Page 21 of Contrition

I hid my smile by turning my back when her blatant scoff met my ears.

That was probably not the best thing to say, but ultimately, I was right. She needed to eat. And I would use every single excuse I could to get her to stay with me for a few extra minutes. Or hours, for that matter. And as I began measuring the milk and flour, my shoulders sagged in relief at the sound of the dining chair being pulled out.

“You’re not my dad, ya know.”

I barked out a laugh loud enough to wake up a snoring Zack mere feet away from us. “Nah, I’m not. And while the thought of you calling me Daddy isn’t all that bad, I know for a fact that Mr. Flores would have my head. So, I’ll behave myself on that one.”

Zack’s hoarse and sleepy voice sounded next. “Why are you the one that gets to claim the title of Daddy? I’m the older one.”

I turned around to let out my own sarcastic quip. Though, as I turned around, it was cut short when I saw Estrella’s face, filled with sadness and pain, her hand gripping the countertop as though she were about to float away. Immediately, the mixture of eventual pancake mix was left forgotten on the countertop. I walked towards her before lowering myself into a squat and reaching up to grip her chin with my fingers. Tears lined her eyes. “Hey, hey, hey. What’s going on? What happened?”

She sniffed and tried to pull away from me. My fingers only tightened their hold. “It’s nothing. I’m fine.”

I felt Zack’s presence at my back before he spoke. My eyes stayed trained on Estrella, though. “It’s obviously not nothing,mi Estrella. We were just joking.”

Her eyebrows pinched together, forcing a singular tear to leak down her face. “Right. Because let’s just joke and talk about my dad as if he’s still alive. Stellar joke, guys. Appreciate you.”

“What?” My heart could have stopped beating then and there. “What did you just say?”

She picked her head up, her eyes locking in on mine quizzically before jumping up to Zack’s features. I didn’t know what his expression looked like, but I would have bet money that it was similar to my own. “Papá. He’s dead. You didn’t know?”

I shook my head fiercely. “No. We had no idea.”

Zack spoke immediately after, and it was only then that I turned my face back to look at him. Horror coated every single one of his features. “When? How?”

Estrella shrugged as if she hadn’t just thrown a time bomb directly at both of us. “Three years ago. Heart attack. He was too stubborn to even call for help. You knew how he was. That never changed. He was gone before any of us could do anything about it.”

Fucking hell.

Even with everything we had done to try to keep tabs on our girl through out the years.

It wasn’t nearly enough if we still missed something like that.

“I’m so…so fucking sorry, princess.”

Zack joined in. “I’m so sorry. I genuinely had no idea. I would have been there if I did.”

That got a sarcastic laugh as she pulled out of my touch entirely. She swiveled the chair back in the direction of the cooktop and bowl of batter, ignoring us entirely. I flinched as her next set of words dug deep into everything I was. “Right. Because my deadpapáwould have been the action to get your head out of your ass and choose me. That makes me feel so much fucking better about myself, thanks.”

“Th-That’s not what I meant,mi Estrella.”

“Whatever. Just make breakfast, Theo. Neon Cherry plays in the next few hours, and I have a date with their makeup artist before the show begins. And we still need to get this talk out of the way, don’t we?”

I nodded my head as though she were looking at me.

She wasn’t, though.

I didn’t deserve her attention at all after that one.

* * *

We found ourselves on the couch an hour later as an awkward silence fell over all three of us. Estrella dragged her pancakes along the plate, playing in the syrup. Though, she did manage to take a bite here and there, which I was extremely grateful for. She was thin and I was desperate for real food to touch her stomach.

Finally, she broke the silence as she looked up at Zack. “Are you going to sign the divorce papers?”

His answer was immediate. “No.”

“Why not? I don’t want your money. I will tell a divorce court the same in a nano-second.”

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