The Father She Never Had

Vanessa’s manicured fingers clamped around his profusely bleeding palm. Her delicate touch did absolutely nothing to soothe the violent storm of humiliation and jealousy raging inside his chest.

"Why are you here?" Declan asked. His voice was a harsh, unforgiving rasp that cut through the faint jazz music drifting from the main hall.

"I just saw—" Vanessa started, her eyes wide with concern.

"I'm gonna deal with the wound." Declan pulled his hand out of her grasp with a sudden, aggressive jerk. He showed zero patience for her sudden appearance tonight. He did not wait for her to finish speaking. He simply turned his broad back on her and strode deeper into the sprawling venue, leaving a sporadic trail of dark crimson drops on the polished marble floor.

Meanwhile, in a secluded and quiet corridor far away from the noisy banquet hall, Stella let out a long, heavy sigh. She looked down at the fragile white outfit Harper had practically forced her into. The delicate fabric stopped right at her knees, clinging softly to her slender frame. Harper had specifically chosen this attire to evoke a strong desire to protect from the men at the gala, insisting Stella needed to find someone who would cherish her. Stella just felt exposed and thoroughly exhausted.

Gideon walked down the corridor toward her. A helpless, warm smile spread across his handsome face. He clearly knew exactly what his fiancé was up to behind his back.

"Where is she and May?" Gideon asked.

"They're almost here." Stella replied, scanning the empty hallway.

As if on cue, Harper and May appeared at the far end of the corridor. The little girl’s eyes widened with bright surprise the second she spotted Gideon standing there.

"Say hello to Mr. Locke." Stella urged gently, nudging her daughter forward.

May did not hesitate. The little girl immediately walked over to the towering man. She reached up, grabbed his large hand with her tiny fingers, and tilted her head back with a bright, innocent grin.

"Hello, Dad." May chirped.

Stella froze. Gideon stood completely stunned in the middle of the corridor. He blinked in utter confusion, staring down at the tiny child holding his hand. He had clearly not expected to be addressed with such a heavy, intimate title out of nowhere.

Harper covered her mouth with a playful, enthusiastic smile. "Yes, it's okay to call him Dad."

"Dad, take me there to play!" May tugged on Gideon's hand. She pointed her small finger toward the bright lights of the dessert table in the distance, trusting Harper's encouragement without a single doubt.

Gideon quickly recovered from his shock. Happy to dote on his new goddaughter, he bent down and scooped May up into his strong arms.

"Okay, let's go over there to play." Gideon chuckled. He carried the giggling child down the hall, leaving Stella behind with a throbbing headache.

Stella massaged her temples. She turned around to chase after them and correct her daughter's inappropriate greeting. The breath instantly left her lungs.

Declan stood merely a few feet away. His dark, piercing eyes locked onto her with a terrifyingly fierce glare. He had followed her into the secluded area. His jaw was clenched tight, and the knuckles of his uninjured hand were stark white.

"Is this exactly how you educate your child? You have her explicitly call every single man who she sees as her father?" Declan demanded. His voice trembled with barely suppressed rage.

"You misunderstood. May is just—" Stella instinctively tried to explain the harmless situation, stepping forward to bridge the hostile gap between them.

"If you want to cheapen yourself, you can do so. However, don't drag your innocent child down with you!" Declan snapped. He rudely and aggressively cut her off, his eyes burning with dark contempt.

Stella stopped dead in her tracks. The desperate need to explain herself vanished into thin air. She looked at his furious, unyielding expression and realized in that exact moment that he would never believe her. He had already convicted her in his mind.

A desolate, heartbreaking sneer crossed her pale face.

"Do you honestly know why May wants to call absolutely every man her father when she sees them? It's simply because you never once allowed her to call you her father. She longs deeply to have her own father just like other children, so she would naturally regard every man who shows her even an ounce of kindness as her father." Stella kept her voice terrifyingly steady, despite the violent ache in her chest.

"What absolute nonsense are you talking about? I never disallowed her!" Declan shot back. He looked down on her with fierce, unfiltered denial.

Stella’s smile turned incredibly bitter. "Have you forgotten? When May ran to call you her father, what did you say to her?"

Declan frowned, his intense glare faltering for a fraction of a second.

"Due to a severe blood infection at birth, May's development was delayed." Stella stared straight into his dark eyes, firmly reminding him of the painful past he had so carelessly discarded. "She didn't speak a single word until she was almost two years old. When she finally managed a clear, joyful 'Daddy', I was thrilled. I proudly brought her straight to your home office."

She paused, letting the heavy silence hang between them.

"Instead of praise, you looked at her with extreme disgust." Stella's voice finally cracked, betraying her buried pain. "You explicitly told a two-year-old child to get lost."

It was a profound trauma. May still physically trembled at the mere sight of him. The little girl had never dared to utter that word to him again.

The memory hit Declan heavily, like a physical blow to the stomach. He staggered back a half-step. He vaguely remembered the scene in his study. The sudden realization crashed over him. His blinding, irrational disgust for Stella at the time had caused him to cruelly ignore the innocent child entirely.

"Mr. Vance, please deeply reflect on yourself before admonishing others." Stella firmly restrained her own rising sadness, her tone turning stern and cold. "Since she is explicitly not allowed to call you her father, don't ever try to stop her from calling someone else her father!"

She turned on her heel and hurried down the hallway after her daughter.

Declan remained standing entirely frozen in the dimly lit corridor. His injured palm still dripped dark blood onto the expensive patterned carpet, pooling at the tip of his polished leather shoes. He could no longer feel the sharp, physical pain of the glass cuts. His chest was suddenly filled with stones so incredibly heavy he could barely draw a breath.

Much later into the night, Gideon playfully dragged a laughing, highly obedient Harper away from the venue. Stella felt deeply relieved to finally escape the exhausting, dramatic Entrepreneur Dinner. The endless socializing and the suffocating encounter with Declan had drained her energy.

May was completely worn out from the day's excitement. The little girl fell fast asleep the moment Stella picked her up, her small, warm head resting heavily on Stella’s shoulder.

Stella patted the little girl's fine hair affectionately. She quickened her pace, walking out into the chilly night air toward the dark parking lot.

Up ahead, directly under the dim glow of a streetlamp, she spotted a familiar silhouette. Declan stood rigidly by the side of the road. He was clearly preparing to leave as well, his tall frame casting a long shadow over the asphalt.

Stella deliberately turned her face away. Pretending she did not see him at all, she shifted May's weight higher on her hip and walked faster toward the rows of parked cars.

Declan immediately stepped right into her path. He blocked her route, forcing her to stop.

"I'll take you back." Declan stated.

He stared down at the sleeping child against her shoulder. His voice was soft, completely devoid of its usual arrogance.