That was the question.
Dora looked up at that. “Right now?!”
“Yeah,” Lyra said. “We’ve waited long enough, haven’t we?”
I nodded.
“Okay. He left his number at the bottom of the letter.”
Lyra reached for the letter and called with shaky hands. “Dad, can you come over?” Then she nodded and said, “Okay, goodbye.”
“He said he’s at the local store and will be here in about 15 minutes,” she informed us.
“We’ve waited long enough.”
***
While we waited for Edwin, no one said anything. I guess we just didn’t know what to say.
Before 15 minutes had even passed, we heard a knock.
I looked at my girls, who’d moved to the living room, one more time before I opened the door and found their father standing right there.
When he entered, no one spoke for a second.
Then Lyra broke it.
“You really stayed away this whole time?”
Edwin looked down, ashamed.
We heard a knock.
Dora took a step forward.
“Did you think we wouldn’t notice? That your absence wouldn’t matter?”
Edwin’s expression shifted just slightly.
“I thought… you’d be better off. I also didn’t want to tarnish your mother’s memory.”
“You don’t get to decide that,” she said.
“I know that now, and I am so sorry.”
For the first time, I saw tears building up in his eyes.
“Did you think we wouldn’t notice?”
Lyra held up one of the legal documents. “This is all real? You did it?”
“Yes. I worked as hard and as long as I could to fix it.”
But Jenny shook her head.
“You missed everything.”
“I know.”
“I graduated. I moved out. I returned. You weren’t there for any of it.”
Silence.
Jenny looked as if she wanted to say more, but instead, she just looked away, the pain of all those years enveloping her.
“You missed everything.”
Dora stepped closer, close enough now that there was no distance left between them.
“Are you staying this time?”
For a second, I thought Edwin might hesitate or say “no.”
But he didn’t.
“If you’ll let me.”
We didn’t hug. No one ran forward. There wasn’t a moment like that.
Instead, Dora said, “We should start preparing dinner.”
Like that was just… the next step.
So we did.
“Are you staying this time?”
***
Dinner that night felt different. Not tense, just unfamiliar.
Edwin sat at the end of the table as if he didn’t want to take up space.
Dora asked him a question about something small, work, I think.
He answered.
Lyra followed with another, but Jenny stayed quiet for a while.
Then, halfway through the meal, she asked something too.
Their interaction was not easy or warm.
But not distant either.
Dora asked him a question.
I watched all of it without saying much.
Just letting it happen, because this wasn’t something I could control.
It never was.
***
Later that night, after the dishes were done and the house had settled, I stepped outside.
Edwin was on the porch again.
I leaned against the railing. “You’re not off the hook,” I said.
“Yeah.”
“They’re going to have questions.”
“I’m ready.”
“You’re not off the hook.”
***
That night felt quieter and lighter in a way I hadn’t expected.
Not because everything was fixed, but because it was finally out in the open.
There was no more wondering.
Just… what came next.
And for the first time in a long time, we were all in the same place to figure that out.
Together.
