Dizzy stands in front of her father, over­whelmed by a mix of emo­tions that flood over her as she final­ly meets him after twelve long years of absence. Her father, a tall man with a cow­boy hat, close­ly resem­bles the fig­ure she’s held in her mind from a child­hood pho­to­graph, mak­ing this reunion seem sur­re­al, almost too per­fect to believe. Dizzy had spent years imag­in­ing this very moment, and now that it’s here, it’s hard to com­pre­hend the sig­nif­i­cance of see­ing him in the flesh. Her heart races, but the sound of ring­ing in her ears drowns out all ratio­nal thought as she strug­gles to make sense of the over­whelm­ing emo­tions surg­ing through her.

Despite the sur­re­al nature of the encounter, Dizzy moves clos­er, feel­ing an irre­sistible pull toward him. She ten­ta­tive­ly reach­es out to touch her father, unsure if this reunion could real­ly be hap­pen­ing. As she does so, the chaos of the moment set­tles into some­thing more tan­gi­ble, and she finds solace in the warmth of his touch. Her broth­er, Miles, stands beside her, grasp­ing her hand tight­ly, and togeth­er, they both call out to their father. Their words hang in the air, and for a brief moment, their father is over­whelmed, unable to respond as he grap­ples with his emo­tions. Yet, in that silence, Dizzy feels a deep con­nec­tion, almost as if their bond had always been there, wait­ing to be rekin­dled.

The reunion, while filled with love, is not with­out its com­pli­ca­tions. The dog, San­dro, jumps into their father’s arms, show­ing a deep attach­ment that Dizzy can’t quite under­stand. Miles, too, seems stunned and unsure of how to process this unex­pect­ed moment. Yet, despite the con­fu­sion and the whirl­wind of emo­tions, there’s a sense of some­thing much deeper—a con­nec­tion that tran­scends years of absence and unspo­ken words. Dizzy, despite her many ques­tions, can’t help but feel a strange sense of peace in her father’s pres­ence, as though this moment was always meant to unfold just as it has.

As Dizzy con­fronts her father, ques­tion­ing why he left them all those years ago, her emo­tions bub­ble to the sur­face. How­ev­er, before she can get any answers, Miles motions for her to stop, sig­nal­ing that the moment might not be the right time for such heavy con­ver­sa­tions. In the midst of their emo­tion­al reunion, San­dro con­tin­ues to show an unusu­al attach­ment to their father, a silent wit­ness to the bond that was long buried but now begin­ning to resur­face. Dizzy reach­es out again, feel­ing the warmth of her father’s hand and won­der­ing if this is the begin­ning of some­thing new or sim­ply the ful­fill­ment of a long-held dream. What­ev­er the case may be, in this moment, the uncer­tain­ty about her father’s absence starts to dis­solve, replaced by the unspo­ken under­stand­ing that their con­nec­tion is real and unde­ni­able.

The chap­ter takes a turn as Dizzy real­izes that their reunion with their father isn’t just about rec­on­cil­ing with the past; it’s about help­ing Wyn­ton, some­one who has been cen­tral to their lives. She shares with her father the mes­sage from Cas­sidy, urg­ing him to help them with Wynton’s predica­ment. In the midst of this, Miles’s frus­tra­tion with their father’s absence over the years comes to a head, and the emo­tion­al ten­sion is pal­pa­ble. Just as things seem to be spi­ral­ing, a man named Dex­ter enters the scene, offer­ing clar­i­ty about the family’s sit­u­a­tion and their father’s iden­ti­ty. This rev­e­la­tion adds yet anoth­er lay­er to the com­plex dynam­ics that have shaped their lives, under­scor­ing the intri­cate web of rela­tion­ships that have been formed over time. The chap­ter wraps up with a mix of emotions—joy, betray­al, confusion—illustrating the tan­gled nature of fam­i­ly bonds and the jour­ney they must take to nav­i­gate them.