ENDS

Chapter 56- Exist

Mrs. Hao watched as anger rolled off his shoulders and she couldn't help but laugh a little bit at his reactions.

"You're supposed to be in the back with the rest of the team." She says to him with a smile on her lips as he jerks his head in her direction.

"Yeah... I decided to give them some space to work on it."

There was a team of trackers that Mrs. Hao had brought in during the wee hours of the morning to help out with Hunter's request.

And so far, he had seen, they were amazing.

"Or you decided to watch your girlfriend, which?" she said again with her smile growing wider.

Hunter couldn't help the grunt that escaped his lips when she made that statement.

"She's not my girlfriend." He retorted and pretended to be wiping the table while stealing glances at Iris and her new friend.

"I suspected; you guys have barely said a word to each other in my presence." She started and watched his demeanor before adding the final part of her statement "But she's the mother of your daughter."

"It's complicated."

"You obviously feel something for her and you both have a child together, why not just woo her?"

Hunter laughed at her words in a mocking way and make sure to exaggerate the shrugging of his shoulders "I wish it was that easy."

"Well... it's never that easy to woo anyone but you can make it so" she said and noticed he was keenly listening to her to know how. "Women usually do not have a particular type of person they fall in love with, yes there are preferences but preferences waver with characteristics like good looks, wealth, humor and charm and you check out all four all that's needed is for you to woo her rightly."

This time around he scoffed at her statement and threw his face away which made her wonder what she said that was derogatory of his shot.

"You don't feel like you can woo her rightly?" Mrs. Hao asked and looked intently at him as she anticipated his response.

"Trust me, if it were to woo her alone, I would've started putting in efforts long ago but like I said its complicated."

"Those were the same words Tai's father said to me after Tai was born, turns out its just because he wanted to avoid the responsibility of being a father."

"if I wanted to avoid the responsibility of being a father, I won't be here in the first place looking for how to get her home."

"You could only be doing this because of what the people would say..."

"Well I'm not."

Mrs. Hao took a bite out of a honeybun bread she had pulled out of the oven pantry and enjoyed the reaction she was getting from him.

She knew he cared, all she wanted was to provoke him to go into the details about their relationship.

"So, what's your excuse for being a man who doesn't want to commit?"

"Mrs. Hao I'm married and I didn't find out she was my daughter till a night before my wedding."

"And why didn't you call off the wedding?"

"Because I'm a jerk"

"I'm glad we're back to my initial statement."

Hunter sighed out of a little frustration that she wasn't getting his point.

But she was right.

He didn't call off the wedding because he didn't know what to do.

After being mean to her for all these years she had every reason not to tell him that he had a child with her.

And if he did call off the wedding... what next?

Become a part of their lives like he was ever needed in the first place?

Suddenly claim his daughter that was born out of rape?

He wasn't even sure if she wanted him a part of Louisa's life and if she declined the offer, she was right.

If there's one thing he's certain of is Iris wants her way out of his life and he was going to give her that.

That's the best thing anyone can get her at this point. Peace.

"Yeah, because I'm a jerk and she deserves better." He said with much gloom and gently took off his apron. "I'll be back at night... I need to go shower" then hands over the clothing to her.

"How about we go in and see what they've got so far then you come in tomorrow for the finalization." Mrs. Hao suggested and he nodded in agreement because it sounded like a much better idea.

They both went into the hidden room in the back where half a dozen men were working on various computers and pulling up past records of everyone on the list Hunter had presented to them.

"Any news?" Mrs. Hao asked and Tai walked up to the both of them with a crease between her brows like she had news they weren't expecting.

"We need you to confirm the spelling of a name." Tao said handing over a paper with the list of ticked names they had been able to go through except one.

"The spelling is correct." Hunter said with his heart in his stomach because the news he had been dreading all day would finally be delivered.

"There's no records bearing the name that matched with the profile you had given us. In other words, Claudette Henrique from a small town in Columbia does not exist."

The words struck Hunter as bad as he suspected it would.

"But she's got a birth certificate and all" He said trying to defend that maybe there was a mistake in their search.

"All forged and if her age is true, the hospital she claimed she was born in was built ten years after her date of birth." Tao added

"I need to call my dad."

"I suspected you did, here's the phone" she says whilst giving him a phone that had been unnoticed in her hand since they began talking.

He took the phone and went to another end of the room to dial his fathers' number which he had memorized.

After few rings the receiver answered the call.

"Hello?" his father said.

Hunter didn't know how much he missed his dads voice until he heard it, but he needed to convey his message as fast as possible.

"Dad?"

"Hunter? How are you? What's going on?"

"Where's Claudette?" he asked immediately, pleasantries can come later.

"Claudette? I sent all the staff home. What's wrong?"

"We need to find her... she's the one."

"We'll get to her place as soon as possible."

"I don't think we can locate a place that might not exist."