Chapter 8: Daddy's Girl

Violet sat at the table with her breakfast before her. The place was silent. She had figured that Bob and Emily probably continued their little celebration after they got home. She was curious to hear about what he did though. The two didn't get home late, but she had fallen asleep. With nothing else to do, it seemed like the best choice.

"Violet?" Emily groggily asked. She stood in the doorway pale faced and a hand over her abdomen.

Violet turned and looked her over. "Nice to see that pregnancy hasn't kept you from partying hard," she remarked.

Emily made her way over to the couch and sat down. "I'm not up to it this morning," she weakly stated. "All week and today is the worst morning."

"You would think the one hangover would teach you." The young girl looked to her for a second and then sighed. She reached over and grabbed the box of crackers that she set on the table earlier. "I made you breakfast," she mentioned.

Right now Emily could not bare to eat anything. Violet had made pancakes, and the smell of the syrup was getting to her. The only reason that she had gotten out of bed was because she felt a little better sitting up, and Bob was still asleep.

Violet shrugged and set the box back down. "So, how did last night go?" she implored.

Emily smiled to her. "He took me to the place where he proposed and gave me a present," she answered. She held up her wrist to show her.

Violet smiled as she got up and joined her on the couch. She took Emily's wrist in her hands and eyed the three charms. "You know that each of these things means something right?"

"I haven't really thought about it," Emily responded. "You know what they mean?"

Violet smirked. "Yeah," she replied and then looked up to her. "The rose, its a sign of immortal love taken from the Greek goddess Aphrodite. It means that no matter what, he'll always love you. Even death couldn't separate you. Then this bow here, it means innocence, purity. A daddy's girl, which I have no trouble believing you are. Then of course, we come to the little baby shoes here. Naturally, means you're having a baby. But when you dream about baby shoes, it also signifies an element of innocence and sweetness," she explained.

"Really drilling that naïve thing in aren't you?" Emily questioned.

"You can check. Those are the real meanings behind these things," Violet assured her, dropping her wrist. She sat back, her smirk remaining on her face. "Were you offended?"

"No."

"You believed it though didn't you?" she inquired, starting to laugh. "You have to admit, there's an odd sort of irony in that. Believing someone when they call you naïve."

"Were you offended by me telling you that I thought what you did was wrong?" Emily implored.

Violet shook her head. "I figured that you wouldn't understand from the beginning. You're naïve and innocent enough to believe that there is a right and wrong for everything and that two wrongs don't make a right. And I guess in a way you're right, what I did didn't actually change anything that happened, but it did however, make me feel better. It also taught my mom a minor lesson," she informed her.

Emily looked to her with curiosity. What was she really trying to do? Get her approval? Prove her wrong? Violet seemed like she really didn't care what other's thought. What made this so different? "Are you trying to convince me?" she inquired.

"In all honesty, I truly and completely mean this when I say this. No sarcasm or anything like that intended," she began and then looked Emily in the eyes. "I'm jealous." The words came out without any emotion. Just a dead stare. "I don't want to know half the things I do. Truth be told, you wouldn't even understand half of the stuff that I do or the things I've been through."

Emily didn't know what to tell her. Part of her thought that maybe it wasn't as bad as Violet was making it out to be, but there was a huge part of her that was troubled upon hearing this.

Violet noted the silence and got up to head back over to the table where she continued her breakfast. There was no reason to sit there and wonder what was going through her head. She knew that Emily was having a hard time with the information that she was giving her. She was okay with that, she already knew that she would have a hard time with this. She was the goody two shoes. She was the one who had the perfect little life. Her parents actually thought of her. Her mother never went behind her back.

"Don't be offended. It's not like you're being excluded from the greatest club ever," she stated.

"Good morning honey," Bob said as he entered the living room. He went over to the couch and kissed Emily on the forehead.

"Morning Bob," she replied.

Violet sighed as she stared down to her plate. "Yeah, it was good," she muttered, just loud enough for him to hear it.

"Just like having our own little ray of sunshine," Bob quipped as he went and sat down at the table.

Violet looked up to him and watched as he grabbed at the extras on the table. "You realize I made that right? There could be some blood or something in those," she explained.

Bob let the pancake drop from his fork back onto the plate and then stared over to Emily. "Remind me again why she's here," he requested.

"Because a fake doctor and a knocked up grade school teacher can take better care of me than a wanna be hippy flower power chick," Violet casually answered. "I mean, really, I haven't been arrested yet, that's impressive. Props to you two," she announced, holding up her glass of orange juice.

"I'm a vice principal now," Emily stated.

Violet shrugged. "Kids cheer when you're gone. What's the difference?"

"My class liked me," Emily softly pouted, a tad offended.

Violet looked to her from the corner of her eye. Even though she found it ridiculous to be offended over such a small thing, she decided to make up for it. "I'm sure the kids loved you," she assured her. "You seem like you would be good with kids."

"Sure, make it up to her when she gets offended. You ignore me when I get offended," Bob remarked, although, he was glad that she did say something to Emily. He hated to see anyone hurt her, even if it was something minor.

"There's a difference. She'll cry. You won't. I can't stand crying people," she explained.

"That's, that's always the best reason to uh, to make up for saying something offensive," he dryly replied.

"I always thought so," Violet responded.

The phone rang and Emily stood up. "I've got it," she announced. She wanted to get up and walk around now. "Hello?" she answered. Noticeably perplexed, she turned and looked to Bob. "I'm sorry, I don't know a Scott Merrin."

Violet jumped up. "That's for me!" she announced as she ran over and snatched the phone out of Emily's hands. "Hi."

Emily slightly laughed as she looked to Bob with disbelief.

"All right, I'll meet you there in a few minutes!" she said and then hung up the phone before quickly running into the den and grabbing her purse. "I'll be back in a little bit!" she announced.

"You're grounded!" Bob called out to her.

"Don't worry, I didn't forget," Violet reassured him, right before she left.

Emily sighed as she sat down in Violet's place. "At least this time she didn't take any money," she noted.

"And she did remember that she's supposed to be grounded," Bob added.

"Besides, we're about to have our own. We might be able to do better with that one," Emily remarked.

Ooo

Violet walked over to the table and slid into the booth across from Scott. "I was starting to think that you would never call," she mentioned with a slight smirk.

"I was busy," he offered an excuse.

"Doesn't matter. You called," she responded as she picked up the menu. Slowly, she looked up from behind the menu and stared at the man across the room, the one sitting with a petite blonde. She had to watch for a minute, but there was no denying who it was. "No," she gasped.

"What?" Scott inquired. He thought it was something he had done, even though he hadn't actually done anything at this point.

Violet just stared at the man. "The man paying the bill over there. That's my father," she explained to him.

Scott turned back and glanced at the scene. "Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure! It's my father!"

"Whoa," he responded as he turned back to face Violet. "You wanna get out of here before he walks passed us?" he offered.

"He's standing up, it would be too late now." Violet slumped down in her seat. "I don't want him to notice me. Pretend we're talking about something," she instructed.

"Okay. Um, how about you tell me what your favorite place is?"

Violet kept her eyes glued on her father as he started walking towards her. "The basement of my friend's house. Nothing ever seems to go wrong there. No one gets caught there ever," she absently answered.

It was as soon as Peter got close to the table that she quit talking. He looked over to her. Their eyes met for a brief moment before he quickly adverted his eyes. That to her, was a stab in the heart. Even though she didn't want to talk to him, it hurt her to see him intentionally ignore her. She knew that he saw her, it was obvious when he looked away.

She sat up and turned around to watch as he left with his girlfriend. "Bastard," she blurted out as she turned back around in her seat.

"I thought you didn't want him to notice you," Scott said.

Violet just looked up to him. "Right," she replied, forcing a smile. She thought that was what she wanted too. Apparently she was wrong.

Scott picked up on the fact that she was hurt. "Maybe he didn't recognize you. Or maybe he just figured that it couldn't be you since you don't live in Chicago."

"We had eye contact. He had to see that it was me. I am his daughter for crying out loud," she bitterly argued. She then sighed. "Look, I hope you understand. I have to go now, I just, I need to be alone for a little while," she told him.

"Yeah! Sure, of course," he responded.

"Thanks for the attempt though. I'll have to call you this time," she said as she stood up.

"I'll be waiting," Scott called to her as she started to leave.