Chapter 7

Duncan opened the envelope and began reading the letter Veronica had written to him. When he finished reading; he was in tears because she was really gone and he would no longer meet her in secret to talk to her about how much he misses Lilly. He brushed away his tears and put the letter in the envelope and was about to leave when his father grabbed him by the arm.

"We need to talk about what just happened."

"There is nothing to say."

"I don't think so, you are going to talk about this whether you want it or not. I'll be waiting in the living room while you go upstairs and clean the blood from your face."

"I don't want to talk to you."

"That's not what I think. You either go upstairs to clean yourself up or you stay here and we talk about this right now." He said angry, he did not really enjoy learning such news like that. He had doubts about being Veronica's father because he had a one night stand with her mother. Lianne had always told him Keith was Veronica's father; she had lied to him and lied to her daughter, to their daughter, he thought bitterly. He stopped pacing when he saw Duncan walk into the living room. "How's your face?"

"It's nothing, it will go away soon."

"When did you learn the truth about Veronica being your sister?" he asked, not ready yet to say the word daughter.

"We were fifteen, Lilly and I were looking for something in your desk. She opened a drawer in which she found a letter from Lianne saying that you weren't Veronica's father. We decided to talk to Veronica about it but she stopped talking to us for weeks after because she was afraid of what it meant; Keith is the only father she knows. After four weeks, she finally decided on taking a DNA test, she took some hair from his comb and Lilly and I did the same. And two weeks later we were had the results. The three of us were sitting in Lilly's room looking at the brown envelope, none of us wanted to open it because we knew that the life we had would never be the same again. Finally, Lilly took the envelope and opened it, she had a huge smile on her face and we understood what that meant; we were related. Veronica made us swear never to say anything about it and it became our secret because no one could learn the truth, can you believe that? Veronica didn't want to be Jake Kane's daughter, and she was really afraid of what would come out of this. She loves her father; even after Lilly's death, she made me repeat my promise the day we buried her. She did all she could to keep this secret a secret."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I already told you, Veronica made us promise never to tell anyone and we kept our promise."

"She is… she is my daughter, don't you think I deserve to know that?"

"Dad, Veronica's father is Keith Mars and that's how she will always see things. Please, don't do anything to change that. She doesn't want any money from us. She is ready to sign all the papers necessary and that you want as long as you don't tell Keith the truth."

"What?"

"She is ready to sign a paper to renounce the Kane's fortune. She even contacted a lawyer and asked him if she could sign such a paper without her father knowing it."

"Why? Why did she do that?"

"Her mother is gone, Lilly is gone, the life she knew is all gone; Logan broke her heart, her father is the only person she has left and she wants to protect him. She loves him more than anything and she is ready to do all she can to protect him. Please, don't do anything that might ruin her new life. You don't know her like I do, you don't love her and that's fine but please don't do anything. If you love me and if you ever loved Lilly respect her decision and let her be happy."

"She is my daughter!" Jake said, "I've already lost one... I can't lose her too."

"Dad, Veronica isn't your daughter, biologically speaking she is but you aren't her father. Keith is. He is the one who has raised; took her to hospital when she was twelve because she broke her leg during a soccer game. In her heart he is the only father she has."

"But she's mine."

"Please, respect her wish, she is seventeen and she has suffered more than any of us ever have. Her mother was an alcoholic who left her one day without saying good bye, she discovered that the man she calls dad isn't her real dad, she lost her best friend and sister, she lost the guy she loves, and now she is moving because she can't deal with the pain anymore."

"I've already lost one; I want to get to know her, I'm not asking for custody, I just want to know the real Veronica. Not your best friend, I want to get to know my daughter, I will give her some time to settle down before going there to talk to her. You can come with me if you want but I won't change my mind about this."

"I will come, I want to be there."

"Thank you."

"Excuse me, can you tell me where the administration building is?" Veronica asked a boy who had a locker next to hers.

"Yes, you see that corridor on the left?"

"Yeah."

"It's at the end of it; if you want I can walk you there."

"Thanks." She replied with a smile. "I hate being the new student."

"I know the feeling; I moved to San Diego three years ago and I was in your shoes, they were all looking at me and whispering. I'm Wallace Fennel."

"Veronica Mars, thank you for helping me. I'm kind of scared because I don't know how this school works. I just hope it won't be as bad as my former school. What can you tell me about the Drenton High?"

"There are two kinds of students; the popular ones and the others, 99.9 of us who aren't popular. I'm one of them, so if you want to be a member of the popular crew you should leave before it's too late."

"Been there, done that, I don't want to be popular; I want to be normal, just normal."

AN : Sorry for the delay, I'm back to college and I've got so much work to do that I barely have the time to write, let alone update. I promise to try to update sooner, but my teachers are giving us too many translations to do and stuff to learn LOL. I'll try to work on my stories over the week end and try to finish What happened to us and get some work done on What hurts the most but no promise. I'm going out tomorrow with my friends from college and I'll get home late and then go to school, give an english lecture to a pupil after school and then sleeeeeeep! But I really promise to make it up to you :D