Picture Perfect ✔️ [Slowly Editing]

22:"No more secrets."

I promised MissAnnabellaKay that I'd post now, so if there's any typos, I apologize:))))

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It's three in the morning, and beside me, my phone rings. Rolling over, I don't bother to check the caller ID before answering.

"Hello?" I mumbled, my voice three octaves lower than it usually is.

"Gracelynn," Dad says cheerily, "I got your voicemail."

My head spins.

Voicemail? What voicemail?

Then it clicks.

"Oh." Is all I can say.

I push my blankets away from me slowly, sitting up on my pillows. I wait for Dad to speak.

Silence disperses between the two of us. I find the hem of my shirt, my heart beating so loudly I wondered if Dad could hear it.

"Sweetie, I agreed with everything you said. You are growing up so fast, might I add. I am so sorry for all of the times I wasn't there for you. You deserved talks and conversations and memories - good memories - and I didn't provide that. You deserve all the love in the world, honey, please know that." By the time he had finished, I was silently crying.

All of the pain and heartache and hatred he had brought me, I pushed it back and locked it away... But somehow it got unlocked and it all came flooding back. Never in a million years would I have expected Dad to apologize so sincerely. I had never expected him to say the words that I wanted him to say.

I used to fantasize about how he would apologize and beg for me back, but then I realized that I never needed that. Of course, I wanted it, but deep down I knew I didn't want him to beg for me back because that would have led to me feeling guilty, then being brought back into his many messes.

"Gracelynn? You there?" Dad asked tenderly. Worry and apprehension were in his voice.

"Yeah," I croaked, wiping away a tear. "I'm here."

"It kills me that I made you feel this way. For years I'll admit, I had stopped feeling that pull from you. That pull that parents get from their child when they're needed, wanted. But you were growing independently." Dad spoke.

"I felt that if I asked for your help again, that you'd abandon me like you have before. I... I was scared, Dad. And now, now you're getting married. Are you going to treat her the way you did me?" I asked incredulously. My tears were gone now, replaced with anger.

I didn't want him to treat anyone else wrongly. God, it was bad enough he did it to me.

"Honey, I know it must be hard to believe, but I have changed. I found a woman to love, and she's made me realize how much of your life I have missed. I don't think I could ever apologize enough, Gracelynn. I really am sorry, and I want to make it up to you." Dad sighed loudly, and I could imagine him running his hands through his hair.

I stopped.

Make it up to me?

"W-What do you mean?" I questioned, my mind racing.

"I want you to come visit next week. You can catch up with Collette and Nick, meet my fiance, we can talk more. You can bring your boyfriend-"

"Dad, I have school. I'm behind by a year here, I can't miss school." I argued, completely disregarding the last thing he had said. I didn't want to explain to him that even when I had lived with him, I had never been with someone. He probably wouldn't have cared anyways.