The Favor

ANNA

Sunday morning came too soon.

I came downstairs to find Gavin and his father sipping coffee in the living room, each avoiding eye contact with the other. Not wanting to interrupt, I quickly ducked around the corner.

“I know I wasn’t always as supportive as you thought I should be.”

Gavin shook his head. “Dad, you taught me a lot about being a good man. I owe so much of my success to watching how hard you fought to build this ranch. I just wish you would enjoy everything you have.”

Richard leaned back. “It’s easier said than done. Some days, it still feels like I could lose it all in an instant.”

“I would never let that happen.”

They shared a long look.

“Tell you what,” his father said, “I’ll promise to let Derrick start handling more on his own—for real this time—if you can promise to bring that new wife of yours around more often. Your mom has grown pretty fond of her…and she misses you too.”

“Honestly, Dad, I can’t think of anything that would make Annalise happier.”

Ella and Penelope bid us a tearful goodbye at the airstrip. Despite my assurances to the girls that we would see them in less than two weeks, I blinked back tears as we climbed the stairs to Gavin’s jet.

The next day, I was sipping my morning coffee while Gavin was upstairs getting ready for work when the annoying buzz on my phone started up again.

I rolled my eyes and reached over to silence it, assuming it must be another reporter hoping for the inside scoop on my relationship.

However, it wasn’t the normal blocked number that flashed on the screen.

~Dad.~

My first instinct was to reject it. He and his wife had publicly humiliated me. I knew there wasn’t a place for him in my life. But there was a small—I supposed very broken—part of me that was curious.

I stared at the screen, weighing my options before slowly sliding my thumb to answer.

“Hello?”

“Anna Bear!” His deep baritone rumbled. “How are you, sweetheart?”

Blood pounded in my ears. It had been half a decade since I’d heard my dad’s voice. Now he was on the other end of the line, and I couldn’t think of anything to say.

“Annalise?”

“I’m here,” I said, taking a shaky, deep breath.

“Well, how are things?”

He sounded so relaxed, as if his calling was a normal occurrence.

“Things are good,” I answered guardedly.

“Good! That’s great, Annalise,” he boomed. “You know, it’s been too long since I’ve heard from you. There’s a lot we need to catch up on…”

I walked until I stood before the floor-to-ceiling window that overlooked the skyline as my father droned on about my stepsiblings and half-sister. There was no mention of the fact that I was never informed of my sister’s existence, let alone that she loved ballet and karate.

The entire time, I felt the shackles of an all-too-familiar pain tighten.

He sounded so proud of the children still living in the home my mother and I had once shared with him. I had imagined—or maybe hoped—he was devastated when I’d left without a goodbye. I thought maybe he was angry with me and that’s why he had chosen not to reach out.

Hearing him talk about his new family, I understood that he hadn’t tried to contact me because he was satisfied with his life without me in it. He had two stepsons who were talented high school athletes and a daughter who thought she was a princess. There wasn’t room for me anymore.

“Why are you calling?” I finally asked, interrupting his story about taking “the boys” fishing the week prior.

“Can’t your old dad just call to check on his firstborn?” he laughed, but there was a new wariness in his tone.

At one time in my life, I had thought about what I might say if he ever called. I’d pictured myself crying or yelling; most importantly, telling him how happy and successful I was despite how insignificant he’d made me feel.

Now I realized it wasn’t worth it. He didn’t care.

“You haven’t talked to me since the day before I packed up my suitcase and left for New York,” I told him. “I guess I’m just wondering…why now?”

He took a deep breath. “I saw you’re getting married.”

It was the same gut punch all over again. He didn’t just hear through the grapevine that I was getting married. He let his wife slander me in a globally circulated article.

“I saw what she said about me.” I forced myself to keep my voice even, despite gritted teeth.

“You should know that some quotes were taken out of context,” he said quickly. “Neither of us thinks—”

“Which quotes?”

“Umm…”

“What exactly was taken out of context, Dad?” I demanded, finally feeling my anger and resentment surfacing. “The part where I’m an ungrateful slut?”

“Anna—”

“You have let her treat me like an unwanted pet for almost a fucking decade.” I was seething.

“What was I supposed to do?” he asked. “She’s my wife, and you refused to try and get along.”

“Mom died, and you brought home a woman fifteen years younger than you,” I nearly shouted. “I’m your ~daughter~.”

“Allison and I tried,” he said quietly. “I know it’s hard to see it now, but we really wanted what was best for you.”

“Do ~not~ gaslight me. I was there, Dad. She wanted me gone from day-fucking-one, and she was ready to do whatever it took to make sure it happened.”

I angrily wiped the tears dripping down my face and waited for my father’s response. He was silent for a long moment. Just as I debated hanging up, he spoke in a voice that sounded weary.

“I’ve made a lot of mistakes. I’m sorry I wasn’t the father you needed me to be.”

I choked on a laugh. “You know what? It’s been a long time since I needed your apology. I don’t care anymore. You’re still letting that woman bad-mouth me, and for what? I’m a good fucking person. I’ve built a life for myself.”

“I know that, Annalise.”

“No, you don’t! You don’t know anything about me. Frankly, I don’t see a reason to change that.”

“I’ll always love you,” he murmured in a voice thick with emotion.

I closed my eyes, fighting the tightness in my chest.

“There was a time I would have given anything to hear that,” I told him, and then sighed. “Look, you have your life, and I’m moving on with mine. Let’s not pretend Allison would be happy with you calling me, anyway.”

“She knows I’m calling,” he said. “She asked me to.”

Realization hit me like a kick to the chest.

“What does she want?”

“Jack is starting to look at his college prospects,” he explained.

~Jack~, the elder of my stepbrothers. The memories of the day my own college dreams were dashed burned in my mind.

“Allison was wondering if your fiancé might be able to pull a few strings—”

“Are you serious? You’re calling me for a ~favor~?”

“I know you don’t like them, but we are talking about a young man’s future.”

“What about my future, Dad? What about when I was supposed to go to college? Or learn to drive? Or fucking graduate high school? Nobody was doing me any favors then.”

There was a tense silence between us. Even when things were at their worst, I’d never fought back. I’d never in my life yelled at my father.

“Jack made some academic mistakes,” Dad continued. “He’s not going to get in anywhere without your help.”

I stayed quiet because I knew what I wanted to say could never be taken back.

“Annalise, you can hate me, but please don’t ruin this boy’s life because of it,” he said.

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“How dare you try and guilt-trip me! Jack spends all of his time smoking weed and playing video games. I know because he posts it all over social media.

“Maybe if his mom had been more concerned with raising him instead of landing a sugar daddy, he wouldn’t have made academic ‘mistakes.’”

I took a deep breath and swallowed. It was my father’s turn to sit in stunned silence.

“You know what, Dad? I always thought you were just so broken after Mom died that you didn’t see what was happening. Now I understand—you’re just a pathetic excuse for a man.

“A father is supposed to protect his children. You let her throw me to the wolves. And you’re still trying to squeeze out any ounce of love I have left for you. You can stop. I’m done.”

“Anna—”

“I don’t want to speak to you again.” I punched the screen to hang up and threw my phone across the room. It thudded against the wall before smashing into the tile floor, where the screen shattered to a million pieces.

~There goes another one.~

I looked up to see Gavin standing at the base of the stairs with his arms crossed, wearing a grim expression. When our eyes met, I felt my bottom lip quiver.

He opened his arms, and I ran across the room before slamming into his still-bare chest. Heavy sobs racked my body, and he squeezed tighter.

“He didn’t even apologize!” I cried. “Not once. Maybe he doesn’t think he did anything wrong.”

“Hmm,” Gavin murmured.

“Am I the crazy one?” I asked, looking up at him. “How does he have the audacity to ask me for anything? We haven’t spoken since I left. He never even tried to make sure I was okay.”

Gavin looked at me curiously, wiping my tears with his thumbs. “Of course not. You’re one of the most kind-hearted people I know, and you’re certainly not crazy. It’s pretty clear your dad has some deep-seated issues.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

Gavin was trying his best not to appear baffled, and I was all the more confused by it.

“Has he always treated people like this?” he asked gently. “What was he like when your mom was around?”

“Life was great,” I murmured, running my fingers over his chest absently. “We were a normal family.”

He nodded. “Sure. But what was your dad like?”

Truthfully, I didn’t remember much about my dad from when I was young. When I looked back, most of my memories were filled with my mother. I knew he had been present, and my mom always referred to me as a “daddy’s girl.”

But when I thought about it hard enough, I mostly pictured him working or being on the phone before she got sick.

“I’m not really sure,” I said finally. “I’ve always thought he was a good dad before we lost her, but he was busy a lot.”

Gavin seemed hesitant. “Did he take good care of her when…at the end?”

I felt my shoulders sag, and I closed my eyes. It was one of the things I tried to block out when I pictured the kind of man who had raised me.

I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat. “No, he didn’t. At the time, I thought it was just too painful for him. He would get angry with her over things she couldn’t control. She had freaking cancer. Her body was failing.

“Toward the end, I was the one who bathed her and helped her to the bathroom because she was so weak. He treated it like a giant inconvenience that she was dying. I was a teenager just trying to keep it together.”

I shook my head, trying to clear the most painful recollections. “He put on a beautiful show at the funeral. The speech he gave was incredibly moving; there were flowers everywhere; no expense was spared.

I thought, after all was said and done, the two of us would figure life out together. Instead, he started seeing Allison days after my mom was buried.

“Honestly, he was probably already seeing her, but that’s when he stopped hiding it. She moved in a few weeks later.”

Gavin pulled me in for another embrace, and I let myself sink into him. His familiar scent wrapped itself around me, and I breathed it in like a drug.

“I should have made you tell me about it before having you sign the contract,” he said after a moment.

“Why?” I asked, nuzzling into him further.

“Because you deserve more than what I’m offering you.”

I snapped back to look up at him. He offered a pained smile before gently kissing my forehead.

“If there is such a thing, you deserve true love, Annalise. You deserve someone who believes in fairytales and soulmates and happy endings.”

A hard determination glinted in his eyes, even as his expression remained soft. He leaned into my ear, his warm breath tickling my neck. “But now that I’ve had you, I’m too fucking selfish to ever let you go.”