At eighteen, I chose the future I wanted and lost my family for it. Ten years later, I had built a life around helping women feel like themselves again. Then my past came looking for me, carrying a photograph that made walking away impossible.
The first thing my father said after ten years of silence was, “I’ll do anything if you come home.”
I stood in my apartment doorway with one hand wrapped around a damp makeup brush.
My dad, Andrew, looked nothing like the man who had thrown me out at 18.
His coat was wrinkled, his eyes bloodshot, and one hand shook against his thigh.
I almost shut the door anyway.
“I’ll do anything if you come home.”
“Ten years ago, you made it pretty clear I didn’t have a home.”
Dad swallowed.
“I know.”
“Then why are you here?”
He reached into his coat.
“Didn’t Jake call you?”
“Then why are you here?”
My stomach dropped.
Jake was my twin brother. He had also spent ten years proving that silence was an answer.
“No. Why?”
Dad pulled out a photograph, but he couldn’t bring himself to hand it over.
Instead, he started crying.
Jake was my twin brother.
“Please, son. Just look at this… and then tell me you still won’t come.”
I took the picture.
The woman staring back at me was my mom, Belinda.
The left side of her face was marked by thick scars that ran from her cheek toward her jaw.
The brush slipped from my hand and hit the floor.
“What happened to Mom?”
“Just look at this… and then tell me you still won’t come.”
“Car accident.”
“When?”
Dad looked away.
“Four months ago.”
I stared at him.
“Four months?”
“Car accident.”
“Jared…”
What happened next changed everything… FULL STORY on the next page.
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