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Casey. This is my daughter.

          A jolt of awareness filled him: a gentle awakening of some emotion he’d long buried beneath anger and denial. She was his daughter all right: he could see a pair of twitching dimples beside her mouth, and the enormous golden-brown eyes gazing in his direction.

The photos he’d seen hadn’t done her beauty any justice at all. He couldn’t stop staring at this haunting, delicate, beautiful child.

          This is my child. My daughter.

          “Hello?” Casey’s voice trembling with sudden uncertainty. “Mummy?”

He wanted to hit himself for being so stupid. Lesson number one in being a daddy to a special-needs child: always answer her when she talks to you.

“I’m here, sweetheart,” Sam said, her voice full of love. She stepped forward.

Brett put a hand on her arm, willing her to stay where she was. After a short, searching glance, Sam nodded, but held her ground.

          “Hello, Casey,” Brett greeted her, his heart beating fast. This was the moment he’d hungered for, for two long years. His child, his daughter. Casey. What would she think of him? Would she like him?  Or –

          “Hello.” A tentative smile flitted across her face, lifting dimples, before she repeated her initial question. “Are you my father?”

          Her face was without expression, beyond that polite smile. Impassivity in a five-year-old unnerved Brett. There was nothing in her face to read. She was curious as to whether he was her father: that was all.

          “Yes, Casey,” he said softly. “My name’s Brett Glennon. I’m your father.”

          She nodded, slow and cautious, not moving toward him or moving away. He realised she was keeping her distance, almost as if she was afraid...

          Afraid of him?

While keeping his features schooled, he absorbed the pain. Perhaps Casey saw more than he’d thought with those imperfect eyes. Had she seen past his gentle façade to the anger in his heart, that his child, his daughter, should have such a terrible burden to bear? Did she wonder if her daddy wouldn’t like her because she was blind?

This was a fear his daughter should never have had to go through –

          And she wouldn’t, if I hadn’t left for Africa.

And like that, the truth hit him. He’d concentrated so much on where Sam had been he’d forgotten what she’d had to bear alone in the years he’d been gone. Sure, if she’d stayed with his parents, he’d have known Casey the past two years – but even then, he’d still have three years of unintentional neglect to make up for.

Not for the first time, he felt the knife-pang of regret for his choices, for leaving Sam behind in the first place; for charging ahead with a dream, for cementing a love that was always going to be in the wrong time and place. By living for his dreams, he’d left her alone with a hard pregnancy, a new state and a special-needs child. He’d been so damn-fool arrogant to think he had to save the world, instead of keeping his own world together. Been so sure his choice was right, cocky and confident that everything would fall into place for everyone he loved.

          It hadn’t worked out for anyone…not even for the refugees he’d gone to help; he’d been kidnapped too soon to be of much use. It sure hadn’t worked for his parents – his father had been wheelchair-bound for years from the shock of losing his son and grandchild all at once.

          He’d thought he’d been the victim in this scenario. Events tonight had shown him that he hadn’t been the only one to make sacrifices.

It seemed he had a lot to make up for.