"I’m sure you hate me," he murmured. "I was never a good father to you—"


    "You were never a father at all," she cut in coldly. "If I’d been a stranger on the street, you would’ve sold me off or killed me without a second thought."


    Her wordsnded like a knife. Bruce flinched.


    "All I ever wanted... was to be loved," she said, her voice cracking despite her effort to hold it steady. "You treated me like a curse, like I was your greatest mistake. I begged for your affection. I tried to prove I was worth your love. But you—you made me feel like I didn’t belong, like I was nothing." She didn’t care if her words came out sharper than she’d intended it to be.


    She’d been holding back, neverining, but it was time he knew how he made her feel.


    Bruce’s lips trembled, a single tear slipping down his wrinkled cheek.


    "I’m sorry," he whispered. "I med you for her death... your mother. She died giving birth to you, and I was too broken to face it. So I turned that me on the only person who didn’t deserve it."


    Samantha looked away, the words hitting deeper than she expected. After everything, an apology shouldn’t have meant anything—but it did. And that made it worse.


    "Sorry doesn’t bring her back. Sorry doesn’t fix the years of pain you caused me," she said bitterly. "And it won’t fix what you made Xander be. You manipted him. You made him believe the wrong thing when you knew the truth."


    Bruce’s breath hitched.


    "Xander is in aa," she said, voice trembling now. "He’s fighting for his life. Do you know why? Because your best friend—Thomas—shot him in the chest. That’s why he’s in the hospital, and why none of us know if he’s going to wake up."


    Bruce’s eyes zed over. The guilt was immediate and crushing, but he didn’t have the strength to react. He simplyid there, breath growing shallower.


    Breathing felt like a workout while moving seemed almost impossible.


    "I know it’s toote," he whispered. "But I couldn’t go without telling you... I’m sorry, Samantha. I know I don’t deserve your forgiveness, but I needed you to hear it. I needed you to know... that I love you."


    Tears finally spilled from Samantha’s eyes. For years, she’d fantasized about hearing those words from the man who had given her life but taken everything else away. And now that he said them, it only made the pain sharper. She wanted to forgive him, but was she wrong for finding it hard to do so?


    "You might not have been a father to me..." she said softly, sitting beside him. "But you were to Xander. And believe me, if he were here, he’d kill you for what you did."


    She reached for his hand — rough, cold, calloused — and held it gently in her own.


    "It’s toote for hospitals," she murmured. "Even if I took you now... you wouldn’t make it."


    Bruce managed a weak smile. "You look just like her... your mother. I was too blind to see it. Too stupid to appreciate the blessing in front of me."


    His eyes drifted shut, his chest rising once more, then falling — and stilling. His hand grew heavier in hers.


    "I love you so much, my dear..." he whispered onest time.


    And then he was gone. His body rxed into the couch as his eyes closed shut. He looked like earlier when she’d walked in, eyes closed, sleeping. But this time, his chest wasn’t rising. There was no sign of life anymore.


    Samantha didn’t scream. She didn’t sob. She simply sat there, holding his lifeless hand, her tears falling in silence. She kept caressing his skin as though he could still feel it—as though he might open his eyes again and tell her she was wrong, that he wasn’t leaving her too.


    But he didn’t.


    This was the first time she was losing someone so close to her, but she didn’t want to feel it again.


    And in that moment, Samantha realized that she had finally been given the thing she’d always wanted—far toote to matter.