Chapter 7
The surgery took seven hours.
Ethan paced the hallway the whole time.
Seven hours.
Four hundred and twenty minutes.
Twenty-five thousand two hundred seconds.
Each one longer than the last.
Richard showed up at hour three.
He didn’t say anything.
Just started pacing on the other side of the hallway.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Two men.
Father and son.
Separated by sixteen years and twenty feet of linoleum.
Both terrified.
At hour five—
Lily showed up.
With her nanny.
She ran straight for Ethan.
Wrapped her arms around his legs.
“Brother! I came like you said!”
Ethan picked her up.
She was light.
Warm.
Smelled like strawberries.
“Hey, squirt. What are you doing here? You should be in school.”
“Nana said I could come,” she said.
She looked past him.
Saw Richard.
Her smile faltered.
“Daddy?”
Richard stopped pacing.
“Lily. What are you doing here, baby?”
“Ethan texted me,” she said.
“Said Aunt Sarah was sick. I came to hold her hand when she wakes up.”
Richard looked at Ethan.
Something passed between them.
Not friendship.
Not yet.
But something.
Respect, maybe.
At hour seven—
the surgeon came out.
Tired.
Smiling.
“It went well. Better than we expected. She’s going to be fine. A long recovery. But she’s going to make it.”
Ethan’s knees gave out.
He slid down the wall.
Lily still in his arms.
She hugged him tight.
“Told you, brother. Told you she’d be okay.”
Richard leaned against the opposite wall.
Head back.
Eyes closed.
Tears leaking out the corners.
He didn’t bother wiping them.
The surgeon left.
The hallway was quiet.
Just the four of them.
Richard, Ethan, Lily, and the ghost of everything that had happened.
“Daddy?” Lily said.
“Yeah, baby?”
“Can we go see Aunt Sarah now? And then can Ethan come live with us? He can have the big guest room. The one with the TV. I’ll even share my toys.”
Richard and Ethan looked at each other.
Across the divide.
Sixteen years.
A lifetime of hurt.
And Lily—
five years old.
Holding it all together with nothing but love.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, baby,” Richard said gently.
“Why not?” Lily said.
Her lip started to tremble.
“Because you love him? And he’s my brother. And families are supposed to live together. You said so. You said family is the most important thing.”
She looked at Ethan.
“Unless you don’t want to live with us. Do you not want to, brother?”
Ethan looked at her.
How could he say no?
How could he tell her that her parents’ marriage was over?
That her dad had ruined everything?
That life wasn’t the fairy tale she thought it was?
He looked at Richard.
And for the first time—
they were on the same side.
Both trying to protect the same little girl.
“Maybe not forever,” Ethan said.
“But I can come visit. A lot. Okay?”
Lily considered this.
“Every weekend?”
“Every weekend.”
“And every holiday?”
“Every holiday.”
“And you’ll teach me to skateboard? And beat up boys who are mean to me? And walk me down the aisle when I get married?”
Ethan laughed.
A real one.
“All of it. I promise.”
Lily beamed.
“Okay. That’s good enough for now.”
She wiggled out of his arms.
Ran to Richard.
Grabbed his hand.
“C’mon, Daddy. Let’s go see Aunt Sarah. She needs to know we’re all here.”
She pulled him toward Ethan.
Grabbed Ethan’s hand with her other one.
And just like that—
she was holding them together.
Father and son.
Separated by everything.
Connected by this one small girl.
They walked down the hallway together.
Lily in the middle.
Skipping.
Talking a mile a minute about nothing and everything.
Richard and Ethan didn’t say a word.
They didn’t need to.
For the first time in sixteen years—
May you like
they were exactly where they were supposed to be.
Together.
