Page 123 of Your Second Chance
My mind spiraled back to seeing Austin. He looked sonormal.So composed. It made me feel angry, raw, like the universe was mocking me. Why couldn’t he have been like that when we were together? Why did it take all this time for him to finally get better?
When I called him years ago, desperate and grieving, he’d been in such a bad place they’d extended his time in rehab. That was the man I remembered—the one who couldn’t keep it together, who couldn’t be there when my world was falling apart.
I looked at Austin, and I saw the man who threw a glass at me in one of his rages. The man who disappeared into himself when I needed him the most—when my mother died.
But tonight, I saw something else. I saw a man who looked terrified, scared out of his mind to face his daughter. A man who was still hurt, but a man who didn’t look anything like the man I once knew. A man with peace. I saw someone so different, it was as though he looked like a stranger.
“I felt so triggered by it all at first,” I finally said, my voice unsteady. “Seeing him look like that, I... I felt sad. Sad that he never got to see what a great kid Scarlette is. Sad that he seems normal. And then I felt guilty. Like you were going to hate me for even thinking about it.”
Ollie didn’t speak, but the way his gaze softened gave me enough courage to keep going.
“I don’t know what to do if he’s an addict.” I confessed, my voice breaking. “I don’t know how to handle any of this. And I’m so scared it’s going to affect Scarlette.”
Tears continued to well in my eyes, and I blinked them back quickly. “I don’t even know how to feel. Everything about this hurts.”
“I assumed he asked about Scarlette.”
I nodded. “He saw her, and we’re meeting up. Without her.”
Ollie nodded. “I think it’s best she’s not there at first.”
A long, heavy pause settled between us, thick with unspoken fears and what-ifs. The silence felt like it might crush me, but I couldn’t bring myself to break it.
“What do you want to say to him?”
“I don’t know,” I whispered, the words barely audible. “I don’t know how to face him.”
“You should listen to him, love.”
I clutched the phone tighter. “Ollie, how can you say that? After everything he’s done . . . everything he didn’t do?”
There was a pause, his gaze steady on the screen before he exhaled. “Because I knew this day would come, maybe not this soon, but it was bound to happen eventually.”
“I thought—we thought—we could keep him away. That we could... avoid this forever.”
“I understand why you hoped that,” Ollie replied. “But he’s her biological father, Nova. Whether we like it or not, he has a part in her story. One day, Scarlette will have questions. Don’t you think she deserves to know the truth, even if it’s messy?”
The words cut deep, and I pressed my hand against my chest, trying to steady the ache. “But what if he hurts her? What if he hurtsus?”
“That’s why you meet with him first,” Ollie said firmly. “You set the boundaries. You figure out what kind of man he is now, and whether he’s capable of being in her life.”
“And if he’s not?” My voice trembled, my fear threatening to overwhelm me.
“Then you’ll protect her, like you always have. You’ll do what you’ve always done—you’ll put her first. But you need to know, Nova. For her and for yourself.”
I swallowed hard, the tears slipping down my cheeks as I whispered, “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Yes, you can,” he said gently. “You’ve been doing it all along, love. You’re stronger than you think.”
The weight of his words settled over me, grounding me in the midst of my spiraling emotions. But the fear clawing at my chest refused to let go.
My voice wavered as I spoke. “What if... what if you don’t want to come here anymore? What if this changes everything for us?”
The silence on the other end stretched a little too long, his face frozen on the screen. Panic surged in the gap, my pulse pounding in my ears. “Ollie, say something.”
“Nova,” he murmured finally. “This doesn’t change anything between us. I’ll be there, love. I’ll always be there.”
I wanted to believe him. God, I wanted to believe him so badly. My fears had a way of twisting things, making the ground beneath me feel unsteady.
