Hooked (Never After, #1)

by Emily McIntire

Once upon a time, I thought my father hung the moon. I followed him everywhere and did everything with him. So much so, he dubbed me his “little shadow.” But as I grew older, things changed. Slowly, I was pushed to the back of the bus until I wasn’t even in the same vehicle. Left behind like unnecessary luggage. Sometimes I wonder if Jon has it easier, not ever having known what it was like. Our father has never given him the attention he’s given me. Still, I would do almost anything to have my father’s love the way I once had it, and I would do even more to guarantee that Jon could taste it for the first time.

I don’t think my father is a bad man. I just think his thirst for adventure overpowered his need for a family until he forgot he had one at all.

“Dad, you cannot let me be the one to handle this. He needs to hear it from you. He needs you to explain the reasons why.” My stomach cramps with the realization that I can speak until my throat is sore, but it doesn’t change the fact that somewhere along the way, my father stopped listening to what I had to say. And with every day that he’s gone—another business trip, or another sight to see that doesn’t include us—he slips further from our grasp. Away to somewhere nobody can reach, even if we wanted to.

Maybe people never change, and it’s only our perceptions that alter the view.

“When are you going to stop by for more than a single night?” I hiss. “When are you going to realize that your children are here?” My hand slaps my chest. “We’re right here, Dad. And you’re”—I wave my arm around the room—“everywhere else.

“Don’t. Please, just…don’t. I am so sick of placating words and empty promises. I am so tired of feeling like I’m failing Jon when it’s really you who is. That’s not fair to me, and you know it.” A knot lodges in my throat. “And I know you’re busy, I get that. But damnit, just be here, Dad. Like you used to.”

don’t know what you want me to say, Wendy.” “Just say you’ll be here.” The words stick in my throat, the hole in my chest throbbing. “Say you’ll start to make us a priority.”

“You’re the most important thing in the world to me,”

“Doesn’t feel like it,”

I’m able to focus in, and my chest warms as I listen to James give attention to my brother the way I always wished our father would. And at some point, I know I’ll need to give

up my naive view of him. I’ll have to stop remembering him as the dad who lifted me on his shoulders and told me I could help him run the world and start seeing him as the stranger who likes to keep me small and useless.

It’s just hard to let go of someone, to let them drift away until they only exist in your memories. Once I do, I’ll have to admit that...

Family has always been the most important thing in my world, and now it feels as though I’m in the middle of a riptide, watching as everything gets washed away, and I’m left struggling against the current.

“Just remember that whenever things feel bleak, all situations are temporary. It’s not your circumstance that determines your worth, it’s how you rise from the ashes after everything burns.”