Illegitimate Prodigy

A Great Night for Ballet

The evening was chillier, having been going into the fall months. New York's trees were beginning to turn orange and yellow; the grass glistened with frost in Central Park in the early hours of the morning. Nighttime brought cool breezes coming off the ocean, winding through the city's streets. Tony's daughter had just turned five in July, and was now returning to school. Only she wasn't attending school at the private school in the city, as she lived in Scarsdale with her mother now. He approached his in-laws house slowly, adjusting his suit jacket. Lizzie agreed that he could drive Annabelle to her Ballet Recital, and they would drive her home. He had boughten her roses which hid out of sight in the trunk. An on going tradition that Tony never truly grasped, but of course, he never had a great understanding of traditions anyway. Other than maybe going to the same casino in Vegas and talking to different women.

Before he even reached the door, Annabelle came running out of the house. Her hair was tied back very tightly, with a little knot on the top of her head. "Daddy!" She took only about six steps off the porch, and took a giant leap. The older Stark caught her underneath her arms. Tony let out an exaggerated grunt. "Gahh..you're so heavy." Annabelle just laughed, her brown eyes sparkling as she stared into his. "I know, but guess what? I lost a tooth today too, Daddy." Belle opened her mouth reveal her one of her front teeth were missing.

"That means you're getting old, you know that right?" Tony grinned, but his daughter responded with a fake pout across her features. "No, I'm not!"

Lizzie appeared out the front door, small ballet slippers dangling at her fingertips. The look in her eyes was rather suspicious, but Tony often didn't address this look. Not anymore. She always seemed so bitter with him, so it just seemed better to avoid any conversation she might want to have. Her steps were slow, making her way down onto the side walk. She extended her hand out to give Tony the ballet slippers. "She needs these." Tony's eyebrows furrowed at the obvious sentence, putting Annabelle down, to which she just bolted to the car. Lizzie's blue eyes had a sorrowful look in them, and she wasn't able to keep too much eye contact. This wasn't really like her, and usually she was always so blunt and paid no mind to what she said to him. Whether anything she said hurt his feelings. "We need to talk before her recital...not here, but once she's inside with her class." Lizzie let out a very heavy sigh, with an attempt at a small reassuring smile. Tony's eyes narrowed, pushing his shoulders back slightly, his chest pushing forward. He was fidgeting uncomfortably. "Is there something wrong? Did your father teach Belle how to drink whiskey today?" The sarcasm was to lighten the mood, but Lizzie barely budged. "We just have to have a serious conversation. About Belle. About you."  His dark globes dropped down to his dress shoes, the orange clouds above him reflecting off them. Her words made him uneasy, and he didn't like to feel that way. Tony always had a fall back. Being the rich playboy that he was, he almost always had something to fall back on. Everything could be replaced or negotiated with his money. Belle wasn't one of those things. The thoughts that raced through his head--what Lizzie could actually be implying--scared him. A feeling he really wasn't use to. 

He simply nodded, turning to pace down the cracked side walk toward his car. Belle's head poked over the window in the back seat. He could see the skin around her eyes crinkle when she grinned at him, the bare gums where her tooth fell out becoming very obvious at that point. Her hair was lighter in that time, having transitioned from being completely blonde as a toddler, and slowly getting darker with age. It was hard to believe that 5 years had passed. Belle went from the size of a loaf of bread--into a little human that was capable of her own ideas, and feelings. Her own little quirks, mannerisms. Things that definitely made Tony believe that Annabelle was his daughter. "Come on, Dad, hurry up!" 

Her school in Scarsdale was nothing too big, and definitely not as big as the private school that Tony wanted Annabelle to attend. This school was tiny, and had very little to offer. Lizzie was adamant that she didn't want Belle turning into one of those snotty private school kids. She was already convinced that Tony spoiled their daughter too much, and it was 'all going to go to her head.' Pulling up to the curb, it only took seconds for the small 5 year old to swoop out of the back seat of his car. "Kiddo, wait up!" Tony said, opening the car door, nearly forgetting the ballet slippers in the front passenger seat.  The four foot tall young girl fidgeted on the side walk impatiently, staring at the older Stark. Getting around the car, he knelt down on one knee to meet her dark gaze. 

"Don't forget about these," he dangled the shoes in front of her. "Wouldn't be able to dance very well without 'em." Annabelle stared at them for a second. 

"You're going to be here the whole time, right daddy?" 

His eyebrow furrowed in response to her question. Why would she think that he wasn't going to be there the whole time? His hand holding the ballet slippers dropped to his knee, his lips pressing together. "I wouldn't miss it. What would make you think otherwise?" 

His young daughter dropped her gaze. "Mommy..." She mumbled, "Mommy said you might not be there after my recital. That..that things would be changing. For all of us."  

Tony, in general, wasn't really a worrier. He didn't really fixate on things, and his attention span was limited when it came to every day life.  However, hearing these worse escape his daughter's lips gave him an uncomfortable shiver down his spine. What did Lizzie have planned that he didn't know about. Annabelle stared at him anxiously, almost as if pleading, 'please don't go anywhere. Please be here after.' 

"I'm not going anywhere, sweetheart. I'll be here to watch the recital, and I'll be here to embarrass you when you get off the stage." He put on an uneasy fake plastic smile, leaned forward and planted a kiss on her cheek that was covered in shiny blush before tucking a hair behind her ear that had fallen from her very tight bun. His hand lifted once, handing her the slippers. In retrieving them, she immediately wrapped her arms around his neck. The older Stark's heart fluttered strangely. The same way it did when he heard Annabelle take her first breath. 

Her little arms became untwined around his neck, and she quickly caught up with her friend that had walked by, the parents slowly glancing back at Tony with a reassuring grin, and small wave. As they turned back around, Tony slowly gravitated back to his feet, the sunshine warming the back of his suit. 

"Tony."  A voice called from behind him. It was Lizzie's. Turning his head over his shoulder, he felt a lump form in his throat when it wasn't just her standing there, but Obadiah as well.