?Chapter 825:


    Milton watched the silent standoff—Elliana’s tense face, Arthur’s strained breathing crackling through the speaker. The invisible thread between them taut and trembling.<fn21fb> Find the newest release on find(?)ovel</fn21fb>


    And then, Milton let out a quietugh as he slowly pulled his phone toward his lips and said, “Dad, she’s just as nervous as you are.”


    There was a sharp breath on the other end. “She is? Oh no! Was I too forward? Did I overwhelm her? I didn’t mean to. I just… I didn’t want to scare her off.”


    Elliana pressed her teeth into her bottom lip, frustration prickling beneath her skin. One word. Dad. Just say it. Why couldn’t she?


    “You didn’t do anything wrong, Dad,” Milton said gently, his tone steady as stone in a storm. His eyes locked onto Elliana’s, warm and grounding. “You’re afraid you won’t be the perfect father she needs, and she’s just as scared she’ll fall short of the daughter you’ve spent your life hoping to find.”


    Milton paused, his gaze staying on Elliana, patient and tender. “Am I right?”


    A rosy blush bloomed across Elliana’s cheeks. When Milton finished speaking, all she could say was a soft, “Yeah.”


    It hit her—Milton could read her like a book. Somehow, he’d just voiced her exact thoughts. It left her feeling bare, as if her secrets were suddenlyid out in the open.


    Milton grinned and said into his phone, “Dad, did you hear that? That was her. She agrees with me.”


    “She has such a lovely voice!” Arthur’s voice rang from the speaker, warm and full of feeling. “Just like your mother’s… So soft and pleasant. Oh, that reminds me—did you ask her where your mother is?”


    The mood in the car shifted at once. A quiet heaviness settled. Milton and Elliana shared a nce. It said everything. Now wasn’t the time to break Arthur’s heart with the news of Rita’s disappearance.


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    Milton said gently, “Dad, we’ll exin everything when we get home.”


    Arthur didn’t hesitate. “Alright. I’ll be waiting. And I’ve been thinking that we don’t need any pretense. We’ll meet just as we are. No matter what, she’s my daughter—and I’ll love her with all my heart.”


    A real smile lit up Elliana’s face. The feeling was mutual. It didn’t matter what her father was like. Since he loved her like this, she would love him just as fiercely in return.


    Milton ended the call and set his phone aside. He leaned over, clicked her seatbelt into ce, and then gently ruffled her hair. “I’ll take you home.” The words echoed in her chest, spreading warmth through every corner of her heart. After years of drifting alone, she was finally going home. Her brother was taking her there.


    “Alright,” she hummed, nodding vigorously. Her smile was wide and sweet, glowing with pure joy.


    She thought back to her childhood. All the other kids answered to their father’s surnames. She alone had her mother’s. Paige had once told her it was because she was a bad kid—that her father didn’t even want her to carry his name. She knew, deep down, there was nothing wrong with having her mother’s name. “Jones” wasn’t anything special anyway. But Paige’s words had sunk in, sharp and cruel. That wound had never fully healed.


    That belief—that her father despised her—had be a cornerstone of her childhood, a shadow that clung to her for years. Whenever someone mentioned dads, it hit like a punch to the gut. It always left her silent.


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