Fitz sat at his desk after Parker left thinking about how Ileana could be anything but his daughter. She looked just like Olivia. Ileana had her hair, nose, mouth, everything but she had his eyes. She was a definitely beautiful girl. When was Olivia pregnant? How did she hide it? Why did she hide being pregnant? He wanted his questions answered, needed them answered.
After he thought about it for another half hour, Fitz picked up the house phone and dialed a number.
Olivia sat at home after finishing a case. She sat in bed reading a case for another client alone. Flipping another page, she finished the paragraph she was on when her phone rang. She looked at the caller id and thought about ignoring it.
Vermont
She wanted to answer it on one hand but on the other, they hadn't talked in years. Liv wanted to know why he was calling. Without thinking she answered the phone but didn't say a word.
Fitz heard her breathing on the other end. They stayed quiet for several minutes.
"What do you need?" she asked him breaking the silence.
"Is there something you want to tell me?"
Olivia rolled her eyes, this conversation was not going to be good. "I haven't talked to you in sixteen years and that's your starting point? Hi, hello, how are you? But since you decided to start that way… No, I don't have something I want to tell you. What do you need, Mr. President?"
"Answers. I need answers."
"Answers of what?"
"I need you to get on a plane and get here."
"Absolutely not. I don't do what you say anymore."
"You never did what I said before. Get on a plane and come here and explain this to me."
"Explain what? What the hell do you need, Fitz?"
"A boy came here with your bracelet. He got it from…."
"I don't need to know where he got it from. I'll be on the next plane out."
"The private jet is at the airport and David is arriving at your house any minute to take you there. I'll see you in a few hours."
Liv slammed the phone into the cradle and got dressed. She threw on jeans and a sweater heading out the door meeting David there.
The whole ride over to the airport and to Vermont, Olivia grew angrier. She was beyond angry that he never changed his way about summoning her. Even now she was still mad about him doing this to her.
David didn't know if he should say anything to her or ask if she wanted anything to drink on the plane ride over.
When they arrived at the house Liv walked in going to his office.
"I'm here. Now what do you need?"
Fitz held up the bracelet for her to see. "You lost it in the park when you went for a run. Funny how twenty years later I have it here. Clasp looks fine."
"How did you get this?"
"Did you forget to tell me that you were pregnant? Did that somehow just slip your mind?"
Olivia took a seat across from his desk. "So this is what I was summoned for? You get the bracelet and I get the third degree? Wow, that seems right. The usual isn't it?"
"Ileana."
"What?"
"Ileana. She's our daughter…"
"What are you talking about? We don't have a daughter. You and I have nothing."
Fitz stood up and pulled out his cell phone putting it in her face to look at the picture. "Really! She's nothing?! This beautiful girl is nothing?!"
"Get out of my face!"
"LOOK AT HER! She's nothing! ILEANA IS NOTHING? How the hell can you do this to me? How can you keep this from me? You knew I wanted a baby with you and you gave her away!"
Olivia looked at the picture which looked more like a mirror to her. "I did the right thing. Regardless of what you think, I did the right thing."
"By destroying us?"
"How did this become about us? How did I get dragged into this?"
"You are her mother!"
"No, I am absolutely no one's mother. I'm not a mother or a wife or a girlfriend or mistress or anything. I'm me and that's all I am."
"Ileana is my daughter that you gave away without telling me she even existed. I learn from some twenty four year old boy that dates my daughter that I even have a daughter because she has your bracelet."
"How do you know someone didn't just pick it up and put it with her?"
"Because I know you. You care about the bracelet. You are you. You left the bracelet with Ileana when you gave her up. When you gave her up without my consent."
"You never would have let me give her away."
"That's for damn sure. You ruined our chances of having our own family when you gave her up."
"Oh please our chances of having our own family were shot to hell when you decided to push me away and fuck me in a closet at Ella's christening."
"I told you I was sorry for that."
"No, you said you made a mistake. That we were a mistake."
"We were together after that."
"I know everything is my fault. It always was and it always will be. I tried to tell you that I was pregnant and things just got worse after that. The christening was a disaster, and then when I thought I should tell you, you were being tried for impeachment and we were going to get married and that never worked. Then the whole thing with my father blew up and I never spoke to you after that. No matter how hard I tried, I was blocked at every angle."
"You helped the man who killed my son escape federal prison. Probably with the help of your friend Huck. YOU helped him out of there, no one else."
"I've put up with this for sixteen years. I've done everything to protect you and you still have yet to listen."
"I don't need to listen, Olivia. I need you to explain why you would ruin us by giving up our daughter."
Olivia sighed knowing that she wasn't going to get a chance to explain how Eli got out of prison. She was here for one reason and that was it, then she was free to go home or wherever she liked.
"I'm sorry. Ileana wasn't in my plans to be a mother. We weren't… I wasn't ready to devote my life to a child on my own. God knows I couldn't get you to leave Mellie without the world falling apart. So I gave her up for adoption. I found a couple that could give her a good life and could make sure that she was given whatever she needed. I couldn't do that for her."
"Neither did they. The woman got pregnant and gave Ileana away. My daughter was adopted when she was ten but spent the years before in foster care when she could have been given everything she could ever want had she been with me."
"I said I'm sorry. Isn't that what you usually want from me before you dismiss me?"
"Parker, Ileana's boyfriend, is bringing her here in two days. I want to meet her and you will be here for her as well."
"No, I won't."
"Of course you will. You will look her in the eye and tell her why you are so selfish to give her away."
Olivia crossed her arms staring at him. "I gave Ileana away over twenty years ago. She doesn't need me to explain to her why. She is a grown woman and with the right person, if she wants to meet me, she can find me. Until then, I will not intrude on her life. For all I know, she wants nothing to do with either of us. And as such, I will respect her wishes."
"She's been looking for us for several years. Parker figured out where the bracelet came from and found me. I will meet her and so will you."
