Chapter 12 - Emma Finally Calls Her Father
At 2:17 in the morning, Cameron’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered immediately.
“Hello?”
Silence.
Then:
“Dad?”
Cameron stopped breathing.
The voice was older.
But something in it belonged to the four-year-old who once called him
from beneath dining tables.
“Emma?”
She began crying.
So did he.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
“For what?”
“For not coming sooner.”
“No. No, sweetheart.”
He sat on the floor beside his bed.
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
Emma was safe.
She had been staying with a teacher’s family after becoming frightened
by Jonathan’s response.
She did not want Cameron’s security team surrounding her.
She did not want reporters.
She did not want to be dragged into a billionaire family war.
Cameron promised none of that would happen without her agreement.
Then Emma asked:
“Do you still have my picture on the fireplace?”
Cameron looked toward the mantel.
“Every day.”
Emma whispered:
“Okay.”
May you like
It was not forgiveness.
It was a beginning.
