Never Given The Chance
Disclaimer: Please see Chapter 1.
I see I piqued your interest with my deliberate lack of not naming the main character. I hope you will be happy when you find out who it is. Thanks to everyone who reviewed.
Chapter 2: Why?
"What are you doing here?" she asked when she could finally speak.
"I need to talk to you, can I come in?" he asked.
Lexie said nothing but stepped back allowing him to enter the house. She then guided him into the kitchen and turned on the kettle.
"What are you doing here?" she asked turning back to face him.
"I need to ask you something," he replied.
"Oh really. What on earth could you possibly want to ask me after all these years," she said pouring the boiling water into the cups and adding the coffee.
"Is Lucie Grace mine?" he asked, as she turned round. At the mention of her name, Lexie dropped the cups she was holding and stared at him in horror.
"How do you know about her?" asked Lexie leaning back against the counter for support.
"I saw her grave and put two and two together."
"I knew putting your name on it would be a mistake," she replied kneeling down to clean up the mess from the broken coffee cups.
"So why did you then?" he asked getting up to help her.
"I don't know, it seemed right at the time."
"So she is mine then I take it?"
"Yes she is," she said quietly standing up and placing all the broken bits into the bin.
"Why didn't you ever tell me about her?"
"Because it has nothing to do with you," she replied and walked over to the sink.
"How the hell you can say that Lexie," he accused angrily.
"Because it's true," she said softly.
"What?" he asked spinning her around to face him. He kept his hands on her shoulders so she couldn't escape.
"It's true. Even If she hadn't of died, you wouldn't have been in her life and you know it," she said angrily trying to get out of his grip.
"You don't know that."
"Oh come on. Do you really think your dad would have let you give up College and your dreams to become a dad, I don't think so."
"I'm sure we could have worked something out Lex," he said calming down.
"You know it would never have worked. Would you really have been happy giving up your dreams?" she asked staring deep into his eyes.
"Maybe not happy but I would have coped Lexie. You should have told me."
"I wanted to but I didn't want to ruin your life. You deserved the chance to live your dreams. I didn't want to be the one who stood in the way of that," she said finally shrugging him off and moving away.
"You still shouldn't have had to go through it alone Lexie."
Lexie sat down at the table but didn't say anything.
"How did she, I mean what happened?" he asked moving to sit beside her.
"Car accident. Some idiot jumped a red light and crashed straight into me. The crash caused me to go into premature labour but I was only 25 weeks gone. She lived for about 19 hours before her heart finally gave out. She was so tiny but so beautiful. She had your eyes," explained Lexie, tears pooling in her eyes.
"Do you have any pictures of her?" he asked fighting back his own tears.
Lexie just opened the drawer and handed him a small bundle of photos. She was so tiny and beautiful. Lexie was right though she did have his eyes.
"I was going to tell you actually," she said finally looking up at him.
"You were?"
"Yeah when you came back for Christmas, I was going to tell you then but I never made it that far," she said sadly.
"Why didn't you tell me when she died? I could have been there for you."
"I didn't want you to have to go through that. You had already lost one person you cared about."
"Is that why you named her Lucy?"
"Yeah it just seemed right somehow."
"How come nobody else told me? Surely our friends must have known?" he asked. He couldn't get his head around the fact that no one had told him he was a dad.
"I only had a small bump and I managed to hide it really well. A couple of them noticed but I told them it was a one night stand after you left."
"But what about after she died. They must have realized then?"
"Most of our friends had moved away by then and the ones that stayed believed the one night stand lie. We kept her death fairly quiet, I didn't want a fuss."
"You didn't want the father there either," he said harshly.
"Oh come on, it would have been a media circus. Think about the headlines 'Millionaire's son gets girl pregnant and goes off to University leaving her to cope alone'. They would have slaughtered you in the press and neither you nor your family deserved that."
Though it was hard, he had to admit that she was right. The press would have been crawling all over them and it would have made an awful day even harder. They had been everywhere at his mother's funeral and it had been hell.
"Everyday for the first few weeks after she died, I wanted to call you and tell you about her but I couldn't. I didn't want to put you through all that pain. I thought it would be easier this way."
"Easier. How was it easier? I didn't even know my own daughter was dead," he said angrily standing up.
"Because you never had to deal with it. You didn't have to come to terms with the fact that because some idiot wanted to get to work quicker your daughter is dead. You didn't have to arrange a funeral and you haven't spent the last few years going through all the what-ifs in your head. So yeah it was easier," she said angrily.
"No I didn't because you never even gave me the chance. I had a right to know, I should have been there and I will never forgive you for that," he said storming to the door.
"I'm sorry," she said softly as he left the room.
He ignored her and stormed out of the house. He was soon in his rental and on his way back to the Airstrip where he had left his plane.
He was soon aboard his plane and on his way home. How could she not have told him about her? He deserved to know that he had a daughter. She had only lived 19 hours but if he had known then maybe he could have been there with her for that time. He might have even been able to hold her for a little while and tell her about her grandpa and her Uncles. However, it had all been denied because Lexie had kept it a secret and he wasn't sure he would ever get over that.
When he got home, he headed straight for the lounge where he knew the rest of his family was. They needed to know about her and he had to talk or he would go mad.
"Hello son," said Jeff with a smile. The others also gave him various greetings.
"Hey everyone," he replied and no one could miss the tone in his voice.
"What's the matter son?" asked Jeff walking over to him.
"I have something to tell you but I think we should all sit down," he replied and everyone took a seat nearby. They were all worried now.
"Alan do you remember that grave you found under the tree?" he asked turning to his baby brother.
"Yeah what about it?" asked Alan in reply.
"Well I couldn't get it out of my head for some reason, so I did a little research into it and found something out."
"Oh god," said Virgil who had realized what his brother had found out.
"What grave was this?" asked Jeff feeling confused.
"Alan found a little tiny grave under a tree. The inscription said that the name was uh Lucy Grace Tracy I believe," explained Gordon.
"Yes it did and she was my daughter," he said sadly.
Looks of shock, anger and sadness crossed their faces as the news sunk in. Virgil approached and wrapped his arm around him.
"I'm so sorry Scott," he said softly.
Authors Note: Yes, she was Scott's daughter. In the next chapter, you will find out the family's reactions to this news. How will they all take it?
Hope you all enjoyed this and aren't too disappointed with who daddy was. Please read and review thanks.