Oh, baby.”

I let out a shaky breath. “We’re going to try. I don’t know how, or where we even start, but… I think I want to give him a chance.”

Aiden pulls back just enough to cup my face. “You don’t have to figure it all out right now, Kat.”

I nod, my throat tight, and he kisses my forehead.

“Come on,”

he murmurs, tugging me toward the couch. “Let’s just lay down for a while.”

I don’t argue. I let him pull me onto the couch, wrapping myself around him as he blankets me in warmth, his fingers tracing slow circles against my back.

And for the first time in a long, long time… I don’t feel so alone.