032

COLEEN

I sat on my bed, the phone resting in my palm like it weighed ten pounds, and stared at the screen like it might make the decision for me.

I didn’t want to do this. Scratch that, if I didn’t think it was the right thing to do, I wouldn’t be doing this right now but alas, my moral compass had to be pointing in the freaking right direction and I partly had Hayden to thank for that.

Hayden sat cross-legged on the floor, his back against my dresser, exactly where I’d found him the night before. He didn’t say anything, he didn’t rush me or prod but I could feel his presence grounding me.

A silent support beam holding me up from the inside out.

I stared at my dad’s contact photo, thumb hovering over the call button. I’d seen this man cry once in my life, once. And that was the night she left.

The woman who gave birth to me had hurt my dad badly enough for him to shed tears. Although he tried his best to hide it from me, he wasn’t that successful at it though.

I was ten. He didn’t thi