“No! Don’t touch me!” Lux all but screamed at her dad, and I was shocked stupid at the malice behind her words. Murphy must have felt the same because he stood frozen with his arms still outstretched.
“Lux,” I scolded her. “What has gotten into you? You don’t speak to your dad that way. Ever.”
She pulled away from me, and I couldn’t help but wince at the hatred I saw reflected in her gaze and I immediately knew...
She knows.
“Lux…what happened?”
“He cheated on you! Dad cheated on you. How…how could you forgive him? How could you? You always told me to bestrong;you raised me to demand respect, and you’re with acheater.” She shot her dad the nastiest look I’ve ever seen, marring her beautiful features, and I couldn’t help but gasp as Murphy stumbled back as if she had physically hit him.
“You cheated on Mom.” Her words were a direct hit, leaving no room for debate—not that there would be one.
“You both lied to me,” she whispered, more to herself.
“That is not true, Lux. Despite what you think, you are the child, and you arenotentitled to know everything about your father and me.”
She shook her head, and I knew nothing we would say right now would make any difference to her. She needed to wrap her mind around it first.
“I can’t be here... I’m going to Aunt Wynn’s.”
I could only nod in understanding because Wynn was who I needed at the time as well.
“Lux…”
“I can’t.” She turned on her heel, grabbed the keys to the car she and Murphy had spent last summer fixing up together, and stormed out the door. Murphy was still standing like he was frozen in time.
“She hates me,” he mumbled again, bringing me back to him in the present.
“She doesn’t hate you, Murph… She’s sixteen, and she just realized her parents are human and imperfect. That’s going to take a minute to come to terms with.”
“I deserve it... I deserve it all.” His hands wrapped around my waist as he clung to me, and as much sorrow as I felt for my daughter in finding out her father wasn’t perfect, I knew she wouldforgivehim, because I had. Murphy had spent her entire life making up for a mistake Lux had no idea about and being the best father and husband that he could possibly be. If Lux wanted it, he made it happen, no questions asked. He wouldnotbe allowed to lose sight of that.
“Murphy, look at me.”
He nuzzled his head further into me instead. “Murph. Please.”
He managed to sit upright, but his shoulders were slumped and his head was in his hands. He looked like the picture of a man who had the weight of the world on his shoulders, and I found myself sliding to the floor between his legs, forcing him to look at me instead.
“Murphy, youarethe absolute love of my life. You have proved yourself over and over again. You haven’t missed one bedtime routine; you haven’t missed asingleafter-school activity. You bought a shotgun and learned how to use it, just so you could clean it to scare her dates. You have dedicated your entire life to this family. We never intended to keep the truth from her, but it’s just never come up why we were separated. This will be hard, but we will get through it like we always have. As a family.”
“As a family,” he said as he nestled his head in the palm of my hand.
“As a family.”
Always.
Chapter 10
October 2029
Murphy
The last year has been tough—realtough.The kind of tough that makes you question everything you’ve ever done in your life to get to that point. It was my cross to bear, and I would bear it happily and for the rest of my days if it meant thateventually,I could be the dad and man my daughter had once seen me as. As long as I got to come home to my wife and family, I would bearwhateverI needed to.
And though it was slow, we were getting there; we were making progress.
It had taken over six months for her to speak to me again, and even then, it was more like a grunt of acknowledgement here and there. Let me be clear, six months for ateenagernot to utter a single word in your direction was probably some kind of world record. I saw my baby girl shut down right in front of me—it was the hardest thing I’ve ever been through, and I’d lost the love of my life once. Something about your child oozing disdain for you from their very essence was debilitating. Odette rotated from wanting to shake Lux out of her bitterness and grudge to understanding because she had once felt all those same emotions. She had admitted in our therapy session that it was hard for her not to place blame on me again. It felt like shewas going through the betrayal again but through the eyes of her daughter, and she feltweak.She felt like she had betrayed some sisterhood and it was hard for her, and some days she struggled with her forgiveness.
