- Chapter Twenty-Two -

True Story

Ants and earthworms doing their part for the ecosystem, the surrounding foliage shifted beneath a cloudless sun. Creeping up the side of the garage door in a fuchsia flourish, the bougainvillea rattled as a grass snake slithered through in search of a meal. Birds hunted on high for the weak links in the chain, some tweeting sweet songs as they bathed in the pale fountain behind the villa. Some place in the midst of the working world, melon began to ripen and the wind swept up the scent of lilac crocus and jasmine.

Noon lost to the marches of time, the great yellow obelisk in the sky was still well away from disappearing behind the distant purple peaks. Early hours wasted away by vodka and a bar crawl, two of the three human occupants were still out for the count. Cutter being the only one that was up and somewhat alert, his initial plan had been to have a shower and a shave before greeting his flatmate. It was just good manners and such; also, he was still weary of a repeat incident.

Dead to the world, neither Drake nor Adler stirred when he came in to the living room to eat his breakfast in front of the biggest screen in the whole villa. Possibly the entire countryside. Toast buttered and crisp as the morning they'd all slept through, the bald man had started by clearing his throat. Nothing, not even roll to the side.

He shrugged it off. Not all that sympathetic to the hangovers they'd suffer when he saw the label on the bottle, Charlie changed the channel to something of his liking and turned the volume up. Seated at the edge of the sofa opposite the pair, he didn't pay them much heed as he ate.

Examining the facts, it honestly wasn't all that surprising to find the twosome crashed out like that. Whether it was because they had issues or because they fancied the pirate life, between the two it was rare when booze wasn't present in some capacity. Having said that, neither were bad enough to spend all day drinking or ruin special occasions by being pissed as a newt. Sobriety (or lack thereof) aside, while the close associates knew their boundaries with the bottle, it was tougher for the casual outsider to separate the allies. If Adler wasn't squirming through the places that Drake couldn't reach by himself any more, it was the veteran covering the heiress. Work one thing, they spent so much of their personal time together that they had every appearance of being a package deal.

Drake struck Charlie more as the kind of guy that just wanted to be out there getting his hands dirty. All the same, personally he was of the belief that the pairing could best be summed up by the term "Sugar Mama". But how well does anyone really ever know a person?

Outside of the very voluntary reading he had subjected himself to, there was a lot that he didn't know about the heiress. Allergies, how much she would be willing to just hand out at a given time without an excuse, exact date of birth. Small things like that. Missing out on her inclusion to their little family of sorts didn't help much in that aspect. Reading her own fictionalized account of events certainly wasn't doing anything to close that gap either.

Extent of her background boiling down to rich princess with dead dad syndrome, the exact timeline was up for debate. Written word had the resident Sleeping Beauty sitting at roughly two years of age (if memory served), whereas home video told an entirely different story. Cutter may have been mistaken, but he was pretty sure that seeing home video of Rafe at his daughter's fifth birthday party proved that there was a discrepancy.

She was either a bigger liar than they thought, or Sam had really rubbed off on her the wrong way. Not sure that it wasn't some combination of the two, all Charlie knew was that the girl clearly had deep issues. But doesn't everyone?

"Daniella."

Gilded corridors more akin to a museum than the halls of an ordinary home, the manor was hardly a place for a child. Even a reasonably well-behaved little thing like Daniella. Trinkets collected and bought, the display ranged from a broken ruby necklace that might have been stolen from the Russian Crown Jewels to entire walls of medieval weaponry. Considerably newer and primarily favoring French florals and romanticized landscapes inspired by the late Italian Renaissance, the framed paintings were all top dollar and one-of-a-kind.

Five seconds ago, the most sentient thing in the northern wing was a stuffed lion. Mate and cubs in tow, the area was a common haunt of an imaginative child that liked to pretend to be on safari. Today appeared to be no different - Rafe caught sight of his offspring reflected back by the king of the jungle. Eyes replaced with mammoth marbles the color of sapphire, a royal azure version of Daniella could be seen counting the checkered squares of the carpet on the opposite end of the hall.

Tempted to leave her be, the multi-billionaire watched her play for a moment, remembering his own childhood as he did so. Home only because he was taking a break from analyzing some ruins turned up in Scotland, Rafe didn't picture this. Technically he hardly wasted the effort of thinking of home these days, however if he had, his family wouldn't have been in the picture.

Tolerated strictly on the grounds of producing a satisfactory heir with promise, Bai had made the most of their arrangement; her footprint was small, but there were obvious signs that the manor was being lived in. Still, the estate was large enough for them to co-parent without concern of having to face one another. When they didn't want to that is, which of late was more the status quo than before. Frankly, the old manor was roomy enough to avoid everyone for a few days, which was all he asked.

Blessedly Bai would be out for work and wasn't expected home until tomorrow at the earliest, so in theory that left Daniella with the staff. Nice as the thought of not having to face the woman he'd accidentally attached himself to was, the rich grave robber wasn't overjoyed to learn that their daughter had been abandoned enough times to know that she could be trusted to be alone. That hit too close to home.

Overcome by the bitter underside of nostalgia, he called out to the child.

Losing count around eighty-seven navy diamonds, the surface of her dismissive reply made it clear that she had assumed one of the staff was prepared to lecture her. Fearing she was in trouble, the girl stretched out her reply as long as she could, "I'm busy."

Pouting and throwing herself a pity-party, in truth she was only preoccupied with resentment. A bi-polar bear, when she wasn't smothering the girl, Mama was sending her way, but Daddy? Daddy was supposed to be different than that. Rarely ever in the country as it was, she hadn't wanted to squander precious time with her father; sent off with instructions to entertain herself, there really hadn't been much of an alternative. Adults were jerks. Not doubt about that, yet she still loved her daddy.

Voice not immediately recognizable to the little urchin, whoever was speaking didn't sound like they were going to listen. Typical. "Little girl, I expect an answer."

Finally bothered to glance up, the little girl did so slowly. Velvet bow swinging across her back at the exact moment she saw who was speaking to her, it was tough to say what had elicited the jump. Alarmed that she might have merely conjured up another effigy to distract herself from how lonely it was, Daniella knew it might have also been born out of guilt. Mama had so many rules that it seemed impossible to not break one or another. She'd been taught better than to disregard her mother's absolute authority, but she was just so mad!

More concerned with brushing up on his pirate lore than checking on his progeny, Rafe technically had been on the way to the library. He had no idea what she'd gotten up to on her own, but with her mother being out it wasn't hard to guess that she'd be taking advantage of the opportunity. "Where have you been?"

"I was..." knowing that she had done bad, the girl erred on the side of caution and feigned innocence, "playing ball." Better to come clean about that much, seeing as the accessory to the crime was only a few feet away.

Considering that it was really coming down that day she seemed to be remarkably dry. "In the rain?"

Busted. "...No."

Almost disappointed in how easily she crumbled, Rafe didn't need to wait long for an explanation. "I was in the pretty white room, the one where everyone gathers for grown-up business. After you told me to 'go entertain myself', I took my soccer ball, but I swear I was only thinking about practicing my footwork! At least I was... until I wasn't. When you came home I was really looking forward to spending some time with you, but..."

Rafe finished for her, "I sent you away."

Bopping her head in nervous agreement, a chunk of dark bang fell into her eyes. Middle of the iris as dark a blue as the depths of the sea her mother had dragged herself up from, the outer expanse was a dancing pattern of brown bordering on hazel. A virtual clone of the multi-billionaire since birth, any residual traces of doubt in his mind had been removed by the ophthalmologist diagnosing Daniella with central heterochromia.

With no one else there to handle the situation it fell on his shoulders to parent the girl. Figuring that he may as well at least see the extent of the damage before jumping down her throat - which was what her mother would have done - he closed the space between them. Offering the little lady a hand, he helped the girl to her feet. "Show me."

Oddly hopeful about not receiving as harsh a punishment as Mama would have dished out, Daniella hesitated only a moment before grabbing her father's hand. Once on her feet, she refused to let go. Mama had to constantly remind the girl to straighten out her clothes and keep a presentable appearance, and for a moment it almost paid off. Moving to dust off her knees and tweak the shimmery pink material of her cardigan, the height difference between adult and child was too great without accidentally breaking contact, so she refrained. Instead the girl had only flipped the dark braid back over her shoulder, just how she liked it.

"Did the scary lady go home too?" Daniella had only met her father's girl friend a handful of times, but it had been enough to leave a mark. "Sometimes when I'm looking for something and can't find it, I leave the search for a while. Usually when I come back I can find it. Like that really hard page in my I Spy book."

Nadine had stayed on as a matter of fact, although that had been her own choice. Whatever her reasons were, a part of him suspected that it was because she didn't have a home outside of the job. Perhaps one day he might ask the woman about that... Speaking of his work in Scotland, he fully approved of his offspring's interest in the ongoing search for Avery's treasure. Fostering the idea that she might continue his work when he was gone, Rafe had even brought her to visit on occasion.

Glancing down at the child, he supposed that so far as topics to carry them from point a to point b went, this wasn't the worst. Honestly surprised to hear her talking about something he assumed had fallen out of publication years ago, he let out a little laugh, "They still make those?"

Quite the avid reader - as if either of her parents had left her much of a choice in the matter - the heiress didn't pay much attention to all the dates and copyrights. Who did? "It was probably something Mama found online."

Far from the busy little worker bee she presented herself as, Bai spent a considerable amount of time on the internet. As such her browser history entailed one store after another, with one or two odd sites thrown in between random searches. "Of course it was."

Crime scene indeed the favorite for social engagements, at first glance nothing seemed amiss. Engineered mesquite, the floors weren't showing any more signs of wear than usual. Silver inlay casting a grayish hue to the wallpaper due to the somber crystal lighting, the drapes remained intact and the same soft shade of blue as before. Even the potted hyacinth appeared to be unmoved, and Daniella had a penchant for rearranging the flowers to better suit her imaginary worlds.

Unsure what exactly to be expecting, for a moment Rafe thought that the child was just trying to actively waste his precious time as a ploy for attention. Aggravating as that scenario would have been, at least it was something he could understand and even relate with. All the same, maybe Bai had a good thing going with just sending Daniella to her room while she investigated and found a more suitable form of punishment. Although why the consequences were dressed around mental games that would break an adult was beyond him.

Then he noticed that the room's focal point was missing.

Hand-crafted and over a hundred years old, the clay plaster was an expanse without a true shape. Half the time it reminded the multi-billionaire of a snake coiled around a partition, and the rest of the time he was hardly bothered to really look at the piece at all. At best the artwork was a reminder of the woman that had bought it, or rather it was a testament to how much power she had. In general that show of presence was a good thing, but the particular memories that accompanied the hunk of ore...

Either way, it being gone wasn't going to break his heart. Daniella on the other hand was going to pay dearly for whatever had happened to it. Unless he were to step in for a change and remind Bai who the father of her spawn was.

Rafe mulled it over in his mind, ultimately deciding to give this incident a pass. Pursing his lips in thought, he regarded the best hope of the family's future with care, "What were you going to tell your mother?"

"That it was stolen." Simple, there was a kind of genius elegance to that reply that she was too young to understand.

Proud of Daniella for maybe the first time in his life, he crouched down to her level. Tearing his hand away from her pathetically clingy grasp, he ignored the delicate cry that caught in her throat. Instead he gave her something better by clasping her shoulders with a genuine smile. "Today you're my daughter. Remember this, because you'll probably never hear these words ever again."

Taken aback, the girl couldn't comprehend if she had done a good thing by confessing to her crime or if it was fibbing that had earned her father's attention. "I don't understand."

Good feeling tightening for a fraction of a second, he explained as best he could, "Everyone will tell you that truth and honesty are the best things to strive for in life, but you'll never get anywhere without knowing how to lie. It's part of what your mother and I do for a living, and it's why you can live the life you do. We steal and we lie through our teeth to get ourselves ahead, its who we are as a family, how the entire human race is. The key thing to remember is it's how well you can do it. Having that story ready before I asked you shows me that you'll be alright."

Apparently that was what ordinary parents wanted of their kids, knowing that they can support themselves when the time comes.