Daynight Racer (Completed)

Chapter 28

Present Day

Forget about the groceries, forget about the sounds coming out of Lyst's empty stomach, forget about the meals being prepared in the kitchen. Shock was written all over Lyst's expression as her blue eyes fixed on the figure looming over her.

A million thoughts raced through her mind, before feelings took over and no coherent thoughts were left. At that moment, she only felt young, small. She wasn't a Formula 3 driver, nor was she a street racer.

She was Alystabella Cassidy, daughter of Andrew Cassidy.

The same Andrew Cassidy who stood before her.

She couldn't believe it. Convinced that it was nothing but a hallucination, she rubbed her eyes and blinked furiously, waiting for the figure to disappear.

Only it didn't. Her dad was real, alive and well.

But how?

Lyst's hands began to tremble, and her feet suddenly became jelly. She couldn't process anything right now, as if her brain stopped functioning entirely.

He should be dead.

Am I dead?

No. With a violent shake of her head, Lyst cleared all her irrational questions from her mind, before finally uttering her word, trying but failing to hide her shock. "D-dad?"

A grin crept onto Andrew's lips. "Good to see you again, dear," he said. "We have a lot of catching up to do."

***

Lyst took a bite out of her ham and cheese sandwich, savouring the crunchy texture of perfectly toasted bread, and the fragrant taste of ham and cheese on her tongue. A satisfied expression flashed across her face, before she straightened up again to face her dad.

He cleared his throat before speaking. "Let's start from the beginning, shall we?" He leaned back into the sofa, looking at his daughter and subsequently at Ashley, who nodded enthusiastically at him, eager to hear his story. But as he remembered the details he was about to share, his face turned solemn. "Actually, no. First, I want to apologise to you, Lyst," he said. "I cannot imagine what you have gone through since that day, but please trust me when I say that we did all these in your best interest."

Best interest? For a moment, a tiny spark of anger flared within her when she recalled her life for the past five years. But considering she hadn't seen her dad in such a long time, and the sincerity in his tone, she decided to shove her rage away. Instead, she had a question. "Who do you mean by 'we'?"

His response came immediately. "Your mom and I."

"Mom's here?"

"We bought a small house a while ago. She's currently there."

Lyst blurted an 'oh', quickly realising there's a lot she hadn't yet known. "Okay, start from the beginning then," she prompted, before taking another bite of her tasty sandwich.

"Sure," her dad began, running his fingers through his hair awkwardly. "Your mom and I hid this well from you, so you're probably unaware of this." He let out a sigh of frustration? Regret? Lyst couldn't really tell. "When I first started racing, I was horrible at it. I wasn't lucky enough to be taught how to drive a car fast, and I certainly did not have a fast car. As a result I lost many, many races."

Lyst's eyes widened upon knowing this side of her dad. She had always thought of him as a competent racer, and it was hard to imagine him once losing these street races he eventually grew to dominate. But it wasn't him losing the races that concerned her...

It was the consequences of losing those races.

As if knowing exactly what was going on in her mind, her dad nodded. "Yes, and that meant losing money too. A lot of it." He sucked in a deep breath, not liking what he was about to confess. "In a desperate attempt, I borrowed money from a loan shark. With the extra cash, your mom and I were able to pay for our lost races. And after a while, I began to get the hang of street racing, and won races. It was also then when I bought my lovely BMW."