Page 164 of Sing with Me

“Maybe our real dad would take us.”

Diehl didn’t have the heart to tell her that Luigi was also married.

“Since Mom died, I feel so alone.” Elisa’s tears flowed.

“No, no. You’re never alone. I’m here. God is here.” Diehl looked around for tissue paper or paper towel but found nothing. He reached toward Elisa, but she swatted off his hand. She wiped her tears with her dirty hands.

Diehl prayed that the germs on her hands were harmless.

After this, Elisa would need a shower and a trip to the doctor’s to make sure everything was fine. His daughter was back now. Everything else, they could fix.

Correction: God could fix.

He watched his daughter cry. He knew she had to let it out. Poor thing.

But he could feel her pain of being abandoned by her mother while she had been alive, and now she was gone.

These kids were too young to have to endure such grief.

Diehl knew that he had grown attached to Elisa and Ethan. How could he have allowed the Bishops to keep them for one school year?

“Elisa?”

She didn’t reply.

“I’m sorry I sent you and Ethan to Hawaii for the entire school year,” he said. “After your mother passed away, I had a hard time. When your grandparents in Hawaii offered to take you to school, I thought it would be a good idea to have family around.”

“It was fun there but…”

“You’d rather be home.”

“I’m so angry with you, Dad.”

Diehl waited to hear more.

“I had a hard time when Mom died, but at the same time, it was like we lost our dad too,” Elisa said.

“I was working too much.”

“Grandma Zeta said you don’t care.”

“She’s wrong. I care. I just tried to work and not think about the fact that your mother is…uh…”

“Dead.”

“Yes. I’m sorry I did you wrong. I pushed you two away because I didn’t know how to handle my grief.”

“We’re all sad,” Elisa said.

Diehl nodded.

“We spent Thanksgiving and Christmas without you, Dad.”

What was I doing?“I failed, Elisa.”

“And then to top it all off, you sent Grandma Rose to get us for summer break. You didn’t go to Hawaii yourself. Even Grandpa Ned was there. But you weren’t.”

“I’m sorry. I was working and then I drove to St. Simon’s a few days before you arrived.”

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