And She Was Caught (Completed)

Chapter 10

CHAPTER TEN

I lied awake in my childhood bed and stared at the moon from outside my window. The curtains were drawn; since I was little I was already fond of staring into nothingness, sometimes it helped clearing my mind off unwanted thoughts. And right now, I got a lot of those.

I have been chasing sleep for hours now since I laid here in this bed but it didn't come. Deciding I needed to get out for a little, I took my cardigan and wore it over my fitted tank top. Axl perked up from his sleep and watched me get dressed but went back to his cat dreams. I walked passed my father's study and saw that he was still there. I entered his office silently and saw him on his chair with his back at me. This office must be the most important part of this house, this was where he spent majority of his life. I smiled at the memory of my childhood. I was so bitter back then, it only made me shake my head in dismay remembering how I never really tried to understand my own father. Back then, it was just all about me --- my loss, my pain and my loneliness.

He was facing the fireplace on the wall but I knew his eyes were trained on the huge canvass painting of my late mother. This man loved my mother so damn much I was amazed. A smile graced my lips and I padded my way towards him. When I approached him, I laid my hand on his shoulder and he looked up at me, a little startled.

"It's late dad," I smiled down at him. He looked back to my mother's photo and I followed his gaze, studying my mother's features which looked so much like mine. It appeased a little of my longing for her whenever I looked at myself in the mirror. She was here with me, inside me. "Do you miss her?" I asked as I perched my behind on the arm rest of his huge chair.

"There's not a day I didn't miss your mother." He said and I swallowed the lump starting to form at the base of my throat. We seldom talked about my mother, it was hard for the both of us. "Whenever I close my eyes, I see her face looking at me with her usual carefree smile, when I'm not doing anything I hear her sweet voice, calling out to me or sometimes she laughed. I hear her cooing over you. When I try to sleep, I feel the ghost of her touch. She's everywhere yet she's not."

Tears had started to gather beneath my lids but I blinked them away. That was the reason why my father never stopped working, that was why he never paused and mourned over her. He was still mourning his loss, he never stopped. How could I be so naive? "I miss her so much too."

He took my hand and enveloped it with his. He remained silent, maybe there were no words necessary. We were feeling the same way, we shared the same loneliness. This comfortable silence dragged for a long while and I even took a sip from my father's glass of scotch. He allowed me.

Wanting more than just a sip, I took a glass of my own and poured two fingers of my dad's scotch. "What's bothering you?" He asked after I dragged another chair for me beside him.

I gave him a lopsided grin, "I am wondering about how my daddy remains so fit and handsome despite being a hundred and ten years old."

His lips twitched in a near smile, "I'm fifty four,"

I made a show of widening my eyes and forming my mouth in a small o. "I wouldn't have thought you're so young! You could still go out on dates!"

He shook his head as though I was extremely amusing and dorky. "You are thinking about Jack?" He asked and my head swiveled on his direction. He was looking at me, measuring up my reaction.

I shook my head and laughed shakily, "Not even close."

He only looked at me not buying my shit. He was my father after all, they have this lie detector. "Not that much and it's not like, I actually like thinking about him! I am not voluntarily thinking about him. That's the thing, it bothers me that's why I am thinking about him more than I should."