My Best Friend's Dad

The Weight Of Waiting

Tristan’s POV

I sat hunched forward on the chair in the waiting area, elbows on my knees with my head in my hands. Each second grinding against my nerves like sandpaper. Elona was somewhere beyond those walls, pale, fragile, and unconscious.

I didn’t even realize Cris had arrived until I felt her arms around me. “Dad!” she breathed out, half a sob and half a relief. She pulled back just enough to see my face, and her expression softened instantly. “Gosh, you look like hell.”

“I feel worse,” I said, my voice raspy from exhaustion and emotion. “I can’t lose her, Cris.”

She sat beside me, not pressing me to speak, just being there. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath before I said it aloud. “I’ve lost people before. But Elona… She is not just anyone. I can’t-” I swallowed hard. “I won’t survive losing her either.”

Cris gripped my hand tightly, her own eyes glassy. “Please, don’t say that. We’ve been here before when Elona had surgery, and you were so negative. Elona doesn’t need that, she needs positivity. She will be okay,” she encouraged.

“She fainted,” I continued, my voice dropping lower as guilt wrapped its fingers tighter around my throat. “At my house. She was standing, trying to pretend she was fine, and then she just… collapsed. Like her body had finally given up.”

“Dad…” Cris murmured, shaking her head.

“She is dehydrated and not having much rest. She is covered in bruises behind her legs. I only noticed because she bent over my desk and she was wearing shorts. She tried to lie about it. She said she fell in heels during drills. But I know better,” I wasn’t going to tell Cris that we had sex.

“I really need to talk to her more often, maybe Spooky knows about this since he’s living with her,” she shrugged.

I clenched my jaw. “I don’t know. But it’s VFS. That damn place has her being dehydrated, doing drills like she’s a soldier instead of a model. The instructors are cruel. I didn’t know how bad it was until she hit the floor right in front of me. And with what Doctor Matthews had informed me.”

Before I could say more, I heard hurried footsteps echoing through the hallway. David appeared, his eyes frantic until they locked on me. “Where is she?” he asked immediately, walking briskly over. “Where is my daughter?”

“She is stable,” I said, rising to my feet. “They’re still monitoring her. She’s on a drip now.”

David’s brows furrowed. “What happened? Cris called me in a panic,” he looked over at her.

I took a breath. “She was at my house. She fainted. Her body was exhausted...depleted. When the doctors checked her, they said she had a subtle endometriosis flare-up, probably brought on by the stress.”

David’s expression shifted from confusion to restrained fury. “She didn’t tell me she was in pain.”

“She didn’t tell anyone,” I said quietly. “But the bruises… the exhaustion… It all leads back to VFS. She’s been training like a soldier. That place is pushing past her limits.”

David’s hands curled into fists. “Those bastards.”

“I’m going to the studio once she’s better,” I said, the anger boiling beneath my skin. “I don’t care who’s in charge. I’m going to end this. I will not sit by and watch her be broken down. And you’re her father, you should also be the one to put a stop to this. I know she no longer lives with you and that your work is busy, but she is your daughter, and sometimes she needs you, too.”

David met my gaze and placed a hand on my shoulder. “ I understand that. You got her to the hospital. You saw what no one else did, and thank you for that. I know I’ve been a shit father so far, but I will try my best,” he said.

“Thank you,” I replied. But I needed him to try harder.

David nodded. “You said she fainted… was she unconscious the whole time?”

“She came to for a few seconds in the car,” I said, remembering the weak whisper of my name. “But she faded again before we reached the hospital. And I nearly got us both killed trying to get her here fast. A car almost T-boned us when I nearly sped through a red light.”

David’s eyes widened, but he didn’t scold. He just exhaled slowly and nodded.

I couldn’t sit here any longer. I needed some space and air. I excused myself and went to the bathroom. I stood in front of the mirror, looking at my reflection. My face in the mirror looked like a stranger’s, bloodshot eyes, jaw clenched, grief behind every line. I turned the faucet and splashed water on my face, and stared until my breathing evened out.

I composed myself, turning the faucet off. When I stepped out and headed back to the waiting area, I slowed at the sight before me.

David was seated, cupping Cris’s face gently in his palms, speaking to her softly. She nodded at whatever he was saying, then leaned into his embrace. It was tender… almost intimate. A scowl tugged at the corners of my mouth before I could stop it.

I wasn’t sure why it bothered me. Maybe because I was still stuck in a storm of loss and confusion, and everyone else seemed to find something steady to hold onto. Maybe because I couldn’t shake the image of Elona lying unconscious, while the man she trusted the most had no idea what she was enduring. Or maybe… because the moment I let myself truly care, everything else felt like a threat.

I turned away before they noticed me watching. I stood with my back against the wall next to Elona’s room with my arms folded. I stared at the floor like the answers I needed would come through these tiles any second. But none came. Not yet.

I could still hear the monitor beeping faintly from Elona’s room. That sound, as faint as it was, tethered me. And it would keep tethering me until she opened her eyes again, but VFS would see my wrath.

I turned my gaze towards David and Cris. Her head was still on his shoulder, and he placed a gentle kiss on the top of her head. It was innocent, but was it really? And then I remembered his words: He liked someone that was also eighteen. Was it my daughter?