Chapter 2 - “I have been looking for you, Mr. Williams.”

C H A P T E R  2  :  T H E  U N T O L D  T R U T H  A N D  T H E  W R A P P E D  U P  L I E S

J A V I E R  S U M M E R S

It was about three days later when Javier had finally received a phone call from Derek Williams, Ella’s biological father. He was lucky that he had informed the person he had paid to find Derek to only give his cellphone number to Derek, without telling him who he actually was. The reason was simple, he did not want Derek to find stuff about him on the internet that may lead him into dialing his office instead. Ella could not know about it until the day where he had arranged for both of them, father and daughter, to finally meet.

“Hello,” he answered the phone once he had made sure that the phone number of the caller was the exact same one his private investigator had informed him last night.

“Oh, I am sorry, I think I dialed the wrong number. I thought I was calling my daughter.”

“No, do not hang up, Mr. Williams,” said Javier immediately. “If you are looking for Ella, you are dialing the right number.”

“Who are you?” Derek's tone changed one hundred and eighty degrees. He had been polite at first but now, he sounded as if Javier had stopped his toe. “How do you know my name? How do you know my daughter?”

“Perhaps because I am going to marry her in weeks’ time?” Javier provided as he slowly lowered himself to his seat. “I have been looking for you, Mr. Williams.”

“Marry? My daughter is getting married? Is that why you have been looking for me? Does she want me to walk her down the aisle? Is that what this is about?”

Derek Williams sounded very excited and almost touched that Javier did not have the heart to say ‘no’. Nonetheless, he could not say ‘yes’ either when he clearly could not predict the future so, in the end, he decided not to answer the older man’s question. “Would you be willing to meet your daughter?”

“Absolutely. I have been looking for her for ages. When her mother, Eleanor, had taken her away with her, she left no trace at all. I have gone looking for them and there were once or twice where I found her and asked her to discuss things over but she kept running away.” Derek let out a deep, weary sigh, and when he spoke again, he sounded much older than his real age. “At some point, I have to give up. Even though deep down I never wanted to but it was crystal clear to me that she does not want anything to do with me. I finally settled down again and found the love of my life. We have a family here in Washington.” The man paused for a few heartbeats before launching multiple questions at Javier, “How is she? How is my little girl? Does she still like to get a nice back rub? She used to ask me to rub her back every night before she went to sleep.”

From his tone, Javier could tell that Derek was probably smiling as he reminisced the good old memories of his daughter. It pained him how the misunderstanding had occurred and caused Ella to hate her father. Ella always thought that her father had abandoned her and her mother. If only she knew that her mother had been the one who ran away from home. Though this thought did bring him to wonder why would Eleanor run away in the first place?

“Why did she run away?” He decided to ask once and for all rather than thinking of the possibilities. At least, if he found out that Derek was not a decent man and he had been abusive or something along that line that had caused Eleanor to run away with their daughter, then he could forget about this whole reunion. He could simply cut the call and never arrange anything behind Ella’s back. If there was even a slight indication that Derek was the bad guy here, Javier would never allow him to meet Ella. Regardless of the fact that Ella’s mother had lied to her by feeding her the wrong story.

Derek grew slightly defensive as he replied, “Why should I tell you? I want to talk to my daughter.”

“Unfortunately for you, there is no chance you can talk to your daughter unless I allow you to so I suggest you start spilling the beans and laying all your cards on the table.” Javier anxiously eyed the door, hoping that Ella would not burst in any second now. “Do not let me ask you twice, Mr. Williams. I am not a patient man.”

“And apparently you are a man with trust issues too since you have yet to tell me your name, young man,” said Derek with an annoyed grunt.

Javier smiled. He had been wondering when Derek would realize that Javier had dodged his question ten minutes ago. “Your story, Mr. Williams. As I said, if you want to meet or even know of your daughter, you should answer my questions. You do not know me and you do not my name. If by the time I ended this call and you have not answered my question, then you shall never meet her.”

“You are smart, if not cunning,” mocked Derek, followed with a dry laugh. “She left because of her poisonous sister.” His laughter had ceased and Javier could feel the atmosphere had shifted. “I am not sure what happened and Eleanor always screamed whenever I tried to bring it up. Her eyes, damn, she looks traumatized and I have no idea what was wrong. All I know was that I had gone home that morning after working on a night shift at our local hospital. After a tiring night of doing two complicated C-sections, all I wanted was to lay on my bed and sleep. Instead, I found Eleanor sobbing in the kitchen. I could tell something had gone wrong when I saw her sister being there with her. Her sister, Rachelle, is a bad influence. I never liked her. I only tolerated her because of Eleanor.”

Javier had never met Rachelle so he did not have any opinion of her. “Then what happened?”

“I asked them what was wrong and none of them said anything. Rachelle said that Eleanor was just feeling sad after watching a movie but I did not believe her so I asked Eleanor. She did not say anything but I saw guilt in her eyes. Until this day, I did not know what she had done, and even though when I had found her twenty years ago, I had told her to come back and that I would forgive her, she still would not come home. She kept running and running and I—” The man’s voice cracked and it was as if he was trying his best not to break apart when he took a deep, calming breath then continued, “I felt bad for her. I felt bad for my little girl for having to move around just so her mother can avoid me. So yeah, like I have told you earlier, I decided to stop. The second and last time I met Eleanor, I told her I would not go looking for her anymore. I do not think she believes me but I really hope she does so at least my little girl would have a place she could call home.”

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Dear Gentle Readers, have you ever read this author's other book called "THE BAD NERD BOY"? If you have, then here is one clue for you, Ella might be related to someone in that book. Enjoy your (almost) weekend!