the three of us {chim}

Piece 74

Author's POV

James ran back to his office and grabbed his coat. As he slipped it on, he ran back out to the lobby and didn't give the receptionist even a second to say anything. Right when he stepped outside, he saw the girl's car drive away. He rushed to his own car and immediately followed her. He didn't know where she was going, but he didn't care.

James followed the girl all the way to a hotel, where he watched her get out of her car with a boy. While he was prepping himself in the car, he watched the two teens take out their bags.

"It'll be okay, darling. We'll just go back in the morning." Wren spoke up and lifted Camille's chin. She smiled sadly at him and grabbed her bag. They walked up to the automatic sliding door of the hotel, but were stopped by a voice from behind.

"Camille...?" A man's voice was heard, causing Camille to whip her head around. She saw the man in the pictures, the man that she's supposed to call 'Dad'.

"Your name is Camille, right?" James stepped closer to the teen, making his fancy shoes click against the pavement.

"How do you know that?" She asked, thinking that he wouldn't even know anything about her existence. Wren excused himself, letting the two have a moment.

"If you are who I think you are, I know a lot about you. Not in a creepy-pedophile-stalker way but in a..."

"You're-my-Dad-and-you've-been-missing type of way?" Camille finished his sentence for him, making him lightly laugh.

"I guess you could put it like that." He shrugged his shoulders and took another step closer.

"You look just like Cheryl." He looked down at the teen, admiring her crystal blue eyes, which seems to be the only difference between her and Cheryl.

"I get that a lot." The teen pushed a piece of hair behind her ear, not knowing what to say now.

"Can we go inside?" He asked and Camille just nodded.  The two walked into the hotels main lobby and sat down at a nearby sofa.

"So, how did you meet Cheryl? I bet she hired a special agent of some sort to secretly find you against the law." He exaggerated, causing a red flag to go off in Camille's head.  No one trash talks her Mam, it's only a turn off for Camille.

"Actually, I met Kimberley first - and it was by coincidence." Camille corrected his guess and gave him a look of disapproval.

"Ah, Kimberley, the bakery girl." He said and Camille bit her lower lip.

"It's actually a diner. You don't know much about any of this, do you?" Camille asked her father, who she wasn't particularly drawn to at the moment.

"No, I tried to block all of this out." James looked into his daughter's eyes, hating how much she screams Cheryl.  He wants to build a life with her in it, but every time he sees her, he sees Cheryl.

"Just like you blocked me out." Camille muttered under her breath, causing his heart to drop a little.

"Camille, it was complicated-"

"I get it, I've heard it all before. At this point, I don't even care why I was given away in the first place. The whole 'it wasn't you, it was me' thing has been said a million times too many." Camille explained to him, telling her truthful feelings.