Chapter 128 Meeting her father

Chapter 128 Meeting her father
Casey’s POV

I parked across the street from the Sterling building and immediately wished I hadn't. The building rose above me, all glass and steel and polished stone, the kind of place that made you feel small before you'd even stepped through the doors.
I had been sitting in my car for almost twenty minutes. The engine was off and my hands were resting on the steering wheel and I was still trying to convince myself to get out.
Sterling Group.
My parents' company. That thought still felt strange. Not Alexander and Victoria Sterling, the people whose names had suddenly become part of my life, at least not yet, just two names on a DNA report.
Two people who had spent twenty-two years believing their daughter was dead and now I was sitting across the road from the building that belonged to the family I'd never known.
I looked at the entrance. People walked in and out. Executives in suits. Employees carrying coffee. Visitors speaking into phones. Nobody knew that the woman sitting across the street was supposed to be the daughter of the man whose name stood above the doors.
I reached for the DNA report on the passenger seat. I didn't need to read it because I'd read it enough times but still, I opened it. My eyes landed on the names.
Alexander Sterling.
Victoria Sterling.
I closed it again. "Okay." I said the word quietly to myself. "Just go inside."
My hand moved toward the door handle but stopped and I pulled it back. What was I supposed to say?
Hi. I'm Casey. Apparently I'm your daughter.
The thought was so absurd that a nervous laugh escaped me. I leaned my head against the seat. "You're being ridiculous."
But my hands were shaking. This wasn't a business building to me it was the place my father had built his life. The place where my mother had probably walked countless times. The place where they had worked together while believing their daughter was gone and now I was about to walk through the doors.
I wasn't sure I could do it. My phone buzzed.
Chris: You there?
I smiled despite myself.
Yes.
His reply came almost immediately.
Do you want me to come?
I stared at the message. I wanted him to. God, I wanted him beside me but something inside me said this was something I needed to do first.
I'm okay. I deleted the message and typed again. I'm going to try.
His response appeared.
I'm proud of you.
My eyes stung and I put the phone down and then I opened the car door. The moment my feet touched the pavement, my heart started pounding. I crossed the street slowly. One step then another. The closer I got, the more impossible it felt and when I reached the entrance, I stopped.
A receptionist looked up. "Good morning."
"Good morning." My voice sounded small.
"Can I help you?"
I looked behind her and at the elevators and at the polished marble floor and at the people moving through the lobby and then I looked back at her. "I'm here to see Alexander Sterling."
Her expression changed slightly. "Do you have an appointment?"
"No."
She hesitated. "I'm sorry, but Mr. Sterling is usually—"
"It's okay." I turned before she could finish. I couldn't do it not today. Maybe tomorrow or maybe next week or maybe after I had another six months to think.
I took two steps toward the door and then I heard a voice behind me.
"Casey?"
I froze and my heart stopped. I knew that voice. I'd heard it before as the man who had stood across from me while Michael's investigation slowly changed my life. I turned.
Alexander Sterling stood several feet away he wasn't wearing the expression of a powerful businessman. He looked terrified. His eyes moved over my face and for several seconds, he simply stared.
I couldn't move either, neither of us spoke and then his lips parted. "You're Casey."
I nodded. "Yes."
His eyes filled immediately. He looked away for a second, pressing his lips together as though trying desperately to regain control and when he looked back at me, the tears were already falling. "I'm sorry."
The words surprised me. "For what?"
"For not knowing."
My throat tightened. He took one careful step toward me and then stopped. He didn't touch me and he didn't try to hug me. He simply stood there. "I don't know what to say."
I swallowed. "Neither do I."
A broken laugh escaped him. "I've imagined this moment." I looked at him. "For twenty-two years."
My eyes burned. "What did you imagine?"
His face crumpled slightly. "A little girl."
I held my breath.
"Sometimes I imagined you at five." He smiled through tears. "Sometimes ten." His voice broke. "Sometimes I imagined what you'd look like at twenty-two."
I looked down. "I didn't know you were imagining me."
"I never stopped."
The words hit me harder than I expected. I looked at him again.
He wiped his face quickly. "I don't want to make you uncomfortable."
"You don't."
"I don't want you to think I'm expecting anything."
"I'm not."
"I don't want you to feel like you owe me a relationship simply because we're related."
My throat tightened. "Okay."
He nodded. "I just..." He looked at me. "I wanted to see you."
I nodded slowly. "I wanted to see you too."
Something changed in his expression, something like hope, fragile and terrified. He took another step. "Can I ask you something?"
"Yes."
"Can I call you Casey?" He asked.
A small, confused smile touched my lips. "That's my name."
"I know." He laughed softly through his tears. "I meant... can I call you my daughter?"
I couldn't answer and not because I didn't want to but because the word was too big, too unfamiliar and too painful. I looked at him.
He immediately nodded. "You don't have to answer."
I swallowed. "I don't know how to be your daughter."
His eyes closed briefly. "Neither do I know how to be your father."
That made me smile but only a little. "But maybe..." He opened his eyes. "...we can learn."
The tears I'd been fighting finally slipped down my cheeks. He saw them and his instinct was clearly to reach for me but he stopped himself. That small hesitation told me everything.
He was giving me the choice and I took one step toward him and then another. He remained still and I stopped in front of him. We stared at each other. His eyes were exactly the kind of eyes I'd imagined belonging to my father.
I didn't know why. I had never seen him before today, yet something about his face felt strangely familiar. Maybe it was the shape of his smile or maybe the way his eyebrows moved when he was trying not to cry or maybe it was simply because I now knew this was my father.
"I don't know what I'm supposed to feel," I whispered.
"You don't have to feel anything." He whispered softly.
"I thought I'd be happier." I replied.
"I understand."
"I'm not unhappy." I quickly said.
"I know."
"I'm just..." I struggled to find the words. "Overwhelmed."
He nodded. "Me too."
A tear rolled down his cheek. "I've waited twenty-two years to meet you." I looked at him. "And I didn't even know I was supposed to meet you."
He closed his eyes. That hurt him. I could see it but he didn't make me feel guilty for saying it.
When he opened his eyes again, he gave me a sad smile. "Then maybe we should start with today."
I nodded. "Today."
He smiled. "Would you like to sit somewhere?"
I looked around the lobby. "Here?"
"Somewhere quieter."
I hesitated. "Are you working?"
He shook his head. "Not anymore."
That made me smile. "You left work because of me?"
"I've been waiting twenty-two years." His voice softened. "I think I can spare an afternoon."
I looked down, trying to hide the smile that had appeared. He noticed anyway and for a moment, neither of us looked like strangers.
Alexander looked toward the doors. "There's a restaurant not far from here." He hesitated. "If you're comfortable with it, we could have lunch."
I looked at him. "Just us?"
"If that's what you want."
I nodded slowly. "Okay."
His smile trembled. "Okay."
He didn't reach for my hand and he didn't put an arm around me. He simply walked beside me toward the doors and somehow, that made the first step easier because he wasn't trying to become my father in one afternoon.
He was simply giving me the chance to know him. As I stepped outside beside him, my heart was still racing. I was still terrified and I still didn't know what tomorrow would bring but for the first time, I wasn't walking toward a stranger.
I was walking beside the man who had spent twenty-two years believing he'd lost his daughter and neither of us knew yet what would happen when Victoria joined us.