When Allie hears her daughter say, "I miss you, Dad," on the landline, her world falls apart. Her husband has been dead for 18 years, or so she thought. As disturbing truths emerge, Allie is forced to confront the past and the lies that have shaped their entire lives.
My husband died when our daughter Susie was just two weeks old.
A car accident. That's what I was told. One moment, Charles was kissing me on the forehead as he went out to do some quick shopping. The next, I was shaking hands with a police officer, struggling to understand words that made no sense.
He was gone. Here's how it happened.
I was 23 years old. The pain clung to me like a second skin. And what's worse, I was holding a newborn baby who needed more than I, with my injuries, could offer. That's when Charles's mother, Diane, intervened. She worked in the mayor's office and promised to "make everything easier."
I didn't argue. I didn't even ask questions.
I simply nodded as the funeral proceeded behind a closed casket. She insisted on a quick cremation. She made the decisions. I remained in bed, holding Susie, letting Diane smooth away the cracks in my world like wallpaper on rotten walls.
I never saw his body.
I told myself it didn't matter anymore.
A closed coffin at a funeral | Source: Midjourney
Eighteen years have passed. And somehow I survived.
I went from a little girl cradling a newborn and struggling through pain to a woman quietly and deliberately putting her life back together. It wasn't brave or beautiful... it was necessary.
Eggs and toast on a plate | Source: Midjourney
Susie grew up. She was sensitive and had Charles's eyes. And the same dimple when she smiled... though she did it more slowly, more cautiously, as if whatever needed to be done had to be worthy of her smile.
Growing up, questions came naturally to me.
“What was Dad like?” she would ask me, usually when my hands were busy folding laundry, stirring soup, or wiping down counters.
A pot of soup on the stove | Source: Midjourney
I gave him what little I had. Stories I was tired of hearing. I told him about his horrible father jokes that made me roll my eyes. Photos of his childhood smile. The memory of how he sang in the car, always out of tune.
She accepted them, but I could sense the emptiness behind her eyes.
For a long time, that was enough. Until it wasn't anymore.
It happened on a normal Tuesday evening. I was walking down the hall when I heard Susie's voice. It was low.
“Okay… I miss you too, dad.”
My body froze.
Dad. Dad?!
A teenage girl talking on the phone | Source: Midjourney
I leaned my hand against the wall to steady myself. Susie turned, saw me, and hung up so quickly that the receiver fell back onto the cradle.
“Who were you talking to?” I asked cautiously.
He didn't want to meet my gaze.
“Wrong number,” he said before running upstairs.
An 18-year-old girl climbs the stairs | Source: Midjourney
I stayed there for a long time, my heart pounding and my mind racing.
