His Daughter

Chapter Sixteen

xxx hey guys sorry that I haven't been posting in a few days, I have been thinking of ideas. Enjoy xxx

"This... this is for me?" I turned around and asked Steve, who had caught up with me.

"Sure thing kiddo!" His mood seemed to have lifted looking at the new house just like me.

I walked through the beautiful entrance again and out to the car to get my boxes. I only had 3.

"After you're done Lace, will you help me with these?" he motioned to the other boxes and grabbed two of them.

"Sure. Won't take long." I laughed as I started walking back up.

I grabbed a blanket and draped it on the floor where I imagined my bed to be, to add a little touch of 'me' to the room. Then I put all, which isn't much, of my clothes into the new dresser that the old house owners had left behind, which Steve had mentioned in the car.

After helping steve, we headed back to the old house. One more night, and we would be in the new house. It seemed so fast.

"Well... goodnight." He said to me as he started walking to his room. He and I were both sleeping on sleeping bags because our beds were being delivered at the moment. I stared at the ceiling and thought. Thought about how much I had messed up and changed Steve's life. Thought about how my father had the nerve to try to get me back, even after he had messed up so badly. I thought so hard, that I ended up falling asleep, tired of my life at the moment.

<<<>>>

We had finally gotten into the new house officially. It took some getting used to, not having to walk to my little house in the back. Steve and I had decided to go down to court and legally change my name. Again.

While we were driving there, we were having a conversation about all the possible names. It felt weird arguing about a name. For myself. But what the heck, things were already so weird in my life.

When we finally arrived at court we had decided.

Aria.

I had no idea what it meant, but it felt special to me. Like a new birth. Maybe things wouldn't be so complicated as Aria. Even though I knew how many times I changed my name didn't make me a different person on the inside.

The court took hours, but after that, we decided I needed a whole new look. I thought that I should go for red hair and a skater cut. Steve thought that I should get a perm. No way was I getting a perm. We decided on brown hair and a cut so that my hair went down to my shoulders. My hair now was down to my waist. It would be a big change.

I walked into the salon and a bell rung on top of the door.

"Hi, welcome to D&V salon. How can I help you today?" asked a girl with a name tag that said "Vivian".

"Hi, I wanted my niece here to get a permanent color, brown and cut her hair down to her shoulders. We just needed something new."

"Of course! Just this way..." she motioned to a rinsing station. The warm water felt soothing as I let go of Lacey. I was now Aria, and things would be different. I hoped. I was going to be strong, and never again let John get the best of me. I was on my own with Steve now.

After she dried my hair, I silently said goodbye as the first snip cut my blonde hair was made. I remember how my mother would brush my hair before kindergarten, and how my father would always ruffle it at the end of the day when he came home from work.

An hour later, and I couldn't believe what I saw. This girl was not me. I could hardly recognize her. I looked so different! This was going to definitely keep me safe and hidden. I looked older, and not so childish.

All of the sudden the door banged open and someone familiar looking walked in. I studied the guy, trying to figure out where I knew him. He hadn't noticed me yet, so I could look at him freely. But as soon as he turned around, I felt my blood go cold.

It was Steve. The one who had fought with my dad the night everything fell apart. Steve. Not the Steve I spend time with all the time, not the nice Steve who was like family to me. No. The idiot man who was in my dad's drug trading business, the one who unfortunately shared a name with someone wonderful.

He saw me staring at him and smiled politely, not recognizing me at all.

"Let's. Let's go..." I said as I pulled on Steve's sleeve like a little kid.

"Okay kiddo! You look amazing!!!"

I smiled politely to him as a thank you.

He paid for the cut and thanked Vivian. We got in the car and drove in silence. I didn't want to mention who he was. Not now.

Steve seemed to be oblivious to the stress in the salon, and I wanted to keep it that way. So much was going on with him already.

Evil Steve's POV:

"Hi sir, what kind of haircut do you want today?" Asked a girl with the name tag of Vivian.

Just then I saw something that brought me back to my past. A little girl, who I remembered from the night the fight went down with John. I couldn't let her see that I remembered her, so I just smiled politely like a stranger.

She looked at me and quickly walked out of the store. I didn't know if she remembered me or not. She looked different, but I could never forget a face that I had encountered in the past.

Even though her father and I had gotten into some sort of argument, I had recently gotten on talking terms with him, and I knew he was looking for his daughter. I had to do something, knowing how desperate he was.

I quickly ran back to my car to follow Emily and her guardian. I needed to know where they were heading so I could report back to John, who was in jail at the moment.

I had to make sure that they didn't know that I was following, so I kept a safe distance. I pulled up to a gray house, that was much bigger than my own, which I lived in with my new girlfriend, December. She has had a past with helping John, and the girl, so it was perfect. John was going to be moving in with us soon, and Emily wasn't going to stand a chance.

I quickly took a picture of the house and remembered where the street was. I drove off, ready to make a plan. We were going to get Emily once and for all.

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