Disclaimer: I don't own the O.C. or any of the characters.
Summary: Elina Roberts was dealing with more than anyone knew. This is why she left, and what she left behind.
A/N: So I haven't updated in a really, really long time! Sorry about that. I've been so busy with school and activities…you know how it gets. I'm going to try and update all my stuff at least once this weekend. And I should be posting one or two one parters…or longer ones.
She got up and left in the middle of the night.
There were no goodbyes.
No I-love-you's.
No I'll-be-back-soon's.
She left him an innocent daughter and a tear-splotched note.
Maybe he should have paid more attention.
Maybe Summer didn't need that much father-daughter time.
Did he really even know his wife?
Neil didn't know…
He didn't know how to raise a girl.
He didn't know how to explain to Summer why her mother up and left.
He didn't know how to keep on looking at that face, the one that mirrored her mothers.
It hurt too much.
Retreating into a shell, he didn't let anyone in. Not Summer, not that do-gooder attorney Cohen.
Work, work, work.
Late nights he came home, seeing those vacant brown eyes. Innocently searching for answers, for love, for anything.
Summer wanted…no, she needed everything he couldn't give her.
Like father, like daughter, she retreated into her own shell.
Neil didn't know his daughter—the daughter he'd risked his marriage for—anymore.
She thought he never read her diary.
So he was a sneaky bastard.
How else would he get to know his daughter?
Dear Diary, why doesn't Daddy love me? I wasn't good enough for mommy, but I thought he loved me. I'm all alone in this world and I don't know what to do. I'd rather be poor and have a daddy who loves me than be rich and abandoned.
And he still chose to ignore the pleas for attention.
Neil Roberts could give his daughter almost anything she wanted.
Credit cards, shopping sprees, expensive cars.What she wanted most were answers.
The one thing he couldn't give her.
What was he supposed to say?
Your mother left because she was jealous of you.Because I loved you more than I loved her.
I love you, but you remind me of your mother. That's why I can't be with you as much as I want to.
No, that wouldn't do.
Some things were better left unsaid.