Say You Love Me [COMPLETED]

CHAPTER THREE: WHERE THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS A WAY

Adam could hardly believe it when he saw the message flashing on his phone screen. Rhea had asked him for her birthday party. For someone who had gone out of her way to avoid him for the past two years, she had suddenly made progress. Maybe Zoey had talked some sense into her and she had started to see him in a positive light.

But Adam was no fool. He knew that Rhea was not going to crumble her barrier just like that. He knew about her inner feelings; more than she herself knew them. She was a broken soul and Adam wanted to mend her; just like he had set everything right in her life before by making her part of his family.

With a curse, he shut the file in front of him feeling unable to concentrate. Life was not fair sometimes. For some, life was like eating sugar candy all the way like his own life had been. Born with a silver spoon in the mouth, he had the most wonderful parents on earth and had never lacked anything. Whether it was materialistic wise or emotion wise. While for Rhea, nothing had been simple. And she had not been the one responsible for it.

For one, she had lost her mother Kyra Hart at childbirth. It was as tragic as anyone could never imagine. She had never known her mother but the worst part of the whole tragedy was that her father had blamed her for having lost the love of his life. Slade Palmer had never loved his daughter like a father should.

Hell, Uncle Slade hated the very sight of her. No matter how much his father Jake and Uncle Ashton had tried to convince their friend that the little baby was innocent, Slade had never even glanced at the newborn. It had been the worst day of her life; the day she had been born.

It was as sad as it sounded. Rhea had never understood the absence of her father not until she had turned seven when her father had suddenly returned back to meet his friends. And had suddenly came across Rhea in the Crighton mansion. Slade had then remembered that his daughter existed and had only greeted her with a “hello”. And it had been dramatic.

The seven years old Rhea had been unable to understand the fact that her father had not loved her. Hell, he himself was twenty five and he had never understood the reason why Slade had never shown any affection towards his only daughter. On the contrary, her father had been nasty to her and Rhea had had her first heart break at the age of seven.

“But you’re my father,” she had whispered stricken by the lack of affection of the latter when she had tried to jump in his lap for a hug and the latter had awkwardly stood up nearly making her fall on the ground.

“Unfortunately so,” he had replied without any qualms. “Believe me if I had any choice, I would have changed that.”

“You don’t mean that. Daddy!” she had wailed.

But “Daddy” had been deaf. Deaf to her pleas. Deaf to the incessant pestering of his friends. Deaf to the world. And he had never changed. Not after twenty two years. He still treated Rhea like she was some kind of trash and avoided her as much as he could. Rhea had grown up as part of Crighton and Cooper clan but Adam knew she had always taken the rejection badly.

It was logical of course because in her case, she had done nothing wrong to deserve such kind of treatment. But unfortunately, it had turned her into someone cynical and wary of any emotional attachment.

Adam had never known her to have a boyfriend. Whenever a guy had approached her, she had given him the cold shoulder until the guy had been tired of chasing her. Like she was doing with him now. He knew she believed that if she held on some more, he would dump her like her own parents had done in the past.

But he was Adam Devin Crighton, son of Jacob Bruce Crighton and the grandson of the great Devin Richard Crighton. The Crightons did not give up easily on their loved ones just like that. And when they loved it was a forever kind of love. The one which last a lifetime and beyond.