End point

Chapter 22

Christopher 

I landed a little earlier than I thought I would and head straight home. I just hope that everything is okay, because Katherine sounded off when I called her before the boarding. I leave the car in the driveway and take out my keys to open the door. As soon as I do, Adaline rushes to me.

"Daddy!" She says, running to me from the couch in the living room.

"Sweetheart." I hug her back and take in her scent. I missed her, even though I was away for two days. Missing your family is a different feeling.

"I missed you, daddy." She tells me.

"I missed you too darling. Where is your mom?" She shrugs. That's weird.

"Okay, honey. Did you eat?" I kiss her forehead and then stand up straight.

"I did." She says and walks back to the couch.

Something is definitely wrong. I take the suitcase and walk upstairs. The door to the bedroom is closed. As soon as I open it I hear Katherine crying. Oh, shit. That's not good. The bathroom door is open and she's sitting on the floor with her back leaning against the wall, curled into a ball. 

"Baby, are you okay?" I ask even though the panic is evident in my voice. I drop to my knees, sitting down in front of her.

"I don't know what I did to her so bad that she hates me so much." She cries. Adaline definitely said something to her.

"Come here, baby..." I sit back next to her and pull her to my chest to cry. This is not good for her right now.

"Shh... It's okay. I'll talk to her." I try to calm her down but she's so emotional right now that it's breaking my heart how she's sobbing into my shirt. "Please don't tear yourself up. She doesn't hate you. She loves you. You are her mother. She can't hate you." Also sitting on the cold tile can't be good for her either. "Let's lay down on the bed. You shouldn't be sitting here." I pull her up with me, but before laying down on the bed. I help her wash her face and give her the bottle of water that we have in the bedroom.

It helps her a little and she stops crying, but still looks very sad as she lays down on her side. Closed off from the world. 

"I'll talk to Adaline, okay?" I ask. She nods slowly and I leave the room to talk to the little monster that managed to break down Katherine. I have to give her credit, not everyone can do it, but it's just because she's her daughter and she does everything for her and she has the decency to throw a tantrum.

"Honey," I say, taking a seat next to her on the couch as she plays with her toys. "Do you know what mommy's doing?" I ask. She shakes her head, "She's crying, sweetheart. Because of something that you said to her." She looks into my eyes innocently, but I go on, "Can you tell me what you did or say? I swear I won't get mad and neither would your mom. We love you and we just want you to be more careful, more loving."

"I don't know." She shrugs. She clearly knows what she did, she just doesn't want to tell.

"There is a reason why your mom is so upset."

"I didn't listen to mommy." She admits, looking down at her toys.

"What did she want you to do and you didn't listen?"

"She told me to go to sleep and go to school and eat my food and not watch tv." She gives me a big list of what she fucking didn't do. She's so lucky that it was Katherine and not me, she might be my daughter but I would've flipped if the kid wouldn't have listened to me for two days straight.

"Okay and why didn't you listen to her?"

"Because..." She shrugs. Because she didn't want me to go and she decided to punish her mother for that.