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 children. The caption read: “Family is everything Missing my sister every day.” My throat tightened. Mom had been gone for over a year now, but the guilt hit me harder than ever. What woul

