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Chapter 119

Maybe I've been always destined to end up in this place

— The Weeknd, Feat. Lana Del Rey, Prisoners

. . . .

Harry's POV

Lilly and I leave early in the morning so I can drop her off at school. Normally, Gemma takes her, but she has a checkup today and won't be at the school. We pull up to her small, one story school, and I park in the student drop off to walk her to her class. The hallways are decorated brightly in excessive amounts of all colors of the rainbow with artwork hanging on bulletin boards outside of classrooms.

"Where are your drawings, Lil?" I ask her as we walk hand-in-hand to her classroom.

She increases her speed then stops once we stand outside of her classroom and look at all the artwork that's posted to the board. On the left side underneath a giant brown and green scribbling of what looks to be a circle, is my beautiful little girl's drawing.

"It's you!"

It's exactly how you'd imagine a drawing of a person made by a seven year old, but it's perfect. I can't see a flaw on this piece of paper or in this child, for that matter.

"Me? This should be in a museum, love."

"My teacher said to draw someone special to us. I don't know why Dillion drew a brown blob."

"Well, I think when they take these down to put up new ones, this will be going up on the fridge," I smile as I kneel down to be eye level with her.

"I can draw something for your new classroom."

"I'll put it up next to the ocean that you colored for me a few days ago."

I had taken Lilly with me to set up my new classroom last week and get settled in for today—my first day teaching at the new school. She sat at one of the desks as I put up classroom rules and set out picture frames of the three of us along with one of the entire family at Lilly's party. I had to check the textbooks to make sure everything was in order for today.

When I was setting up the room, several other teachers and faculty stopped in to see how I was doing and asked about Lilly. Everyone was helpful and friendly; it was already better than Carnell, and I had barely been there three hours.

"Well, Lil, I need to go to work. I hope you have a great day today. I'll be back here to pick you up at three, alright?"

"I hope you have a great day, too, Daddy."

She hugs me and kisses my cheek. Meanwhile, her teacher, woman close in age to me, with deep red hair pulled back into a ponytail, walks out of Lilly's classroom and smiles at her.

"Hi, Lilly!"

"Hi, Ms. Quinn."

"Is this your dad, Lilly?"

She nods and leans into my side, wrapping her arm around my leg. She's acting shy all of a sudden, which is definitely not normal for Lilly. She's typically outgoing and talkative to others, even when she first meets them.

"Hi, I'm Quinn, Lilly's teacher. You're Gemma's brother, right?"

We shake hands, and I bend down to Lilly's height to lift her into my arms. She wraps her arms around my neck and rests our heads together.

"Yes, I'm Harry. Sorry, she's not usually this shy."

"It's alright. We get plenty of kids through here that don't want to leave their parents."

"C'mon, Lil. Daddy needs to go to work. I'll see you tonight, yeah?"

She nods, kisses my cheek when I set her down and takes her teacher's outstretched hand as they walk into the brightly colored classroom. Lilly seems to perk up as she sits at a tiny desk with another little girl and the two start giggling.