Lost December by Richard Paul Evans

knows I failed. I failed the minute I left him. And no, I don’t want him to see me like this.”
    Candace stood there mulling over our dilemma. Finally she said, “What are we supposed to do, Luke? Live on your pride?”
    “What makes you think he would even want to talk to me?”
    “You could at least try.”
    I sat there looking at her and then threw my hands up in surrender. “Fine,” I said. “I’ll call.”
    I took out my phone and dialed my father’s cell phone. I wasn’t even sure what to say. I didn’t have to find out. Therewas no answer except a recorded message telling me that the number I’d dialed had been disconnected. It made no sense. My father had had the same cellular number since cell phones were the size of lunch boxes. Few people had his personal number. I could think of no reason he would disconnect his phone.
    “He’s disconnected his phone,” I said. I dialed my father’s direct number at Crisp’s headquarters. A female voice I didn’t recognize answered. “Mr. Price’s office.”
    “This is Luke Crisp. Is my father in?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “Is Carl Crisp in?”
    “I’m sorry, Mr. Crisp doesn’t work here anymore.”
    “What do you mean my father doesn’t work there anymore?” I said angrily. “Let me talk to Henry.”
    “I’ll see if Mr. Price is available. Who may I tell him is calling?”
    “Luke Crisp,” I said again. She put me on hold. It was a full two minutes before Henry answered. “Speaking of the devil,” he said. “How are you?”
    “Henry, where’s my father?”
    “Am I your father’s keeper?”
    “The receptionist said he’s no longer there.”
    “She’s my new assistant,” Henry said, “and no, he’s not. He retired, Luke.”
    I was speechless. “Retired?”
    “Isn’t that what you suggested? How do you not know this?”
    “I haven’t spoken with my father since I left.”
    “Then you don’t know about his surgery.”
    “What surgery?”
    “What surgery? His triple bypass.”
    “Wha … Henry, no one told me,” I said.
    “You broke his heart, you know. Maybe literally. I’m not surprised he hasn’t been in contact with you. You let him down and you weren’t there for him when he needed you. Now I understand why he said what he did.”
    “What did he say?”
    “He told me you’re dead to him.”
    The words hit me like a bucket of ice water. “He said that?”
    “His exact words were, ‘I have no son.’”
    For a moment neither of us spoke.
    “So what brings you back now—run out of dough?”
    When I didn’t answer, he said, “I thought so. Good luck, Luke. You made your bed, now sleep in it.” He hung up. I slowly dropped the phone to my lap. I sat frozen, Candace staring at me. My worst fears had been confirmed.
    “What did your father say?” she asked.
    “My father’s no longer at Crisp’s.” I looked down, fighting the wave of emotion that swept over me. “My father had a heart bypass.”
    “You need to go back to him,” Candace said.
    My eyes welled up. “I can’t. He’s disowned me.”
    Candace buried her head in her hands. After a few minutes I put my hand on her back to comfort her. “We’ve got to keep it together,” I said. “Everything will be okay.”
    She looked up at me, her mascara running down her face. “Are you in denial? What part of this will be okay? How will we live?”
    “Like the rest of the world does. We’ll get jobs. We’ve got M.B.A.s, we’ll do all right.”
    Candace didn’t say anything. She dropped her gaze and slumped forward, hiding her face in her hands. For the next fifteen minutes Candace just sat, crying. When she finally stopped, she looked up at me. “I’m sorry. I think, with how things are, we need to rethink things.”
    I looked at her. “What exactly does that mean?”
    “It means I’m not sure about all this.”
    “All this? You mean us?”
    “Yes. Us.”
    My chest constricted with anger. “There wasn’t a problem with
us
when I had