AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It never occurred to me that she was my daughter, too, and that I was missing a moment of her life that I’d never get back.
I run my fingers over her face, feeling the bitter emotions gathering in my eyes.
Accidentally, I touch Kingsley’s face and it startles me. Not the contact itself, or how illegally attractive he is, but the fact that right now, I can’t hate him.
If it weren’t for him, Gwen wouldn’t have grown into the fine young lady she is. It takes a man of stone to raise a baby all on his own from the time he was seventeen.
You’re not supposed to idolize someone you hate, bitch.I hear Caroline’s voice in my head and put the frame back where I found it.
I can’t resist opening the drawer. Inside it, there are sleeping buds, a collection of them, more vanilla-colored things, and an album.
Excitement courses through me as I pull it out. From the moment I open it, it feels as if I’m transported down memory lane.
It’s filled with pictures of toddler Gwen, her birthdays, her first tooth. Her first steps. First day at school. All of them are documented with Post-it Notes at the top in Kingsley’s surprisingly neat handwriting.
He’s in almost all the pictures, either carrying her, cheering her on, or laughing with her at the camera. It hits me then that he’s only ever carefree when around his daughter. It’s like she’s the only person allowed within his walls.
Hell, I didn’t even know this side of him existed until I saw him laughing out loud when she brought lunch to his office a few years back.
I remember being struck by the view, his laughter, his joy, and how the rareness rivaled an eclipse.
Through the album, I can clearly see that he has a version he shows the world and a version that’s exclusively for her.
And I don’t know why bitter emotions keep mounting in me. Probably because I missed the most important parts of Gwen’s life while he’s been there during all of them.
I continue flipping, going through the phases of her life like it’s a movie.
Even Nate is present in some of the pictures, mostly her birthdays, as solemn-faced as ever.
The green-eyed monster rears his head inside me and I couldn’t chase away the pain even if I wanted to.
But I go through the whole album. Twice. On the third run-through, I find myself pausing on certain pictures.
Like Gwen’s fifteenth birthday. She’s smiling, but it appears more forced than the government’s wars. Her eyes appear a bit puffy, her expression mechanical.
I cried on my birthdays because they reminded me of my mother who abandoned me on them.
Her words from when she first found out I was her mother, which coincidentally happened to be the same day I found out, rush back to me.
“I’m so sorry, baby,” I whisper to her picture.
“Shouldn’t you be more sorry for breaching someone’s privacy?”
My head snaps up and I grunt when pain explodes in my shoulder. Then I wipe the moisture that’s gathered in my eyes because showing even a hint of weakness in front of a predator is a sure way to have them attack. Ruthlessly.
And Kingsley is the worst predator I’ve come across. Right up there with my father.
The fact that he took care of me doesn’t fool me. It could be a mere sham to hurt me later.
He stands in the entryway, clad in his usual black suit that shouldn’t look this good on him.
Kingsley has always been physical perfection and it’s not only because of his face, piercing eyes, or well-honed body.
It’s the charisma that comes with it. The silence that harbors storms as deep as the color in his eyes.
A few cuts decorate the backs of his hands, and my curiosity gets the better of me. I know he fights with Nate as a hobby, but he’s not around, so how did he get those?
Don’t they bandage their hands before any fight? Also, I’m pretty sure that isn’t the same suit he was wearing this morning. It’s still black, but the cut is different. Not that I’m focused on his clothes or anything.
