Chapter 6: Five Years Too Late

The train reached my hometown just before dawn.

I stepped onto the empty platform with Daisy's ashes held tightly against my chest.

No one recognized me.

The internet still cursed my name.

To them...

I was the father who abandoned his own daughter.

That was exactly what Evelyn wanted them to believe.

I hailed an old taxi.

The driver glanced at me through the rearview mirror.

"Back after a long time?"

I smiled faintly.

"Yes."

"Visiting family?"

I looked down at the wooden box in my hands.

"I'm taking my daughter home."

The old driver didn't ask another question.

When I reached my parents' house, the lights were already on.

My mother opened the door.

The moment she saw me...

She burst into tears.

"Ryan..."

She threw her arms around me.

"Thank God you're safe."

I hugged her back.

For the first time since Daisy died...

I allowed myself to cry.

Not loudly.

Not dramatically.

Just silently.

Like a child who had finally found his way home.

My father stood behind her.

His hair looked much whiter than when I had seen him last.

He placed one hand on my shoulder.

"You've suffered enough."

I nodded.

"I know."

That afternoon...

We buried Daisy beneath the old cherry tree behind our house.

She used to play there every summer.

I knelt beside the small grave.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart."

"I couldn't protect you."

"I couldn't even protect your ashes."

A breeze carried pink petals across the fresh soil.

One landed gently on the little daisy hairpin I had placed beside the headstone.

It looked almost as if Daisy had smiled back.

Hundreds of miles away...

Evelyn hadn't slept for two nights.

Every airport.

Every railway station.

Every hotel.

She searched them all.

Nothing.

Marcus placed a cup of coffee beside her.

"You've done enough."

She ignored him.

"I'm going to find Ryan."

Marcus frowned.

"He's just throwing another tantrum."

The words had barely left his mouth before Evelyn slammed both hands onto the table.

"Don't call this a tantrum!"

Marcus froze.

It was the first time she had ever raised her voice at him.

She lowered her head.

"I'm sorry."

Marcus forced a smile.

"It's alright."

"But Ryan will come back."

"He always does."

Those words echoed through the silent room.

He always does.

For years...

I always had.

No matter how badly she hurt me...

I always came home.

That certainty had become Evelyn's greatest habit.

And habits were difficult to break.

Her phone rang again.

Future Evelyn.

She answered immediately.

"Tell me where Ryan is."

Future Evelyn laughed bitterly.

[If I knew... would I be calling you?]

Evelyn gripped the phone harder.

"You said he'd stay."

[He was supposed to.]

"You told me locking him up would work!"

Several seconds passed before the older Evelyn finally spoke.

[Because in my timeline... he never buried Daisy.]

Evelyn's breathing stopped.

"What?"

[Marcus broke the urn.]

[Ryan never found all of her ashes.]

[Part of Daisy remained inside that house forever.]

[That regret chained him to us.]

The room spun around Evelyn.

She remembered watching me crawl across the floor...

Collecting handful after handful of gray ashes...

Ignoring the glass cutting into my palms.

She had turned away.

She had chosen Marcus again.

Future Evelyn continued quietly.

[But this time... he found enough to let her rest.]

[You changed the ending.]

Evelyn slowly slid down the wall until she was sitting on the floor.

For the first time...

She understood something horrifying.

Ryan hadn't run away from her.

He had simply gone where a father was supposed to go.

To take his daughter home.

And this time...

Nothing she could do would bring him back.