My daughter’s last wish was to see the sunrise from the Grand Canyon – Minutes before dawn, a park ranger approached us and said, “Your doctor told me I had to talk to you before the sun came out”

I kept looking through the pages.

“You kept all of this?”

“I never stopped hoping one of them would stop saying no.”

I closed the folder.

“None of this explains why you stopped being her father.”

“I know.”

“Then explain it to me.”

He lowered his eyes.

“Because I came back once.”

“When?”

“Four years ago. You were working. I saw Hailey.”

My stomach tightened.

“What?”

“I found a program in Switzerland. I was convinced it was different. I told her they might be able to help her.”

I remembered that year.

Hailey had shut everyone out after that program fell through.

“The program lost its funding before she could enter it,” Ethan explained. “When I told her, she said, ‘Then don’t come back with another maybe.’”

“And that was enough for you to disappear again?”

“No.” He lowered his head. “But I pretended it was.”

“You used that as an excuse?”