The ORION Project | ✔

chapter 37

It was several minutes past 3AM, she should have been asleep but she wasn't. The stress of the past few weeks should have caught up with her, maybe it had even caught up but it was hard to get that sleep she wanted badly. Grace stretched and flicked the lamp on the nightstand on, bathing the room in a warm glow. Despite seeing more luxury in a matter of days than she had seen her whole life, it still took her aback.

She was in Toluwanimi Kingston's pretty mansion and her room was beautiful and three times bigger than the living room in her former apartment, cozy brown walls with painting of nature hung on them, the bed was queen sized and the sheets were a silk that made her want to roll around forever, yet sleep eluded her. Grace blinked up at the painting of a lion that hung above the door, on a closer peer, she saw that it wasnttquite a lion, there was an image of a young child that flickered behind the fore image, it took several looks for her to catch it.

A cold chill that had nothing to do with the air conditioning filled her, she was suddenly certain that it was the late Tamika Kingston that did the paintings around the house. It was eerie seeing so many reminders of the late woman around the house, eerie because every memento of her in the house felt more like a ghost that refused to move on.

Or maybe it was Toluwanimi Kingston that refused to move on.

Grace stood, slipping on a pair of fuzzy slippers she'd found in the giant wardrobe. She was wearing a nightdress she'd also found, amongst other pretty ones, she'd chosen to wear this silly one, a customized Spongebob Squarepants onesie.

She slipped out of the room and seconds later, found herself in front of another room, it was the room besides hers and the door was slightly ajar. Curiosity got the better of her and she pushed it open, an action she regretted immediately upon seeing who was inside.

Tolu Kingston, sitting on the floor with his head bowed, his head snapped up when he heard the creak of the door, a sound that told her that the door was barely used. The room was half shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from the hallway.

"I couldn't sleep." She blurt out when he continued to watch her with cold eyes. Grace wanted to run away, wanted to turn back and pretend as if she wasn't intruding on something that didn't concern her.

Her eyes strayed and she flinched. The whole room was covered in paint, there were stains of it on the wall and blank canvases rested against the wall, there were also finished paintings that were too far in the dark for her to see clearly.

"I'll just leave." She said with a false cheery tone.

"You aren't intruding anything, Grace, not when every inch of this house is yours." Tolu Kingston said just as she turned to leave. It didn't escape her that this was one of the first times he was speaking to her directly.

She turned again, suddenly curious.

"You paint?" Grace asked stiffly.

He laughed, although it sounded more like a sigh. "No, I don't have an artistic bone in my body," He said bluntly.

"I'm insomniac, I come here when I can't sleep."

Grace startled, he always seemed put together, even though he had haunted eyes. His admission of a weakness was disorienting.

"Well, I'm going now." She said awkwardly. She wasn't very good at interacting with people her age, she was even worse with older people and the fact that this man was her father was even more unnerving.

"Do you think I hate you?"

The sudden question was startling too. She frowned.

"I don't know, look, I don't want you to feel like taking care of me is your one big mission because of. . . my mother, because of her last wish. I don't want a grudging hero."