Chapter 17

"...Dad?" Abby whispered to herself when she spotted Alex outside of her classroom. He knocked on the door interrupting the class. She watched as her teacher left the class to talk to her father, and then came back in asking her to pack her things to leave with her dad and wishing her a happy summer break.

"Hi sweetheart" Alex said bending down to hug Abby.

"Why are you here?" She asked him once they pulled apart and he took her backpack out of her hands to place it on his right shoulder.

"I'm here to take you home and-" he said already starting to walk but stop when he didn't sense Abby walking up behind him and turned around.

"...Why?" she meant to say loud enough for him to hear but it only came out as a whisper. "I thought Will was coming to get me, Dad." she said a little louder, making Alex taking a couple of steps to go back to where she was standing.

"Honey, he..." he sighed and then squatted to be in the same eye level as Abby "He won't be able to come pick you up, so... I'll take you home with me, okay?" he said holding her hands in his.

"But why?" she asked with her eyes glittering with tears that were about to fall any second "Is Mommy okay?"

"Hey... Don't cry..." he said scooping her up "Shh... It's okay, She'll be okay" he soothed her rubbing her back up and down and rocking her.

"I wanna... I want to see her..." she said through sobs and lift her head up from his shoulder "Can I see her?" she asked him and Alex nodded.

"You can, but not now... She is having a surgery. I'm taking you home and then we'll go see her, okay?"

"Okay..." she whispered putting her head back on Alex's shoulder.

They left the school and went to the supermarket to buy some things Jo had asked Alex to before Morgan called him. As Alex drove through his driveway, he noticed that Jo's car wasn't there which he found weird because he had left her home. They entered the house and the silence inside only confirmed his suspicions, Jo for sure wasn't home.

"Abby, come down here. Your lunch is ready." Alex called from the bottom of the stairs and then went back to the kitchen. He looked at his child with sympathetic eyes as she entered the kitchen with a sad look on her face, and went to sit on the table with her.

"Dad...?" she said after a while, making Alex look up from his plate.

"Yeah?" he answered.

"Why is Jo never home when I'm here? I think she doesn't lik-"

"Let's make something clear first," Alex interrupted her before she could say what he thought she was going to "It has nothing to do with you, okay?" he said and she nodded "She does like you, she just..." he said and the close his eyes sighing. "She just doesn't like being home anymore, I guess" he shrugged and when Abigail didn't say anything else he resumed eating. They ate their lunch in silent mostly, only chit chatting occasionally. When they finished it, Abby went to the living room and Alex stayed in the kitchen clean the dishes.

"Is she working when she isn't home?" Abby asked him snuggling next to him when he sat on the couch.

"No..." he answered pulling her closer to him.

"Where does she go then?"

"She just wanders around... Nowhere in particular"

"All day? Everyday?" Abigail asked surprised making Alex laugh at her.

"Yes, pretty much" he said. They watched TV until Alex noticed that Abigail had fallen asleep. He fished his phone from his pocket, dialed Jo's number, and heard it ringing a couple of times before she picked up.

xxxxxxxxx

"Mommy, did you know... umm... the princesses are coming here?" Camilla asked her, excitedly, while the woman was finishing braiding her hair.

"They are?" the woman asked with matching Camilla's excitement, making the girl nod her head eagerly "All done." She said when she finally finished her hair and Camilla stood up from the woman's lap.

"Can we go see them?" she asked after turning around "Please?"

"Camilla, we'll-" she started but got interrupted by the little girl.

"Please, Mommy?" She begged "Please"

"We can't go, baby..." the woman said getting up and started walking towards the kitchen

"Why not? I never get to go anywhere anymore." Camilla complained following behind the woman.

"Camilla, look... I can't take you anywhere near your dad, okay? At least not for now, okay?" the woman asked and Camilla only nodded, not questioning the woman's answer knowing she wouldn't answer what Camilla wanted to know. Just when Camilla and her were about to leave the house to go a park far away from there, where nobody would recognize them, she heard her phone ring and sighed.

"Hi..." she answered after she saw who was calling her. Camilla was holding her hand and was getting tired of standing still where she was so she gently tugged the woman's hand to get her attention. The woman looked down at her and when she noticed Camilla was about to say something, she let go of the little girl's hand and brought her hand up a little, signing for Camilla to wait a little.

"Yes, I'm a little bit far from there but I'll meet you there..." the woman said to the person she was talking to on the phone "Okay... I'm like 40 minutes away or so, so I'll just meet you there, okay?" she said again a little bit annoyed "Okay... I'll see you later, bye" she said and hung up.

The woman took Camilla hand again and they walk towards the car. While she was strapping Camilla in her car seat, she dialed Mia's number and held the phone to her hear by her shoulder.

"Hey Mia, are you home?" she asked and then close the car's back door and climbed up to her seat "Yeah, everything is okay. I just need to drop by with Camilla"

"But Mommy, what about the park?" Camilla whined from the back seat.

"Baby, I'm sorry... Mommy has to go somewhere, baby I'm so sorry." the woman said looking back at Camilla.

"It's okay..." Camilla said softly and cleaned the silent tears that she had cried.

After the woman and Mia ended their talk, she started driving to Mia's house. The woman didn't want to but she had no other choice but to do it.

"I'll take you to the park tomorrow, okay baby?" the woman told Camilla.

"Okay..." Camilla answered without taking her eyes from the car's window. "Are we going home?" she asked when she noticed they had passed the hospital and were doing the same path they did when they went home from the hospital.

"No, Camilla, we are going to Mi-" the woman started but was interrupted by Camilla squeal.

"Daddy! Daddy!" she yelled waving through the closed window when she saw that Alex had looked at her. She then scrunched her face when the woman didn't stop the car and Alex didn't wave back at her "Why didn't Daddy say hi?" she asked the woman.

"He can't see you from the outside of the car." The woman explained and thanked God the car's windows were chromed.

"But he looked at me..."

"He couldn't see you though, you can see outside but people outside can't see inside the car." the woman said looking at Camilla from the reviewer mirror.

"Who was that girl that was with Daddy?" Camilla asked a little after.

"Your daddy, he... he has another daughter"

"What?" Camilla widened her eyes "Nooo" she said now crying overwhelmingly and she kept crying all the way to Mia's house.

"Baby, shh..." the woman tried shushing her when she took her out of the car. "It's okay... Don't cry..."

"Hey..." Mia said when she opened the door of her house. As soon as Camilla heard Mia's voice, she lifted her head from the woman's shoulder and turned around holding her arms out for Mia to hold her. The woman was a little taken aback by Camilla's behavior towards Mia, but played it off. She was hurt that Camilla was searching for comfort in Mia's arms instead of hers.

"I... um... I probably won't be able to come back today..." the woman said.

"I'll take her home later." Mia said rubbing Camilla's back up and down soothing her, while the little girl cried.

"Okay... Bye baby" she said ruffling Camilla's hair and then left without getting any reaction from the girl.

Mia waited until her sister left to get inside her house and close the door.

"Hey, big girl... What is it?" Mia asked her and Camilla shook her head "Why are you crying? You don't want to tell me?"

"No" Camilla said shaking her head once again. Her cry had already subsided, so Mia took her to her living room and sat on the couch with Camilla on her lap. "I saw Daddy when Mommy and I were coming here"

"You did? Did he see you too?" Mia asked just to ask because she already knew that the answer for that question was 'no'.

"No..." Camilla said playing with Mia's necklace, "He has a new daughter..."

"I'm sorry..."

"He said he would come get me but he never came..." she said with a voice that Mia assumed she was about to cry again.

"When did he tell you that?" Mia asked rocking Camilla on her lap.

"When Mommy called him on the phone the other day... he left me and now he has a new daughter"

"Hey, he did not leave you, okay?"

"But he never came see me and take me home... Mommy... she comes every day, but Daddy never came... he left me..."

A.N.: I want to thank you once more for keeping up with me through this story and keep supporting me. I do really appreciate your reviews and messages you send me and I feel so bad that I haven't been able to update at least weekly like I used to. I try writing whenever I have time but the truth is that I don't have as much time to do it now as I used to, I still have 4 more tests to do before school ends and after that I have 3 exams, so I've been spending my free time studying more and writing less.

Thank you so much for not giving up on this story, it really means a lot.

- Tiana.