CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN
“Oh good. I finally got your attention” he said.
Vivian glared at him. “You didn’t get it. You pissed me off until I had to give it, and that’s not the way to start any kind of conversation with any one”
“But at least it worked. I got your attention now and you are talking to me”
“I’m not talking to you” replied Vivian. “What do you want from me? And you better say it fast because I’m tired and I want to go home. It’s been a long day”
“I want to apologize to you” Raymond began, “I was such a jerk to you. I mean, when you talked to me after… After that night, I should have been more… I don’t know… Understanding… I guess I… I don’t even know how to put it. I’m not too great with words”
Vivian rolled her eyes. “I am not traumatized or depressed because you refused to go out with me, Raymond. Don’t flatter yourself. I don’t care if you were understanding or not. I do not need your pity at all.”
Raymond shook his head. This conversation was not going the way he wanted it to go at all. “I know. I know that you are not depressed. That’s not what I mean. I think you are misunderstanding me. What I mean is that I am sorry that I was a jerk. Even if I didn’t want the same thing that you wanted, I didn’t handle the situation the way I should have and for that, I’m truly sorry”
“Okay, you are sorry. I get it. Are we done here? Will you now let me go home in peace?”
“Do you forgive me?” Raymond asked.
“No, I don’t” came her reply.
“Okay, I can understand that because I deserve it, but can we at least go out together, grab a cup of coffee… Or dinner… So we can talk about it?” he pressed.
“No we can’t”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want to” Vivian replied bluntly, “Look, Raymond, I appreciate you trying to be a nice guy or what ever this is, but it didn’t change the fact that you hurt me. And I was upset about it back then, but somehow I have been able to move past it but seeing you today and talking to you about it brings it all back and it doesn’t make me feel good at all. In fact, it pisses me off all over again. Now I respected your decision back then and left you alone when you requested that I did. I am asking you to do the same right now. Am I asking for too much? Am I being unfair”
Raymond stared at her for a few seconds and he had to admit that she was right and that he deserved this. “No. You are not” he replied finally.
“Thank you. Now can I leave without you bother
Bothering me?”
He nodded slowly, and watched as she moved past him. He simply stood and watched her till she turned into corner and he couldn’t see her any more.
Isabella stared at the tiny box she had just pulled out from the drawer she always kept locked in her room. She had been sitting for a while now. Doing nothing but simply sitting and staring at it. It contained something she had locked away for a very long time. Something she had told herself that she was never going to use, but hadn’t been able to throw away.
When she was still younger and had been living with her father, he was hardly at home with her, so he had given her a number that she could contact him with anytime she needed to. He had also made it clear to her that she was to use it only on serious occasions… Only when she had to.
A couple of times, Isabella had called him just because she missed him and wanted to speak to him, but he hadn’t been too happy about it. As she grew older, she eventually gave up trying to have any kind of relationship with a father who didn’t care about her. She had been okay with her decision, well, until she had gone with Samson to look for his friend, only to find out that that her father was a vampire hunter. Which wasn’t a good thing since she had just become one.
Just how long had he been a hunter? And how and when did he find out about vampires? Also why was he there with Evans father? Why hadn’t he shown up again? Was he ever going to, or was he just going to take off like he did before? Disappearing from the face of the earth was something he was really good at doing. The question bugged the hell out of her and now she had to find answers.
The card which had the number sat in the box, untouched for years and Isabella picked it up and began to dial the number, deciding that after all these years, it was finally time to speak to her father again.
The phone rang for a while, and she began to wonder if he still used the number when someone picked the call and she heard her father’s voice on the other end.
“Hello” Travis Stevens said.
“Hi dad” Isabella croaked, feeling a weird lump in her throat for no reason.
There was a pause before Travis said, : “Ha Isabella. I knew that you were going to call soon. I have been expecting your call in fact. How are you? ”
‘How are you?’ Is that what he was going to ask her after such a long time? Isabella wondered. How the hell did he expect her to be after abandoning her without bothering to look back? But then again she didn’t even know what she expected him to ask her, so she guessed maybe ‘how are you?’ was just the best conversation starter for now. Now that she had called him, she realized that she too had no idea how to start a conversation with him.
“I’m fine” she replied, then added after a pause, “How are you?”
“As good as I can be given the circumstances” came his reply.
What the hell did that even mean?
“I really thought I was never going to hear from you again. You changed your number and I couldn’t reach you”
“You could have reached me if you really wanted to” Isabella snapped. “There’s no need to play the victim and act like you give a fuck about me. You were the one who left me”
“I had my reasons”
Isabella decided that there was no need talking about the past. It changed nothing, so it would
Be much better to focus on the present.
“I don’t care about that dad, that’s not why I called” she said, “What I want to know right now is, what are you doing here?”
CHAPTER SIXTY EIGHT