EPILOGUE: SIX MONTHS LATER
I pack the last of my boxes and tape it tightly shut, then stand and look around the apartment. It feels strange to see it empty and cleaned except for the last few boxes and the mattress in the bedroom. I’ve only lived here a year, but it already seems like a lifetime.
I think about my old home. That—and the little brat who used to give her stepfather no end of grief—seem a thousand lifetimes away.
Daddy walks up to me and slides his arms around me. I smile and lean against him, and we stand in the living room for a while enjoying each other’s company. The new house is a few miles away—actually just up the street from our old house—so I won’t have to leave anything behind. I can still finish my last year at the community college and since my bachelor’s program is entirely online, I won’t need to move away when I transfer to University next year.
“It’s crazy how fast things change,” he says. “Just look at how far we’ve come.”
“I think about that every day,” I say.
I turn to him and say, “Thank you, Daddy. For everything. I have no idea where I’d be without you.”
He smiles and tenderly strokes my cheek. “Yes, you would. You would have found your way eventually. I just helped you find an easier way.”
I lean onto my tiptoes and kiss him. “Well, I’m glad I went your way and not mine. I like this way a lot better.”
“That’s wonderful, sweetheart,” he says.
I wrinkle my nose. “I think I like little girl better.”
“Well, you’re not a little girl anymore,” he says with a chuckle. “How about a princess?”
“I can live with that,” I say.
We share a kiss, then load the last of our belongings into the moving van and head to our new home to enjoy the rest of our lives together.