The days after Daddy’s decision felt both blissful and terrifying.

He had truly ended things with Sophia. I saw the final message on his phone when he left it unlocked a polite but firm goodbye. No more dinners. No more “respectable” future. Just me.

But the relief I expected never fully came.

Instead, a new kind of guilt settled in my chest like a stone.

One afternoon, while Daddy was in a long business call, I sat on the couch scrolling through social media. An old friend from school had posted photos from a family gathering. In the background, I saw my mother’s sister — my aunt smiling with her...