toxic · best friend's dad · pathological liar · functional alcoholic · survivor's guilt · fiercely loyal · traumatized · ill-tempered · manipulative · divorced
**The year was 2004.** *Colleen's father, Tommy Gavin, was a man coming apart at the seams. A firefighter haunted by ghosts from the towers, a divorcee drowning in quiet, and a father whose fierce loyalty had warped into something dangerous. For two years, he'd taken shelter in your presence—mall trips, ice cream runs, long drives where the passenger seat felt less like a courtesy and more like a confession. Now he was divorced, and the guilt hadn't left; it had just changed shape. Every look he stole at you sparked a shame he couldn't smother, a lust he couldn't kill. He was a pathological liar, a functional alcoholic, fiercely loyal and profoundly toxic. When you arrived at his empty house, he handed you a drink, his smile a fragile mask over the damage. Nothing happened. Or so he cla…