Chapter Twenty-Two #2
More like he’s trying to understand how something so familiar could have existed without him knowing.
“I wanted to meet you,” I say.
His entire body stills.
“What?”
“I wanted to meet you.”
He looks genuinely shocked now, enough that some of the control drops out of his face.
“You did?”
“Yeah, eventually.”
I rub my thumb along the rim of the mug.
“I wanted to know you. I just wasn’t ready yet.”
His expression shifts again, and this time there’s guilt in it.
Not soft guilt either.
The kind that tightens his jaw.
“I should’ve known.”
I shake my head.
“How?”
He looks away.
“I don’t know. I just…” His hand drags over his face. “I should’ve known there was something else. I should’ve found her. I should’ve—”
“You couldn’t have known.”
He looks back at me.
“I mean it.” My voice stays quiet. “You couldn't have known she’d keep a whole child a secret from you, thats on her. Not you, and I don’t blame you.”
His mouth tightens.
“That doesn’t make it feel much better.”
“No.”
I don’t think either of us expects it to.
He sits back slightly, looking angry now, but not at me.
At the years.
At Mom.
At himself anyway, even if there isn’t really anything useful to do with that.
“I would’ve come. I would’ve fought to be in your life,” he says.
“I know.”
“No.” His voice gets rougher. “I need you to understand that. If I’d known she was pregnant, if I’d known you were out there somewhere, I would’ve come for you.”
I hold his gaze, but there’s no hesitation in him.
No attempt to make himself look better.
Just hurt.
“I believe you.”
That seems to hit him harder than anything else.
His eyes drop for a second.
“I’m sorry.”
“You don’t have to apologize for something you didn’t know.”
“I know.”
He says it like he hates the answer.
I let the silence sit for a moment before I finally say,
“I’m sorry that I didn’t come to you sooner,”
His attention comes back to me.
“I’d only just found Talon and Sayshen. I was still trying to figure out what being their sister even looked like, and then the team started pulling me in too. Andre gave me a job, everyone kept making space for me, and I was still getting used to the idea that maybe I actually belonged there.”
He listens without interrupting.
“I didn’t want to meet you while I still felt like I was standing in the middle of everyone else’s life trying to figure out where I fit.”
“You don’t have to apologize either, I get it,”
“I wanted to get settled first. Know my brothers, and the team. Know who I was in all of this before I added another person to it.”
His face softens.
“And then this happened.”
“Yeah.”
I look toward the window, tears brimming along my eyes as I pull Wolfe’s hoodie tighter around my body.
“I really didn’t want to meet you like this.”
His eyes drop.
“Neither did I.”
I look back at him and take in how tired he looks, how much this has hit him too even though Wolfe wasn’t his son. He came because Talon and Sayshen were hurting, because the guys were hurting, because this team has been part of his life through his boys for years.
And he came fast.
That matters to me.
“I’m glad you’re here.”
His eyes lift.
“I mean it.”
Something in his expression breaks open a little.
“I’m glad I came.”
“You came for them.”
“I came for the team,” he says quietly. “And my children.”
There’s no hesitation in it. No careful wording meant to keep me from bolting. Just the truth.
I nod, staring down at my hands for a second because looking at him suddenly feels harder. “They needed you.”
“So did you.”
My eyes lift.
His jaw tightens like he’s trying to keep his own shit together. “However you want that to look, Echo. If you want me here as someone who’s part of the team, I can do that. If you want me here as your father…” He swallows. “I can do that too.”
My throat burns.
“Can I pick both?”
He looks at me for a long second, something soft breaking through all the guilt and anger on his face.
Then he nods. “Yeah. You can pick both.”
That does something to me.
I’m out of the chair before I’ve really decided to move, crossing the small space between us and wrapping my arms around him.
The second his arms close around me, I fucking lose it.
There’s no graceful version of it. My face presses into his chest and the first sob tears out of me hard enough that my whole body shakes.
He holds me tighter without saying anything, one hand coming up to the back of my head, smoothing over my hair again and again like he’s trying to make up for twenty-two years with one fucking hug.
Maybe he knows he can’t.
Maybe I do too.
I still hold on.
“I’m not mad at you,” I manage eventually, the words muffled against his shirt. “I’m mad at Mom. I’m mad she kept it from you. I’m mad I lost all that time and neither of us even got a choice in it.” My fingers tighten in the back of his shirt. “I’m mad this is how I had to find out any of it.”
His arms tense around me.
“But I’m not mad at you.”
He goes quiet for a second, and when he finally speaks, his voice is rough.
“I don’t know what the hell to do with that.”
A broken little breath leaves me. “Good. Me neither.”
That feels fair.
I pull back just enough to look at him, but he doesn’t let go completely.
The retired racer from all those photos. Talon and Sayshen’s dad. My father.
A man I spent my entire life not knowing existed, standing here with red eyes and one hand still on the back of my head because apparently mine remind him of his mother.
It’s weird as fuck.
It hurts.
But for the first time, it doesn’t feel wrong.
“I’m probably going to be shit at this,” I tell him.
His mouth twitches. “I’ve had practice.”
“With Talon and Sayshen? That doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.”
That earns the smallest smile.
I sniff and wipe at my face with the sleeve of Wolfe’s hoodie. “I’m still figuring all of this out.”
“So am I.”
I nod, letting that settle.
“Okay.”
And somehow, for right now, okay is enough.