Fate

Chapter Seventy-Three

Chapter Seventy-Three

"Aris, if you were going to be this nervous why did you say yes?" Nick questioned.

How many times did I have to keep explaining to people my mom declined and said I could go? Or I was just a glutton for punishment.

All of last night into today had been so surreal it was hard to believe it even happened. After Zayn and Melinda had left me in the parking lot I'd gone backtrack to meet mom Kaylin and Liam at the car to go home.

Mom had been quiet and so had Kaylin and Liam and I shared a look of our own. I had a feeling they'd been talking about something they weren't going to share with us any time soon.

When we'd gone home Kenneth had been awake and seated in his chair but he hadn't looked angry. Instead, he's gazed at me a long moment before the two of them headed in their bedroom together and I had a feeling they were talking about tonight.

It wasn't often I didn't see him angry and I'd even been afraid he might hit her. But I'd seen no marks on her the next morning and I'd heard no yelling the night before.

Kenneth sat at the breakfast table right beside me and as soon as mom left the room he spoke to me.

"Ariel."

"Yeah?" I asked stiffening.

"How'd it go last night?"

I'd sat there unsure of what to say or what he was even asking. Did he want to know how things went with Alec? Hadn't he gotten that information from mom? Or did he want to hear it from me?

"Fine," I responded and he was quiet as he gazed at me a long moment.

"Mom said your grades were good," he said awkwardly.

Apparently, the act was getting harder and harder for him but why was he now taking an interest? His fatherly attention was foreign to me and I didn't know how to handle this.

"Yeah, they are."

"You've always been smart." He spoke softly and I glanced out of the corner of my eyes at him.

He was smiling slightly but I could still see the awkward glint in his green eyes. He looked down at me and I quickly averted my eyes. "Thanks," I muttered.

"What did he try to tell you?"

"Who?"

"Your teacher, Alec."

"Nothing really. They told me you didn't want the DNA test and I didn't either." I explained.

He nodded, "Your mom said you decided not to."

"That's right," I confirmed.

"It was worth not knowing for me," he spoke.

"What was?"

"If you weren't mine. You've always been mine. My kid, my daughter. Maybe you weren't planned but no kid in the world was more wanted than you, once we knew you were coming." He explained and for once in my life I saw pure adoration in his eyes.

He'd called me his kid, his daughter. Claimed ownership for me for once in the way a normal dad did. If I was or I wasn't it was all empty words. He wasn't a normal dad and had decided he might lose me only because I'd seen Alec and learned what I didn't know for sure before. That once he had loved me. Somewhere maybe he still did but he'd never be the father I wanted who would shower me with love.

"That makes me happy," I admitted.

I wasn't sure what else to say. I just felt that he needed to know how I felt. That a part of me did want his love. Even if I didn't call him dad I still loved him like mom did. He nodded his head in approval then cut his eyes away from me only to look back something changing in his eyes. He reached out embracing me, his arms around me, and just when I moved to hug him back he pulled away.