18+| Warning: Explicit sexual contents and mature language.
All that Claire needs is an adventure of a lifetime. Being a Rapunzel in the castle, surrounded with all lavish one could possibly need, she was still deprived of something very essential;...
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For almost five minutes Claire had been procrastinating through the large bay window, watching the sea waves crashing gently against the sand from a distance. But she had a place to go, and the afternoon was slowly fading.
A second thought? Not really. She was here for it, and so it had to be done regardless of how she felt.
"What took you so long?" Grandpa Robles, as Claire used to call him when she was a kid, approached her.
A small start threw Claire off her train of thought.
"Well..." She let her arms fall loosely off her chest and whirled her body around. "I don't know," she replied vaguely.
"Come," called her grandpa, "sit with me."
Two wing chairs were set near the stone fireplace, seemingly old and vacant for a good while, and upon them, the two took a seat for a small chat that Claire had already anticipated having with him.
Grandpa Robles pulled off his Panama hat, revealing light gray hair surrounding the bald top of his head. Very carefully, while placing the hat on his knee, he asked, "Do you still resent your father?"
"I don't know," Claire replied truthfully, and boldly she propped her one leg and placed it on the opposite knee as though she had her emotions sorted-which wasn't even half the truth. "But I know he didn't care much about me, because if he did, he wouldn't have left me believing otherwise, would he?" Anger betrayed her voice.
Resentment was there. Maybe not a plethora of it, but as small as it was, Claire couldn't cheat the fact.
"Not true, my child," her grandpa rebuked. "All he wanted was to prepare a better future for you so you wouldn't go through the same struggles he'd gone through in life. Trust me, Chiquita, your father had it rough and he vowed to never let you walk in his shoes for that matter."
"A future?" Claire scoffed, even though the story about her father's wealth wasn't a new book on the shelf. "What future is there if I'm now all alone? This is not what I wanted, Grandpa! I wanted a family! I wanted to go home and find people who would hug me, ask how my day was, and whether I wanted to join them for dinner and not argue with that witch! But he denied me that! He had the chance to do it but he didn't! All he cared about was his work! Until the very end, his work came first!"
Silence ensued as Claire trembled with anger. Grandpa Robles gave her a minute before he exhaled a long breath, eyes on her.
"I'm sorry, Chiquita. I'm so sorry for everything but I know your father as if he was my real son. I know he loved you and he'd be very proud of you if he were here today," he insisted, smiling tenderly at her because he meant every word.
And deep down Claire clung to those words. She wished they were true. Even though the pain of losing her father was still fresh, for she couldn't give herself time to mourn three years ago when he suddenly died, she still wanted to believe he was here, watching her even from above, and that he was indeed proud of her.
