Tabitha? he thought. His hands started shaking. He had to try twice before his voice would work. “Is that my Tabi Cat?” His voice shook almost as much as his hand.

“Your Tabi Cat died a long time ago. You killed her, remember?” He recoiled at the venom in her voice. “It was the same night you killed her mother and put her brother in a coma.”

He gasped. “Tommy… Tommy’s alive?” He put his hands on the desk to steady himself. “All this time, I thought I’d killed you all. My children… Still alive.” He turned, slowly, to face his daughter. “Tabi Cat…”

“Stop calling me that!” she screamed.

He flinched. “Okay. I just… You have no idea how I missed you all. I never went to the funeral, so I never knew you were both alive.” He wanted to reach out to her, smooth her long, dark hair from her face, see the woman his little girl had become. But as he raised his hand, he found the point of her sword came up in front of his face.

“Don’t.” she said. “Or I’ll blind you, just like you did to me.”