Her father's face completely changed.The worry, the tension, the tight jaw he had been carrying since the moment this whole thing started all of it just lifted, replaced by something that looked almost like triumph. His chest rose, his shoulders came back, and he let out a breath that sounded like a man who had just been told he won something.“Thank goodness,” he said, and he said it twice, like once wasn't enough to carry the full weight of his relief. “Thank goodness I called him. Thank goodness I had the sense to bring Jonathan into this.” He looked at Rose with the expression of a man who had just been proven right and wanted to make sure the person standing in front of him understood that fully. “Just imagine. Just imagine what would have happened to your mother — to my wife if I had sat here and listened to you. If I had just folded my hands and trusted that good for nothing man to handle it.”Rose said nothing. She just watched him.“He's a liar, Rose.” Her father's voice s

Rose took a slow, deep breath and said, “All right then.”That was it. Just that.And the moment those words left her mouth, her father's entire face changed. The tension, the frustration, the tightness he had been carrying in his jaw for the last hour it all just dissolved. His cheeks lifted and a wide smile broke across his face like a man who had just been told the court ruling came back in his favor.“Thank goodness,« he breathed out, pressing his hand to his chest. “Thank goodness you have finally seen it. Finally.” He shook his head like he was still processing it, the smile not going anywhere. “I knew it. I kept telling myself, once she sees the truth, once the real picture is in front of her, she will see it for what it is. And look — look at this. I knew it.” He laughed a little, short and relieved. “That good for nothing fraud has been lying to you from the very beginning and now it's all out in the open and you can finally breathe, Rose. We can all finally breathe.”He s

Immediately her father blinked.He stared at her for a moment, like the words needed a second trip through his ears before they could make any real sense to him. Then he repeated it back slowly, almost carefully, the way someone does when they are hoping they misheard.“Are you telling me," he said, "that he has already started taking up a father's responsibility? That is what you are saying to me right now?"Rose nodded without hesitation. “Yes. That is exactly what I am telling you. He has already taken it on.”Something shifted on her father's face and it wasn't the shift of a man who was rethinking his position. It was something closer to disbelief crossing over into a kind of exhausted, humourless amusement. He let out a short laugh, shaking his head slowly, and when he looked at her again there was something in his eyes that resembled pity more than anything else.“I never knew you could be like this, Rose,” he said, and his voice had lost its fire now, replaced by something fl

Her father wasn't done. The hand he had pulled back hadn't taken the anger with it — if anything, holding himself back had compressed it into something tighter, something that came out now in a low, shaking voice that was somehow more unsettling than the shouting had been. "Don't you forget what I just said," he said, pointing at her, his finger unsteady. "I am not joking with you. Not even slightly. There is nothing — nothing — you can do, nothing you can say, that is going to make me forgive you for this. Not after what you have chosen." His voice cracked on the edges but held its shape. "You chose to turn your back on your family. You chose to throw everything we have given you, everything we have built, everything we have tried to protect you from, right back in our faces — and for what? For him. For that good for nothing bastard. That fool. That liar." He shook his head slowly, and there was something in his eyes now that looked less like fury and more like a wound. "You got you

Rose was still processing the nurse's words when something stopped her mid-thought.“I'm sorry,” she said, turning back to face the nurse fully. “You knew who I was without me even telling you my name?”The nurse nodded, completely unbothered by the surprise on Rose's face, like this was simply a fact she was relaying rather than something unusual. “Someone brought your mother in,” she explained, her tone matter of fact and efficient. “And before he went in with your mother, he described you. Told us you would be coming, gave us a description — what you look like, roughly when to expect you." She glanced at Rose with a small, professional smile. “The description was very accurate. So when I saw you walk in, I already knew.”Rose opened her mouth, then closed it again.She already knew who had done that. She didn't need to ask.Her father, however, was barely listening anymore. Whatever patience he had managed to hold onto during the drive had