ethereal (k.l.)

•THIRTY EIGHT•

•••

Davina's POV

The man standing in front of me was flustered, and he had been staring at me and the letter in my hand for a few moments. I was frozen as I waited for him to respond. "D-Davina?" His voice faltered slightly.

"Yeah..." I whispered. "I found your letter a few days ago, I didn't know if you'd still be here." He continued to be silent. This was too much, I didn't think this through at all. Seriously what in the hell was I thinking? "I, uh, I should go."

"No!" He exclaimed as I started taking a step back. I turned to face him again. "Um...stay. Please. There's so much I want to talk about and it doesn't seem like you have anywhere else to go." He said and pointed to my bag.

I stayed quiet for a moment before deciding to accept his offer. He led me into his house, keeping a safe distance. My eyes scanned the rooms as we walked. It was a standard house with a few personal items here and there. While I stepped into the living room, the dog, whom I'm assuming is Harley, ran up to me and jumped on my legs. I reached down and pet the German shepherd while Danny walked up to me.

"This is Harley, she loves new people." He smiled at his pet. Once I was acquainted with Harley, we sat down on the couch and I awkwardly tried to seem like I wasn't internally freaking out. Sitting in my dad's house and talking to him was so surreal. I've never heard my heartbeat so loud before.

"So..." I trailed off. "You've been here for the past eighteen years?"

He nodded, making his curls move. "I've lived here but I travel a lot." He said. "I'm hardly ever home." That explains why he didn't go farther away from Richmond. One answer down, a million to go.

"Have you spoken to my mom much?" I asked. I didn't really trust my mom, especially after finding the letter. She could've been talking to Danny this whole time for all I know.

"No, she used to call and send letters when you and Rachel were babies, but we eventually lost connection." He said while nervously playing with a ring on his finger. "She wanted me to send you guys birthday cards every year but I didn't think it was a good idea."

Hearing him speak about how he didn't want a relationship with us made me go from calm to angry in a second. But it wasn't a fiery anger, it was a cold one. One that panged in my chest and made me want to cry. How could he sit there and talk about leaving us without saying why?

"Davina," Danny faced me with guilt and shame swimming in his green eyes. I stared back. "What're you doing here?"

He wasn't saying it in a rude way, he was genuinely curious, so I didn't lash out and ended up briefly explaining myself. "Uh, I found your letter a few days ago and at first I wasn't planning on doing anything about it, but something happened and this was the only place I could think of going."

I wanted to scream 'why?' until my lungs burned. We were just sitting here, having a simple conversation, when we should be talking about how he left and never came back. I wanted to ask him why he came here, why were the birthday cards a bad idea, and I wanted to scream at Mom, too. Why did she keep the letter away from us, why did she lose contact?

Now that I was overthinking, I wanted to scream at Rachel and Grayson, too. Why did he hurt me, harass me, and make me feel like I was nothing for so long? Why, how, could she go behind my back and stab me like it was nothing?

I didn't realize hot tears were falling down my face until Danny spoke in a concerned tone. "Hey, are you okay?" He asked and scooted closer to me.