Mr. Corporate Law

4.2: The Daddy's Girl

My Father - fortunately - agreed to let me stay at his grand mansion for the time being, the only things in my luggage and one box were clothes and shoes. The other things, well, back at the apartment. I was persuaded by my ex-boyfriend - it's weird calling him that - well, he persuaded me to leave them behind until I found and settled into a new apartment, but my gut instincts told me otherwise.

In a way, the old Dominic that I came face to face with yesterday was optimistic about me getting back with him.

The new Dominic, well, I've yet to find out tomorrow.

My Father, being odd as he already was, consoled me all throughout the morning. My Father wasn't usually like this, but his reaction to the break up was weird. The man gave me a very good explanation that he didn't want me to be depressed and ruin my work, but the weird thing is, I wasn't depressed and emotionally drained about what happened between Dominic and I. We had a mutual break up, so it was okay.

"Mom, I'm fine," I mumbled and lied through the phone from my Mother, she rang me a few seconds after my Father sent her a message about the break up.

Weird how my divorced Parents, who always avoided to talk to each other for years, came together to comfort me.

"Sweetheart, if there's anything you want-"

"-Mom," I groaned as I massaged my fingers through my hair, a little agitated by the sudden attention. I mean, yeah, it's nice to see them talking and it's nice they took the time to be loving Parents, but the timing was off.

"Okay, okay, but I'm just saying-"

"-Mom, I have to go. Dad's been eager to take me out since this morning." I didn't lie that time, but the exaggeration of my Father's interest in me was. I heard my Mother laugh in disbelief at my words, but she agreed to finally let me go from the phone (after half an hour).

"I love you, sweetie!"

"Yes, Mom, I love you too."

I put the phone down and I eyed the room Antonia let me settle in, and it looked oddly familiar. From the decorations to the furniture, it reminded me of the room I had prior to the divorce. I went over to a shelf with the albums, if it really was, then-

"Holy shit." I narrowed my eyes at the sight of a pink with various badly cut flowers I did with my best friend at that time. I let my body slip down to the floor, my fingers trailed along the crayon marks and ripped pages, and when it was real, I flicked to the first page and saw a three year old girl me, a well rounded face with swollen cheeks and uneven ponytails up at both sides, and I was sitting upon my Father's shoulders as we stood by the sands of a beach somewhere. The clothing choice wasn't ideal for the both of us, but I certainly looked happy with my Father. On the side of the page had red pen scribbles, hard to make out, but it read something about thanking my Father for all the things he's done for me and praising him as my hero.

"You found it, huh?"

My head peered over my shoulder for a brief second and back down to the childhood memories in my grasp.

"I didn't think you'd realize so soon."

"Did you keep Marcus's room the same too?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you two will always be my first loves."

I only nodded, rolling my eyes in quite a disbelief at that bold statement.

My Father struggled to slide down beside me, his legs were stretched out and the belly rounded up nicely under his peach polo shirt - that Antonia clearly bought for him -as he lacked the posture of the strong willed man at the office. He let an ooze of breath out of his old body and dropped his hand at a photo a few pages into the scrapbook, he let his finger tap on it and mumbled, "That was the last time Marcus hugged me like that. Now, he barely answers any of my calls."