Chapter 14
He wiped it away furiously with the back of his hand.
“Mom.”
“Yes, Leo?”
“Dad didn’t call me on my birthday last week.”
My heart twisted with a sharp physical pain.
David had not called. I had bought Leo a telescope and taken him to the planetarium, but I knew he had waited all day for his phone to ring.
“I know,” I said softly.
“He said he was going to take me to the amusement park, but he didn’t.”
His voice broke. He dropped the piping bag and buried his face in his hands, crying with the deep, shaking grief of a child realizing that his hero was a fraud.
“Why didn’t he call?”
I stopped what I was doing, wiped my hands on my apron, and pulled him into a hug.
This time, he did not pull away.
He buried his face in my chest and gripped my apron like a lifeline.
“Because your father is a broken man, Leo,” I whispered into his hair. “He only knows how to love things when they are easy. But we are not going to be like him. We are going to be strong.”
Two years later, Allera’s Canvas was no longer just a shop. It was an institution.
We had expanded into the building next door and opened a boutique café. I had published a cookbook that sat on the bestseller list for six weeks.
I was wealthy. Independent. At peace.
Leo was eight.
He was thriving at a local arts-focused elementary school. The sneering, cruel little boy was gone, replaced by a quiet, observant child who loved to sketch and spent his weekends helping Sadi at the front register.
He called her Auntie Sadi, and she adored him.
I rarely thought about my past life.
But the past has a funny way of demanding one final curtain call.
I was invited back to my hometown to judge a high-profile regional baking championship. It was a paid job, heavily televised locally, and Sadi insisted we go as a victory lap.
The event was held in a massive convention center.
I sat at the judges’ table in a sleek, tailored white dress, my hair elegantly pinned back. I tasted tarts and delivered critiques with effortless authority.
During a break, I stepped into the lobby for air.
“Allera.”
I turned.
Standing beside a pillar was my father.
Next to him was Rosalie.
I stopped.
The last time I had seen them, they possessed a terrifying power over my mind.
Now they just looked small.