𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 • Neil Perry

Chapter 16

WHEN Milly stepped foot in her bedroom, the last thing she expected to see was her 'father' sat on the edge of her bed. Yet there she was staring at him in the same suit from breakfast, his blazer absent, his tie hanging looser around his neck.

The same purpose she strode in with, she resumed, wrestling off her coat as she ambled right past him towards her desk.

"Father, what are you doing in here?" she asks sullenly.

"Waiting for you," he tells her. "It shouldn't have taken your mother's integrity to enlighten me that I owe you an apology."

Milly hung her coat around her desk chair, turning to lean her backside against the edge of her desk. "An apology for what?"

He could see she was hardly impressed, but he kept pushing. "The denial of Neil's passion. I intend in no way to overwrite his father's wishes. That's their business which is, no doubt, no concern of mine. But I see now that you care deeply and share his passion with him."

Milly's eyes softened.

No less than she expected to see her father in her room, did she expect to hear these words leave his lips.

Then he stood to his feet. "So, if in any way I upset you, I want to let it be known that I am sorry in a deep way of my own."

Milly practically ran across the room and straight into his arms. She felt his hesitance in hugging her back, but he eased into the embrace in his own time, his head pressing against the top of her own buried in his shoulder.

She didn't really know the guy, but she knew he deserved it for being the father Neil didn't have to his Mildred.

"Thank you," she says, her words muffled against his shirt.

He pressed a long kiss against the bid of her head.

And when they finally pulled away, the awkward father-daughter tension returned. "I'll see you at dinner."

After dinner, Milly told her parents she had to see Chris due to some troubles she was having with Chet. Of course it was all a ruse to get to Neil, but they didn't have to know that. That would be a secret between Neil, herself and God—warranted he did exist.

She stopped at a local convenience store to pick up dog treats with a small portion of her weekly allowance, and headed to Welton Academy.

She recalled from the film how the Dead Poets Society used the treats to distract the guard dog just outside the stairwell when they went off to the cave in the middle of the night. It'd be a rookie move to turn up unprepared.

Besides, if Neil could sneak into her house twice, what was stopping her from taking the risk just once?

She kept a scarf tied over her head, her hooded coat buttoned all the way up, and got out of her Chevy that she kept parked in its usual spot a corner away from the main gate.

And by the time she got to the actual entrance, the dog treats didn't matter at all because she knew she wouldn't need to go that far.

Neil was already leaving, his coat on and his scarf draped around his neck.

"Milly, what are you doing here?" he asks, genuinely taken aback.

Her mouth opened to say something, but she slapped them shut like a fish. Then she tried again fearfully, "I got a feeling you might need me."

A crease dented between Neil's eyebrows, and for a split second, she worried she had got it all wrong.

Then he raised his balled fist, showing her the white glove tucked in the palm of his hand.