Swiftcurrent Creek But in a much more real sense, I had no idea what to do.

There was a moment of clarity—as heart rendering as it was to the man. Fate was fickle, it seemed, and vaguely, he wondered if he was being punished for something he had done wrong this life or one past. His daughter before him didn’t recognize him, and that thought alone was almost enough to bring the man to his knees.

The jut of her chin—the flicker of something in her gaze. She had grown so much since he had last seen her. She sought Arielle—he had as well, when he had fallen into the rapid waters near their old home and been swept away from his family. His return to a pregnant wife and his other daughter also seemingly missing… Having gone to look for him.

“They’re not yours,” Ibis had accused, when he had offered to help raise the new litter she had carried… “None of them are.”

Those words had a meaning to them—a mystery he had never gotten to truly ask before she had been taken.

A certain side of Ibis he had been blinded to, it seemed.

And even if Lilitu had not been his in the most mundane of ways through blood… She goddamn well was his daughter. “Lilitu…” He croaked, trying to keep the emotion from welling. For while her chin would jut up, his would only fall further. “It’s me. Akav— Dad….”