Trollhunters: The Tale From Phoenix

Chapter Twenty-eight

A light knock on my door grabbed my attention and I looked up from my phone.

"Phoenix, can I talk to you for a second?" Aunt Kristy peeked through my doorframe.

I turned around in my chair, "Yeah, what is it, Kristy?"

"I want to talk to you about... Emiliano."

I didn't like the feeling those words gave me and figured my aunt was already feeling bad enough.

"Okay... what about?"

She sat down on my bed and took a deep breath. "First of all... I'm so sorry you had to be here, I had no idea he would ever come back. If you want, you can... I don't know, go to your friend's house afterward."

Her response took me by surprise. "Oh...okay, sure."

She stayed quiet as she looked up at the ceiling for a moment. "You're only a teenager and I probably shouldn't tell you this but I think you should know since- well since the whole time you've been here it's just been us three.

I waited for her to continue, feeling a bit weird about this and not knowing what to say.

"Emil... he has done some bad things. The first years of Olivia's life I thought he was a... Decently good father to her. But when she turned four and we found out she learned faster than regular kids, he called her some terrible things. He said things like "he didn't want a freak daughter" or "she's never going to fit in"... And eventually he took this out on me...and then I finally kicked him out."

I was shocked, I would've never thought she'd dealt with that... Now I have a reason to not feel right about the man. "If he said such terrible things why would he come back now?" I asked.

"That's the thing... I don't know, and I mean I don't know why I even gave him 3 hours I should've just shut the door on him."

I honestly didn't know how to respond... But I just felt the need to comfort her, she's never really been one to let us see her low moments so I had no experience here.

"Can I ask, did he do anything before that?"

"Well, he never let me have friends... But back then I didn't realize how bad that actually was."

"He sounds like a real jerk."

She chuckled, "Yeah, he definitely was... One thing is for sure...I'd go through it again just to have Olivia. And that eventually lead to you."

I blushed from being brought up.

"He was always against adopting... I can only imagine what was going on in his head when Olivia said something about you."

I thought for a moment before continuing our conversation, "Aunt Kristy...do you trust him to be downstairs with Olivia by themselves?"

She sighed, "Not really... But he was never physically abusive... And I know Olivia would probably scream if he tried something even remotely stupid." She forced a smile.

"...well how about you go check on her... I can go over to my friend's house early."

We both then noticed Olivia standing in the doorway and turned to her.

"Olivia, where's your father?" Kristy asked.

"He left." She quietly walked over to my hanging chair and sat down, "he said he had somewhere to be."

"Oh, honey, I'm sorry-"

"It's fine Mom...I know he doesn't like me because of my disorder. Besides, I never really...missed him I guess."