Painting Paper Hearts | ✔

Chapter 24- I Want To See My Daughter

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Speak up, Emerald. Speak up!

The awkward silence grew thick at each passing moment and all I could do was avert my gaze to the road on my side. It hadn't been ten minutes since I got into Richard Darlington's all-black BMW and I already managed to become all nervous.

What's a girl to do with all this tension going? Our meeting didn't call for a happy reunion for finally finding a long lost immediate family.

As long as there was the bothersome issue between mom and my grandfather, there wouldn't be any reunion anytime soon.

"Is the AC too much for you? I'll ask the driver to turn it down," my uncle spoke up and my eyes quickly shifted to where he was seated.

"Oh no, sir. I'm okay,"

The man nodded. "I see. I assumed that you're cold since you're rubbing your arm too much."

I only hit realization when he pointed that out and my arms quickly stopped its ugly mannerism. I felt my cheeks warm up and my gaze quickly hit the floor when my ears caught Richard chuckling.

"Are you really that nervous? You sound so brave back in my office,"

The crimson red tinge in my cheeks deepened. "Y-yes sir. I'm a little nervous but I'll be okay. I won't vomit unnecessary things at least,"

"Please, just call me by my name. Even though it's a little odd for you that you've only met us now, you're still part of the family. The blood of a Darlington runs through your vein and you're no different from us,"

I gave him a small smile. Sure I was a Darlington but I didn't grow up like a Darlington should have been. I grew up without their riches, leisure, and advantage.

"Thank you, Richard. I'm just having a little bit of a hard time adjusting with the fact that I'm a Darlington. All of the truth are thrown to me in one day and I'm not mentally ready for that—I wasn't expecting any of this to happen,"

Richard clasped his fingers together then sighed. "I don't blame you for that. You were deliberately hidden in the shadows but secrets are bound to be revealed one day."

"Yeah," I nodded. "I just didn't expect how heavy these secrets were. I thought it only happens in books and movies, you know?"

My attempt to be humorous actually worked as he chuckled in delight. "Anything is possible in this big, messy world. Why do you think people still spend their money on lottery tickets?"

It may have been intentionally left as a rhetoric question but I gave it a nice, long thought anyway. Winning the lotto was a one in a million chance yet millions of people were willing to take that one chance, a possibility regardless of its low probability. Lotto had a long history of game of chance.

Oh gee. The things I learn from my History of Mathematics last semester is finally coming to a use. Thanks Jacob Bernoulli and Gerolamo Cardano!

"Knowing how stubborn my sister is, I'm sure you shook her pretty well in order to hear the truth," Richard broke off my daze of the busy pedestrian lane. Remembering mom's crying face put a lump in my throat so I nodded quaintly.

"It's an ugly truth, eh?" he added. "Your mother fell in love to a man our father did not approve of. At first, we thought it was just some kind of a silly young love that will fade away once she gets to the States and focus on her music, but we were gravely wrong." I found myself immersed in his recollection of mom's love for dad.