Chapter 113

July 29th, 2024

It was a rare moment at Celeste's estate. The place was deserted, everybody except Rory having taken the kids to Parc Phoenix, which was a theme park for animals and extravagant plants.

But this was all purposeful. Rory was going to make the dreaded call. She didn't want her kids to hear her use that tone or words she'd thought out in her mind.

It felt like the longest ringing tone, and she almost lost her nerve.

The voice that picked up was a hesitant one. "Rory, hey," Christopher said.

It took Rory a few seconds to actually respond to that. She'd delayed making the call too long - it was over a week ago since they'd found the letter. But there had been other matters that had taken priority.

"Hi," she replied, coldly.

"How are you?" he asked, as if unsure if Rory had even read the letter.

It was then Rory realized that her father wasn't that oblivious to believe his daughters, the adult ones, were not angry and disappointed in him. That was the whole reason why he'd not said anything for so long. Sure, it was cowardly. But by not telling them he'd been postponing losing them, even if he wasn't often with them.

"What do you think?" Rory said, not even bothering to be moody about it. Her initial plan of yelling at him, cursing him and blaming him for doing something horrible, especially to G, suddenly subsided.

"I guess you probably have a lot of questions. Angry? Upset?"Christopher suggested. He spoke calmly, as if having already accepted his punishment, whatever it was. "I am actually kind of surprised you're even talking to me right now to be honest," Christopher admitted.

"I considered not calling," Rory confessed with a sigh. "And all of the above too, I guess," she added. "But I am mostly angry with G," some anger resurfaced in Rory. "You have no idea how deeply wounded she is. I honestly think you'd be very lucky if she ever speaks to you again," Rory expressed, some of that initial anger shining through her tone.

"I'am sorry…," Christopher replied plainly. Those words didn't seem to be enough.

"Is that it? That's all you're going to say?!" Rory asked, demandingly.

"What was I going to do!? Leave my daughter who needed me, one who otherwise would be disrespected, frowned upon in her society? Or by admitting that I had been married before, engaged twice, and had not one but two illegitimate children with two different women? Something like that would lead me to lose custody of her altogether. It isn't uncommon to slander in cases like this, and frankly just admitting that wouldn't be enough to discredit me," Christofer defended himself, leaving out the age he'd had Rory from that list.

The part about him losing custody of the children Rory truly hadn't thought about before. She didn't know the details of that society. But to her it was utterly confusing why he would still stick around if it was all that horrible? Sure, there were the factors of alienating his wife and kids from the surroundings that were their home, his home too by now. But surely they were better off in the States than somewhere that sounded worse than the setting Christopher himself had grown up in?

Rory replied with silence, allowing Christopher to continue speaking. She didn't see the point in asking him that, if it had been an option - he would've done it.

"Mika didn't deserve to live in poverty, ashamed that she ever took a chance with me, either. None of it was a choice that I made lightly," Christopher sighed, his tone sounding truly apologetic. "But you have to realize it was a small innocent child and the love of my life versus my two independent and intelligent daughters who had each-other and their mother's. I was never a good dad, I am well aware of that…. Yes, I had to part from your lives, but I never intended to not visit you - to not have a presence in your life. Sure, Covid didn't help, travelling was made difficult, but my absence was never purposeful. You have your lives together, you don't need me like they need me," he said, sounding genuine in what he said.

"G needed you, back then… you don't know how much and I probably cannot even convey to you how much. She never really had either of her parents present the way I had mom. She puts up a brave face, she's always been really good at that. But the issues she's struggled with… they are not mine to tell you. It just shows how little you understand her… you should've brought your wife and child to where she was, not leave her with me," Rory said, tears swelling up in her eyes. Christopher could sense it in her tone.

"I wanted to, I swear..," Christopher pleaded. Rory's words definitely made him worry more than he had before - what were the things he didn't know about G?

"And don't you think those kids will despise you too when they find out you've been keeping secrets from them?" Rory added, thinking ahead.

"I've been trying to do this step by step. We're already living further away from them, once the kids are old enough to keep a secret, I am going to tell them. I want you to know them, I really do. It just got harder and harder to tell you the longer I waited. And yes, I deserve your blame," he exhaled, sounding defeated.

"We just want you to be happy. You just... You could've told us the whole story. We at least wouldn't feel so lied to," Rory explained, wiping her tears away.

"I love you, Ror," Christopher said.

In the background there was suddenly a low sound of children's chatter in the background, and it became clear to Rory he needed to go. He wasn't alone anymore.

"Dad..," Rory began, feeling powerless in this whole situation. She almost wanted to hurt him, tell him that she didn't love him or that he'd done the wrong thing. But she couldn't - Christopher was still her imperfect dad, just like he'd always been. She couldn't speak for G, G needed to figure things out on her own, but deep down this hadn't changed much for her. "I do love you, despite being mad at you… God… I just hope you can fix things with G," Rory exhaled and said her goodbyes.

But despite anything, Rory felt lighter.