Read Chapter 25: — A FATHER’S APOLOGY

Martin finally saw his daughter in person through two layers of glass.

He was visiting the hospital’s command centre. Lena had just finished a shift and found him in a corridor outside a restricted meeting room.

For several seconds neither moved.

Then Martin raised one hand.

Lena did the same.

No embrace.

No dramatic reunion.

Just two tired doctors on opposite sides of a barrier.

“I got your message,” she said through the phone.

“I meant it.”

“I know.”

“I should have told you more when you were young.”

Lena looked away.

Martin continued before courage failed.

“Rebecca Shaw and I loved each other as friends. There was a time before either marriage when I wondered whether it could be more. It never became an affair. Adrian is not my son. Your mother had reasons to feel neglected, but not because I had another family.”

Lena swallowed.

“I know that now.”

“I cared for Adrian because his father was my closest friend and because Rebecca spent half her life deployed. I also cared because he was easy for me to mentor. You were my daughter. You mattered too much, and somehow that made me worse at speaking to you.”

“That makes no sense.”

“No. It doesn’t.”

She almost smiled.

“I hit you.”

“Yes.”

“I was ashamed of your accusation when I should have been curious about why you believed it.”

Lena’s eyes filled.

“I am sorry.”

For years she had imagined this apology in different forms. In none of them had her father looked so small.

“I’m not ready to say everything is fine,” she said.

“I’m not asking you to.”

“But I’m glad you said it.”

Martin nodded.

Then Lena added, “Mom is sending you food.”

He looked startled.

“How do you know?”

“Because she sends me food too. She labels containers exactly the same way.”

Martin laughed.

Lena laughed with him.

It was the first easy moment between them in years.