asset [h.s.]

sixty one // father's daughter

Alicia

Much to my surprise, when we get off the plane and are greeted by our driver, I can tell by his accent that we're back in England. As the driver places our bags into the boot of the car, I glance over at Harry in confusion.

"We're home?" I ask as he holds the car door open for me, letting me slide into the back seats first.

"Yep," he confirms, joining me in the car before closing the door behind us.

"But I thought we were going to visit my dad?"

"We are. He's here too."

"Has he been here the whole time?"

"No, I think he only landed here a few days ago. He's at a safe house in Nottingham. That's where we're going now."

"Oh," is all I can think to say, still feeling a bit dazed from everything that's happened over the past few hours. First of all, I woke up to think Dan had snuck into my room to have his way with me, only to find it was actually Harry there to save me. Our reunion was overwhelming and emotional in itself, so the fact that now I'm being flown across the world again to finally see my father after months is quite a difficult thing to register.

"Here, put your seatbelt on," Harry says, reaching over to grab my seatbelt that I forgot about and wrapping it around my body, clipping it in for me.

I thank him with a small smile, leaning back against the seats. As our driver turns on the engine and makes his way out of the airport, I begin to nibble at my nails out of anxiousness, even though there's hardly any nail left as I've bitten most of them down to the nub, but that doesn't stop me. I nibble and nibble until Harry notices and grabs my hands from me, telling me to stop like he always does.

I let him clasp one of my hands in his, rubbing his thumb along the back of it comfortingly while I stare out of the window. The sky is cloudy and grey, looking like there's going to be a downpour any second, which is typical for England. I don't mind though, because I've actually missed the cool, rainy weather compared to the humidity and hot sun beating down in all the other countries I've been visiting.

No matter how many times I re-run it over in my mind, I can't seem to fully grasp the idea that we're on our way to see my dad. My dad. The person who raised me pretty much single handedly, while also running some kind of software and mafia business all at once. The person who taught me to ride a bike and then bought me my first car many years later. The person who I always thought I knew completely, only to find out I never really did at all.

That's definitely scary to think about. The thought that you spend your whole life believing you know everything about your parent when really you're only scratching the surface. Of course, everyone goes through that because no one can truly know their parents; you don't know what they were like growing up or how they acted as a teenager. But as soon as you enter their life, you think you know them pretty well. It's weird to think that you're never going to know your parents as much as they know you.

It's even weirder to think that the little amount you did know about them was mostly a lie. Or maybe that's just sad.

I stay sat in silence for the remainder of the car ride, noticing Harry glancing over at me with a worried look, probably wondering what the hell I'm thinking about, but I really don't think he wants to know. I'm doing him a favour by not depressing him with my thoughts.

Speaking of my troubling thoughts, they're interrupted when the car suddenly comes to a halt outside a large townhouse, which isn't really what I was expecting, but if I've learnt anything during this whole experience, it's to always expect the unexpected.