Sexting My Ex’s Dad (Forbidden Silver Foxes)

57. Stella

57

STELLA

O wen stands hesitantly in the doorway. His expression is unreadable, but there’s an undeniable sadness in his green eyes. He looks like he doesn’t know whether to stay or go. I don’t know what I want him to do either, if I’m being honest with myself.

A part of me feels indebted to him, honestly. Even though I’d been shot, the fact that Owen had put himself in danger to save me…? I wouldn’t have expected that. Maybe I should still be mad at him for the way he treated me, but that feels like the past.

If there’s anything that getting shot has taught me, it’s that I’ll never know when my last day alive will be, and I don’t have time to waste by holding grudges.

“Can I come in?” He asks.

“Yes. Yes, come in.” My voice is weak, but I try to give him a faint smile. He steps into the room, looking down at the floor as he walks toward me. “You look a lot better; I’m happy to see that. How do you feel?”

“I’ve been better,” I admit. “But, I’m okay. The nurses have been taking care of me, kind of lonely though.”

He looks surprised by my answer. “I’m sorry I haven’t been here.”

“To be honest, I didn’t expect you to,” I tell him, noticing the way his face falls. “But, I’m glad you are.”

He nods and takes a sit on the edge of the bed. “Massimo’s been arrested,” he tells me, his voice low and simmering with rage. “I heard the news. They got him. And if I ever see him again, I swear to God, I’ll kill him. I hate him for what he did to you.”

My heart skips a beat as I process this information. Massimo—the man responsible for the bullet wound that landed me in this hospital bed—has been caught. As much as I want to feel relief at the thought of him behind bars, a part of me recoils at Owen’s words. The last thing I want is more bloodshed, more violence surrounding me.

Massimo hadn’t been in the right in the slightest, but he’d felt like he was avenging the love of his life…even if she had been another man’s wife. Sometimes people do crazy things for love.

What had happened already happened, and there was nothing we could do to change the past.

I meet Owen’s eyes, my voice calm but firm. “Owen, I don’t want that. Please, don’t do it on my behalf. Massimo may have hurt me, but I don’t want you becoming a part of that world. It’s done now. Let it go. I have.” His gaze remains fixed on mine, anger still flickering in his green eyes.

“I can’t just let him get away with it,” he snaps. But as his shoulders slump and the tension in his jaw softens slightly, I can feel the shift in his demeanor. “But... I won’t do it for you. I’ll respect your wishes.”

Looking at Owen now, I feel like I don’t recognize him. He’s such a different man from the one who’d left me months ago. I like the new him.

Owen’s voice cracks slightly, as he says the next words. “You’ll be dismissed soon, right?” he asks, looking down at me with a softness that almost surprises me. “You’re recovering. You’re going to walk out of here soon… and we can pick up where we left off. We can forget about all of the hurt and just…move on, be together, like we were always supposed to be.”

My heart clenches at his hopefulness. He didn’t really think it would be that easy, did he? The truth is, we can’t go back to the way things were. We’ve both changed, and it’s time for us to move on.

“Owen,” I say, taking a deep breath and forcing myself to maintain eye contact with him. “We can’t. I can’t go back to what we had. There’s just no passion left. And I think we both know that.” My words hang heavy in the air, each one a painful truth.

“I know we’ve had our issues, but we can work on it, right?”

I shake my head. “It’s not issues, Owen. It’s compatibility.”

“But… but we had something real, didn’t we?” he pleads, desperation seeping into his voice. “I love you, Stella. I don’t want anyone else. You’re the only one for me, and I hate it took you getting shot for me to realize that. I can’t lose you.”

“It’s not that simple,” I tell him, wishing I could soften the blow somehow. “I... I need more than what we had. We don’t work, Owen. We’re missing something. Passion, fire. It just isn’t there anymore. Maybe, it never was there.”

As I speak, I can’t help but remember the tender moments we shared, the laughter and the love. And yet, when I think about our future, all I see is an endless stretch of dull gray, devoid of the vibrant colors that should fill a life together.

We could have an average life together…or a good one apart.

Owen swallows hard, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “Stella,” he begins, his voice wavering, “I... I can try harder. I can change. Just give me a chance to show you that I can be the man you need me to be.”

What hurts the most is that I believe him. But, Owen just isn’t who I want anymore.

“Owen, I don’t need that from you. Yes, I care about you. But there’s someone else. Someone I’ve realized I can’t live without.” I pause, swallowing hard against the lump that’s formed in my throat. “I’m in love with Elio.”

The room seems to grow colder in an instant, the silence that follows my confession nearly deafening. I can see the hurt in Owen’s eyes, the way his jaw tightens as he processes my words.

My mind races with memories of Elio – his electric touch, the way his laughter fills a room, the way he makes me feel alive in ways I never thought possible. And as much as I want to shield Owen from the truth, I can’t deny the fire that’s been ignited within me, the undeniable connection between Elio and me.

“My own dad,” Owen says, his voice cracking as he tries to keep his emotions in check. “I never thought I’d lose you to him.”

“Neither did I,” I admit, feeling the sting of tears in my eyes. “I didn’t want to hurt you, Owen. Well, maybe at first. But I can’t pretend anymore. I’m in love with him. I can’t ignore it. I’ve tried, but it’s the truth.”

“Are you happy?” He asks after a while.

“Yes, I am.” I’d be happier if Elio was here, but…

He stares at me, and I can feel the hurt radiating off of him, cutting into me like a knife. Time seems to stretch on for an eternity before he finally takes a deep, shuddering breath. “I... I get it,” he says, his voice trembling with the weight of his pain. Looking away from me, Owen wipes his eyes quickly. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him cry before. “I’ll always love you, Stella,” he says softly, his voice breaking. “And I’ll always be here for you. I’ll cheer for you from the sidelines, no matter who you’re with. I want you to be happy, even if it’s not with me.”

His words bring a new wave of tears to my eyes, and I reach out, placing a hand on his. “We can still be friends, Owen. I’m not walking away from you entirely. I care about you, and I always will.”

Maybe that’s all we should have been in the beginning…friends.

“Friends,” he repeats, as if testing the word on his tongue. A small smile overtakes his lips. “It has a bit of a ring to it.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” I laugh.

“Alright, then,” Owen says. “Friends it is.”