Chapter One- Riker's Secret
"Riker?"
"Hmm." I said not looking up from where I was texting Sophia. We were all hanging out on the tour bus after our show so I was texting for more information on Emily. "Riker get off your phone." I sighed and looked at my mom.
"But mom,"
"No now." Sighing I pressed the lock button. "Riker we are trying to spend time together as a family, what did I say before we got on the bus?" I just looked down playing with a string on my sleeve.
"Riker!" I flinched hearing my mother yell at me looking up at her I answered, "No electronics until after twelve tonight." I said fiddling with it. "Good now put it in your pocket or give it to me."
"But why I'm not on it." I said passing the device from hand to hand. "Okay that's it give me the phone."
"Okay, Okay fine it's going in my pocket."
"No I gave you a chance to do that now give me your phone."
"No I don't have to I am an adult."
"Well you sure as hell aren't acting like one!"
"I'm going for a walk." I said before grabbing my sweater off the couch. I was about to leave when my dad grabbed my arm.
"What!" I said angrily to him, I knew I was out of line but I didn't care.
"You are not going anywhere because this is supposed to be time for the family." Pulling my arm away I responded, "Fuck off," and with that I opened the door and left. I unlocked my phone and scrolled through my contacts before finding Sophia's contact. It rang a few times before a tired voice answered. "Hello."
"Karen? Where's Sophia?" I asked pulling my hood up over my head.
"She's in the shower but do you want to talk to Emily."
"Ya sure."
"Okay here she is." I heard shuffling and Karen tell Emily that daddy was on the phone.
"Daddy." I heard my 5 year old daughter say into the phone. Smiling I responded, "Hey princess how are you."
"I'm okay my tummy hurts though and I threw up but I'm fine now." My smile disappeared after hearing that. "Aww that's too bad."
"Ya but it okay now daddy." Smiling again I asked "so what are you doing right now?"
"Waiting for mommy to get out of the shower so we can watch a movie."
"Really what movie?"
"The little mermaid."
"Really, I wish I could watch it too." I said looking down at the ground I kicked some rocks out of the way, "Ya I wish you were here to daddy, I miss you." Blinking back tears I responded, "I miss you to princess."
"Are you still getting me snow globes?" I chuckled, "yes how could I not get you snow globes."
"Daddy?"
"Yes."
"Where are you right now?"
"I'm in Florida."
"Cool, did you get my snow globe" She asked hopefully. "Yes."
"What is it?" She asked quietly. I answered back the same volume as she was. "I can't tell you."
"Aww why not."
"Because it's a surprise."
"Oh" I could hear the pout in her voice she was silent for a moment and I could her a door opening. "Mommy." Emily said happily.
"Hey baby girl, who are you talking to?"
"Daddy, do you want to talk to him." She must have nodded or something because a moment later I could hear her voice say my name. "Hey Riker."
"Hey Soph"
"Is everything okay?" How could she even tell something was bothering me? "No."
"What's wrong?" I could hear the quiet of the room disperse and it was suddenly louder than before so she must have stepped into the hallway.
"Nothing, I just got into an argument with my parents."
"About?"
"We weren't supposed to be on our phones and I was texting you about tomorrow."
"Why didn't you tell me you weren't supposed to be on your phone?"
"Because the conversation was more important than the rule my mom made."
"Have you told them about Emily yet?"
"No."
"You should." I sighed, "Ya I know but I've kept this a secret for such a long time, I mean I don't like talking about it."
"I know I don't either but your family needs to know about Emily because if Emily," I could hear her voice crack and I immediately knew what she was going to say I stopped walking and waited for her to continue, "if Emily dies then your family wouldn't have met her and that could break their hearts because Emily is their niece and their granddaughter I mean how would you feel if one of your brothers or your sister had a kid and their kid died and you didn't even get to meet them I mean you would probably feel really upset and you don't want you upset them do you and imagine how Stormie would feel that she had a granddaughter that she didn't get to meet her granddaughter." I sighed knowing that Sophia was right.
"Okay I'll go back to the bus and tell them."
"Good, I love you." I smiled, "I love you too." I hung up and started to make my way back to the tour bus.
What if Emily does die I mean she's dying and I can't do anything about it I mean what kind of father does that make me? I mean I'm not even with her.
I suddenly realized I was crying. "No don't think like that she will be fine Emily will be fine." I said to myself wiping my tears away. Taking a breath I opened the door to the tour bus. As soon as I walked in all of my siblings (and Ratliff) looked at me.
"Where's mom and dad."
"In the back." Ross said angrily. "Why'd you do that?"
"I don't know I was really angry." I said as I made my way to the back. Walking through the bunks I stopped at the door and knocked.
"Come in." I heard my mom say so I opened the door. As soon as I walked in I could tell my mom was crying which made me feel worse. I looked down for a second before walking in all the way and closing the door. I took my phone out of my pocket and looked at it before handing it to my mom.
"I'm sorry for disobeying your rule and yelling at you and I'm sorry for swearing at you dad I shouldn't have. I wasn't acting like an adult and I'm sorry for hurting your feelings." I said to them as sincerely as I could make it seem. My mom walked up to me and hugged me tightly.
"It's okay baby." I smiled before remembering why I came back to the bus.
"Um I need to talk to you and the others it's kinda important." I said after clearing my throat.
"Okay let's go see them." My mom said while I opened the door to let them both out my dad patted my shoulder before walking out after my mom. I took a breath before following them. They sat on the couch on the right beside Ross, Rocky and Ellington before looking at me. I cleared my throat before sitting down. "Um I wanted to tell you all something important." They all looked at me expectantly and I took a breath rubbing my hands together.
"Okay um about 2 years ago when we were in Colorado for Christmas I was out walking around when I walked into this coffee shop called the Cocoa Bean and I ordered a coffee then I went to go sit down but when I turned around I bumped into this girl and she spilled her coffee so I offered to buy her a new one and after we sat down and started talking and I found out her name was Sophia, and we kind off hit it off so I got her number and we just kept talking after that. So anyway about 6 months after that she went to the orphanage that she lived in when she was younger, her parents died in a car accident when she was 3, to volunteer there and there was a little girl there she was 3 at the time and Sophia just fell in love with her, her name was Emily and after that day Sophia called me and showed me pictures of Emily and I'm not gonna lie I kind of fell in love with her too. But Sophia wanted to go a step further and asked me if we could adopt her I mean she could have just adopted her herself but she wanted to run it by me first so I went over there to meet Emily and seeing her in person I just knew that adopting her was the right thing." I was about to continue but Ross interrupted me.
"Wait so you adopted a kid?"
"Yes Ross I did." I said looking at the reactions of my family.
"When can we meet her, wait how long ago was this," Rydel said from beside me.
"Um it's not that easy."
"Why not?" I took a breath and looked down at the tour bus carpet. "So we adopted Emily when she was 4 and she is 6 now and last year in August, Sophia and I broke up and we got joint custody of Emily."
"So that's why we can't see Emily?"
"No Sophia and I got back together so that's not the problem and you can see Emily whenever but I need to tell you all something about Emily." I took a breath and thought for a second and started talking again "about six months ago when Sophia was giving Emily a bath she saw Emily had some bruising on her lower back and around her shoulder blades so Sophia got concerned because her younger sister had the same problem when she got Leukemia and Sophia took Emily to the hospital and they did some tests on her. About a week later I got a call from Sophia was crying." Riker paused to look at the reactions of his family.
"She- she told me that Emily had stage one Leukemia."
So any way that is the beginning chapter of Daddy's Little Girl I hope you liked it. I will try to update every Saturday and Wednesday.
Sincerely, Charley.