He stared at the phone for a long moment. His heart felt heavy. Angela had called six times last night. He had not answered. He did not know what to say to her. How could he explain 40 years of silence? How could he tell her that her father used to be someone else?
Finally, he pressed the answer button.
"Dad?" Angela's voice was shaking. She had been crying; he could hear it in every word.
"Hello, sweetheart," Marcus said softly.
There was a long silence. He could hear Angela breathing on the other end. He could feel her confusion, her hurt, her need to understand.
"Why?" she finally asked.
That one word contained everything: all her questions, all her pain, all the years of not knowing.
Marcus closed his eyes. Where could he even begin?
"Your grandmother," he started slowly. "She died when I was 24. She was my biggest supporter. She believed in my music more than I believed in myself. When she died, something inside me broke."
Angela listened without speaking. She had never known her grandmother; she had only seen one old photograph of her: a smiling woman with kind eyes and silver hair.
"A year after she passed, I was working on a construction site. I needed money. Music was not paying well anymore. I could not focus on playing. Grief had taken over my life."