PART 7:

Everything okay? Where are you? Emma’s voice was small, worried. I’m at Victoria’s. I’m sorry. I lost track of time. Can you come home? Yeah, yeah, I’m coming now. He hung up, looked at Victoria. I have to go. I know. He set the ring back in the box, closed the lid. Thank you for showing me. Daniel I’ll see you tomorrow morning for the run.

He left before she could say anything else, walking quickly through the dark house out into the night. His hands were shaking. He didn’t know why. When he got home, Emma was on the couch, her rabbit clutched tight. You okay? He asked, sitting beside her. I had a bad dream. What about? You left like Mom did. Daniel’s chest cracked open.

He pulled her close, held her tight. I’m not going anywhere. Promise? Promise. She relaxed against him and Daniel stared at the ceiling thinking about promises, about how many he’d broken, about how many he was trying to keep, about Victoria alone in that big house holding on to fragments of a past that didn’t exist anymore, about himself doing the same thing in different ways.

The next morning, Victoria didn’t knock. Daniel waited until 6:15, then 6:30. At 6:45, he walked over to her house, knocked on the door. No answer. Her car was there. The lights were off. He knocked again, louder. The door opened. Victoria stood there in pajamas, her face pale, her eyes red. “What happened?” Daniel asked.

“The hospital called 2 hours ago. Your father he’s worse. They said I should come, that it might be” She trailed off, unable to finish. Daniel didn’t think, just stepped forward, pulled her into a hug. Victoria went stiff for a second, then collapsed against him, her breath hitching in a way that broke something inside him.

“I don’t want to go.” She whispered. “I know.” “I don’t want to watch him die.” “I know.” She pulled back, wiping her eyes, trying to reassemble herself. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t” “Don’t apologize.” “I have to go. I have to” “Let me drive you.” “What?” “Let me drive you. You shouldn’t do this alone.” “Daniel, you have Emma.

” “I’ll figure it out. Let me help.” Victoria stared at him, and something shifted in her expression, like she was seeing him for the first time, or seeing him clearly for the first time in years. “Okay.” She said quietly. “Okay.” He called the neighbor, Mrs. Patterson, a widow who’d offered to help when he first moved back.

She agreed to watch Emma, asked no questions. Emma was still asleep when he left, and Daniel scribbled a note promising pancakes when he got back. The hospital was 40 minutes away. Victoria sat in the passenger seat, staring out the window, saying nothing. Daniel didn’t try to fill the silence, just drove. When they arrived, the building loomed, sterile and cold, the kind of place that smelled like disinfectant and defeat.

Victoria moved mechanically, signing in, following the nurse down hallways that all looked the same. Daniel stayed close. The room was small. Machines beeped. Her father lay in the bed, smaller than Daniel remembered, eaten away by time and disease. Victoria stood in the doorway, frozen. “You don’t have to go in.

” Daniel said quietly. “Yes, I do.” She walked in slowly, sat in the chair beside the bed, took her father’s hand. Daniel stayed by the door, giving her space. The old man’s eyes opened, cloudy, confused. “Dad?” Victoria said softly. “It’s me, Victoria.” He stared at her, and Daniel saw the moment recognition failed. Saw Victoria’s face crumble and rebuild in the span of a heartbeat.

Then the old man’s eyes shifted, landed on Daniel, and something changed. “Danny?” he croaked. Victoria went still. Daniel stepped forward, uncertain. “Danny Hayes, that you?” Daniel’s throat tightened. “Yeah, it’s me, Mr. Hale.” The old man smiled, faint and broken. “Good. Good boy. You take care of her, you hear me? Sir.

Don’t let her be alone. Promise me.” The word promise hit Daniel like a fist. Victoria was crying now, silent tears streaming down her face. Her father didn’t notice, didn’t see her, just saw Daniel. “Promise me.” The old man repeated, his voice fading. Daniel looked at Victoria, at the woman who’d kept a plastic ring, who’d stayed when he ran, who’d sacrificed everything while he’d wasted his chance.

“I promise.” he said. The old man exhaled, content. His eyes closed. The machines kept beeping, and in that sterile room, surrounded by the smell of death and disinfectant, Daniel felt the weight of another promise settle onto shoulders that were already breaking. Victoria didn’t speak on the drive back, just stared out the window at the landscape blurring past, her face blank in a way that was worse than crying.

Daniel kept his hands on the wheel, his eyes on the road, and tried not to think about the promise he’d just made to a dying man who didn’t recognize his own daughter. The silence stretched until it felt like a physical thing between them, heavy and immovable. Daniel wanted to say something, anything, but every word he tried out in his head sounded wrong, hollow, like the kind of thing people say because they don’t know what else to do.

So, he said nothing. When they pulled into Willow Creek, the morning had turned gray, clouds moving in from the west. Victoria’s house looked different in the flat light, less like a mansion and more like a monument to something that didn’t matter anymore. Daniel parked in her driveway, killed the engine.

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