“How’s it going there? Gran told me the two of you had been giving the place a little face-lift. I’d love to come by one day and see what she was always going on about.” She pulls her lips between her teeth and glances away from me, but I don’t miss the familiar way her eyes glisten with unshed tears before she does.

It’s weird.

I was always on the receiving end of their pity. I was the poor girl growing up without her dad. I’m pretty sure Dad convinced everyone my heartbroken mom was batshit crazy. The birthday cards sent in the mail were from my dad, but signed with my stepmom’s writing . . . even the checks that funded my back-to-school wardrobes had her name in the corner.

Honestly, until this very moment, I thought Daisy had everything. But now I realize that she missed out on one of the absolute best things life had to offer. A relationship with Alice Young.

Since my dad—for lack of better words—abandoned me, Gran stepped up to the plate and put his responsibilities on her shoulders. She was at every school play, every soccer game . . . she even took me to the two Girl Scout meetings I went to before I quit. If Mom was working, it was Gran’s old Buick that met me outside school to take me to the Book Nook. She had a special cabinet in the back filled with snacks, and I’d spend hours there, doing homework, helping organize, and, at the end of the day, just reveling in time spent with my favorite person, who never made me doubt that I was her favorite person too.

For the first time all night, I let my eyes wander to Daisy’s hand to see Gran’s modest diamond, which, even years after my grandpa died, never left her finger. It was what she left Daisy in the will. I knew Daisy was getting it. Gran asked me what I wanted, her ring or the pendant necklace passed down to her from her mom. Even though Dad was/is trash, I loved the idea of having a family heirloom from my Young family. I didn’t think twice about choosing the pendant.

I just wish that while we were having that conversation, she had told me she was leaving me the Book Nook too. It would’ve been nice to have a heads-up before I sat in a room with Dad for the first time in years while the lawyer read out her will. Until the day I die, I will never forget the shade of red that colored my dad’s fair skin or the way his deep voice turned into that of a schoolgirl’s as he shrieked. But mostly, I’ll never forget the look of pure hatred and disgust in his green eyes as he gave me one last look before he walked out of the room.