The ORION Project | ✔

chapter 34

That was it.

There were no how are yous, no explanation or warm smile. Grace Ilori thought she was stupid for thinking there would be more, she expected that he would smile at her, embrace her and her call her his daughter, explain why everything happened the way it did. Maybe he'd even tell her how much he missed her, how he'd looked after her from afar, there were so many ways she had imagined this meeting, a thousand and one ways but this.

Even Remilekun Phillips was shocked, his eyes widening in the slightest before he raised his drink and downed it. Joshua Phillips however, was smiling.

"Do you know the digging I had to do to find her? I expected a more warm reunion." Remilekun finally said, he sipped from his half full tumbler and when he looked up, there was beer foam on his upper lip, it should have made him juvenile but it didn't. His words were amused with a sharp edge.

"I already knew where she was," Toluwanimi Kingston said, slowly as if he were talking to a child. He took the sofa leaning against the wall and cast a look of distaste at the animation of shark above his head. Grace startled at the sight, the longer she stood in this room, the more her awe gave way to fear.

She didn't like the ocean and last semester, she had almost flunked her swimming course because she couldn't stay underwater without imagining a creature pulling her under the pool and letting her drown. Even the week long trip to sea school (also the previous semester) had been difficult, Tope had had fun and Grace had been the wet blanket as usual.

"I gave her away, remember?" Tolu Kingston was saying, eyes solely on Remilekun Phillips, Grace felt anger light up her chest at being so obviously dismissed. "If I wanted a family reunion, I would have come see her myself."

For a brief moment, Remilekun frowned.

"Were you worried that you would have been the worst father in the world?" He asked.

"I'd worry more about my own children, Phillips." Toluwanimi said dryly. "What ever did happen to your first son?"

Grace jolted and shared a glance with an expressionless Joshua, she didn't know anything about Remilekun having another son, as far as the public knew, Remilekun Phillips had three children, two daughters older than his only son.

"He was a miserable failure." Remilekun said casually, but there was a slight clenching of his jaw.

"Gbenga Phillips is autistic, not a miserable failure." Toluwanimi Kingston corrected. He leaned forward and his eyes flicked towards Grace.

"Before you judge my parenting skills, I suggest you reconsider letting your eldest son return to the country first."

Remilekun Phillips let his tumbler slam down on the bar counter, obviously done with games. The vein in the left side of his eyes twitched and Grace wanted to smile, she would have if his eyes didn't suddenly fix on her face too.

"I know all about what you have been up to and now I have your precious daughter with me."

"And what?" Tolu Kingston cut in smoothly, Grace might have been impressed by his ability to look Remilekun Phillips in the eyes without flinching if he wasn't so unaffected by the conversation concerning her.

"The ARTEMIS Project might have been a sister organization, but you and your miserable bunch have stepped out of the spotlight for so long that the light now blinds you - our light. If you step out of line, your daughter will pay for it."

Grace shuffled, heart thudding at the threat, even if he didn't glance at her as he said it.

Tolu Kingston laughed, it was a short raspy sound that told her that he wasn't someone who did so very often.