Nothing Without Me

THREE

Chapter 3

“Sorry, baby…Mummy is really really sorry…” In the small three-bedroom apartment that was shared by 6 women, and while working as a full-time waitress at a restaurant, it was getting harder and harder for Elena to keep track of Lila. She had been so tired after working an eight-hour shift, she had barely closed her eyes for a second there, and the next thing she knew, Lila had been crying non-stop after knocking something off the kitchen counter and hitting her head with it.

“Mummy is Sorry, Lila, come here.” And the roommate's disgruntlement was another thing entirely. “You should have her tied to a pillar.” One of them snorted. “Jesus Christ, but she is a menace!”

Elena bit her lips to stop herself from crying out loud. Her child was used to freely running around in the large garden of their townhouse, instead of being locked up in a 400 square foot little box like apartment. The poor thing has still not realized that her condition has changed.

That the daddy, she saw once in a while living in the big house, had been lost to her forever and so had been the life she used to live.

“I am sorry, baby, but mummy can’t risk losing you!” Because she knew that James Whitmore’s threat to take Lila away from her was no lie. She knew him well enough to realize that he was really capable of anything.

“The deal must be signed by the end of today!” Alejandro couldn’t be any clearer in his command. “Do you understand me, Whitmore?” The assistant director was a pain in the ass, a stubborn jerk who was continuously trying to do things his own way.

“I understand, sir.” He looked a little rebuffed at that public put down. “The lunch meeting had been arranged at Lumière Royale, to talk things over….I will oversee it myself, Mr. Callisto…” James Whitmore’s words only worked as fuel to the fire.

Alejandro didn’t like people overriding his direct commands and this man had done this a hundred times by now. And Alejandro was this close to kicking him out. “What lunch meeting? Who told you to do that?” He hissed.

“Have I been speaking French, Whitmore? Was that why you didn’t understand when I said the meeting will take place at the conference room upstairs and I will chair it?” Patience. He had always lacked patience, and a useless jerk like this tested it even more.

“I am sorry, sir, but here at Vanguard, we always use lunch or dinner as a venue to treat the clients-”

“Shut up!” It seemed like it was finally dawning on Mr. James Whitmore that he was no longer in control of this company, and he didn’t like it at all. “I am sorry, sir, I will go and cancel the”

“Did I tell you to?”

Publicly humiliated now, James Whitmore crawled back into his office while the rest of the board continued their discussion about the highlights that were to be presented in front of the client and how.

At 1 o'clock exactly, they are left for the venue of the lunch meeting, the three-star Michelin restaurant Lumière Royale for the meeting to be carried out.

It was busy inside, despite it being a pre-booked venue only. The patrons were all sitting in the main seating area. The matron d’ at the entrance greeted them and started to lead them into the VIP section of the restaurant on the top floor.

There were almost a dozen people in the group, including the lawyers, the HR executive and the finance head, plus the clientele and how could one forget James Whitmore, he was trying to keep his head low amidst all the people milling around, but Alejandro had his eyes on him at all times now, another mistake and he will be out!

He was walking slowly towards the elevator when something hit his legs, something small and soft, He looked down into two little green eyes, staring right back at him. A small girl, barely 3 years old, was clutching his pant legs in a tight grasp.

She smiled at him and Alejandro, the man who never smiled, who didn’t even know how to smile, smiled right back at her. She was so sweet, brown curls around her face framing her chubby cheeks like petals of a flower. Alejandro had this strange urge to pick her up and take her in his arms. Perhaps, since she was the sweetest thing he had ever seen.

But he didn’t since he wasn’t sure if she would like to be picked up by a stranger.

“Hello mi, Cariño…” He whispered, and she whispered right back.

“Will you be my daddy?” he knew from his experience with his sister's children that they often said the most outrageous things, made up stories with no base, so it was stupid to take them very seriously and yet…..

Yet he couldn’t disregard what he was seeing here in the eyes of this little girl. He was making up no stories, this was no attention-seeking behaviour. There was pain in her little eyes and fear…fear of what rejection? Abandonment?

What had happened to her? Where were her parents? He could tell from the bad and a little torn blue-grey dress she was wearing that she couldn’t be the daughter of any of the patrons; it was a venue for the ultra rich; what was she doing here?

“Daddy?” She asked again, still holding onto his pant legs almost as if she was afraid to let go. Alejandro had never felt something like this before, and he had never expected to, certainly not here, not like this….. Amidst the chaotically busy restaurant, the waitresses moving about, the multimillion dollar deal about to be signed over this lunch meeting. His subordinates, the client, lawyers, everyone waiting for him to move, get seated, and get this meeting going.

And yet all he could do was to stand there paralyzed and stare down at half a feet of pure innocence, a little girl in an old torn blue dress, her green eyes staring back at him with the most guileless eyes asking for her papa.

‘Dios!’ How can he? How can he reject such a cry for help?

“Sir, the meeting?” his assistant tried intervening. People were walking past them now. The members of the board were tapping their feet incessantly, losing their patience. Everyone was waiting for him to move.

“In a minute, Julian.” He said, his voice strangely hoarse. He wasn’t used to feeling such strong emotions like this. Before he bent down and picked up the little girl. She smiled again, a heartbreakingly beautiful smile. “Daddy?” He said nothing through his mouth, and yet his heart whispered that, yes, he was. He was this little girl’s daddy forever. And she was his little Carino…

“Where’s you mummy?” He asked, moving away from the crowd.