⸻
Gordon looked up first, his expression shifting rapidly from confusion into something closer to resigned understanding.
“Paige,” he said quietly.
⸻
Sienna’s face went through several stages at once — surprise, then fear, then something close to relief, like some part of her had been waiting to be caught for days now.
“Mom,” she said. “I can explain.”
⸻
“I’d genuinely like you to,” I said, my voice shaking despite my best efforts to keep it steady. “Starting with why you’ve been skipping an entire week of school to visit your father in a hospital I didn’t even know he was in.”
⸻
Gordon shifted slightly against his pillows. “This isn’t Sienna’s fault, Paige. I asked Roy to bring her. I should have called you myself, honestly. I kept putting it off.”
⸻
“Putting off telling me you’re in the hospital,” I said, “or putting off telling me our daughter’s been secretly visiting you all week instead of going to class?”
