*Fulfilling my requests? Only when it suits you, right?” I threw those words in his face. “I thought our friendship always came first.”
“What? What are you talking about?” He asked confused now.
“I have to go, we’ll talk later.”
“What? Wait, Jason…!” He tried to stop me, but I turned off my cell phone before he could finish his speech.
I sighed, running my hand over my face. I wanted to say so many things to him, but I stopped myself. It was at this point that I saw a small crowd of children passing through the gate as their guardians came to collect them. I immediately got out of the car and looked around to see if one of them was the child in the photo in my hands.
I had never been close to her or even interacted with her, so it was difficult to recognize her from afar among all those other children. Likewise, I approached where the children were gathered and compared the faces of any little black-haired girl I found with the photo in my hand. This was taking a long time, and no one but me could find her. Had Anne not gone to daycare today? But I was sure that Laura and Richard were at Hextec, and they were going to show up there at any moment to pick up Anne, so I had to hurry before ! didn’t get that chance with her.
I continued looking for a while and when I thought everything was lost, I saw two children sitting on a stool nearby, swinging their legs in a fun way, it was a boy and a girl and when I saw the girl, I immediately knew it was her.
Excited, I approached her, quickly folding the photo and putting it in my pocket, as soon as I got closer, I crouched down in front of her. ” Hello…,” I said with an aspirational smile on my face. She was exactly
+25 BONUS
that girl in the photo, she was my daughter.
“Who are you?” She asked, a little scared that I had approached her so suddenly. I still didn’t know how to deal with children, but I just needed time to get used to it.
“I’m your father, my princess. I’m your dad,” I said to her and she shook her head no, her face confused.
“No, you’re not my father. My father is Ricky,” she said, affirming.
“Ricky isn’t your father, he’s just mom’s friend. Look at my eyes, they’re blue like yours because you’re my daughter,” I tried to convince her, speaking gently and she still had a confused and suspicious face.
“My mommy told me not to talk to strangers,” she said and I swallowed hard, feeling my heart almost break that my daughter was seeing me as a stranger.
“But I’m not a stranger, princess. I’m your father,” I insisted with my hand on her arm somewhat desperately.
“He is your father, Anne,” said the boy who was sitting next to her. My father always says that children take on the characteristics of their parents, just as I took on my father’s brown skin color, you also took on your father’s blue eyes.”
“Caleb?” Anne asked her friend and the boy nodded.
“Caleb is right, Anne, princess. I am your father, your real father,” I said, smiling at her, taking advantage of the fact that the boy was helping me. “You are not hungry? What do you think about eating a big burger and hot chocolate?” I suggested, seeing the girl’s eyes widen slightly, clearly tempted by the food.
“Wow! I want hot chocolate too,” said the boy next to her excitedly.
‘Could it be a shrimp burger? My mom never lets me eat it,” the girl said, making me laugh.
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“Your mom said you’re allergic to shellfish, that’s why you can’t eat shrimp,” Caleb said.
“I’m afraid neither you nor I can eat shrimp burgers because I’m also allergic to seafood,” he said to the girl, stroking the tip of her little nose, and making her laugh.
I looked at a guard a few meters away from us who was looking in our direction as if he wanted to come towards us. I had to be quick, as I would have no way of escaping if the guard came to approach
“Can we go now?”
“But what about Caleb?” She asked, wanting me to take her little
friend.
I ran my hand through the boy’s curly hair and said, “Next time I’ll take you with us, okay?”
The boy nodded, smiling. “It’s OK.”
I looked at Anne, extending my hand to her. “Let’s go?”
Anne looked at my hand and placed her little hand in mine, smiling. ” Let’s go!”
So finally I was able to take her to the car and got out of there before anyone intercepted me.
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