Troy's eyes drifted away from the papers on her desk as the phone rang, shrill and insistent. She hesitated for a moment, her hand hovering over the receiver. With a quiet sigh, she picked up the phone, her voice measured.
"Hello?"
The voice on the other end was familiar, yet it still managed to send a shiver down her spine. "You finally decided to answer the phone," her father said, a hint of dry amusement lacing his tone.
Troy's grip on the receiver tightened, her emotions swirling in a turbulent mix. She loved her father, but the pain and anger of the past few years had built a wall between them, a wall she wasn't sure she was ready to breach.
"Why did you call, Dad?" Troy asked, her voice carefully neutral, betraying none of the turmoil churning inside her.
There was a pause on the other end of the line, and for a moment, Troy wondered if her father had hung up. But then his voice came back, low and serious.
"Come back home for the weekend, dear. I want to discuss something with you. It's important."
Troy's heart skipped a beat. What could her father possibly want to discuss? And why now, after all these months of silence?
"I...I don't know, Dad," Troy stammered, her mind racing with conflicting emotions.
"I'll be waiting," her father said, his voice firm but with a hint of longing. "Please, Troy. Come home."
The line went dead, leaving Troy staring blankly at the receiver, her heart heavy with uncertainty.
Troy's eyes lingered on the receiver, her mind still reeling from the conversation with her father. She wouldn't lie to herself - she really wanted to see her father, to reconnect with the man who had been absent from her life for so long. But the thought of facing the mistress who had taken him away from her was a different story altogether.
As she sat there, lost in thought, her mind began to wander to the event that had almost taken her life. The memories were still hazy, but one thing stood out - the man who had saved her. Or so she thought.
Just then, a knock at the door broke the silence, and Gina walked in, a look of concern etched on her face.
"How did it go with the station?" Troy asked, trying to sound nonchalant despite the turmoil brewing inside her.
Gina took a seat in front of Troy's desk. "Everything is settled for now," she said, her voice measured. "And about the mysterious guy..." Gina's voice trailed off, and Troy's eyes lit up in excitement.
But Gina's next words were like a bucket of cold water, dousing Troy's hopes. "I didn't see anything about him, and even the camera didn't capture any man. Maybe you were in shock, and you imagined a guy saved you."
Troy's face fell, her heart sinking with disappointment. The witnesses said that the driver stopped before the car could hit her, Gina explained, but Troy wasn't listening. She was too busy trying to process the fact that her hero might not be real after all.
A mix of emotions swirled inside her - confusion, disappointment, and a hint of fear. Had she really imagined the whole thing? And if so, what did that say about her own sanity?
Gina's voice cut through the fog in Troy's mind. "Hey, are you okay? You look a little shaken."
Troy took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. "I'm fine," she lied, forcing a smile onto her face. But Gina's concerned expression told Troy that she wasn't fooling anyone - least of all herself.