CHAPTER 3 _ The Buried Past
963 Words
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CHAPTER 3
The Buried Past
A few hours later, the front door opened.
They had gotten home
John entered.
His face was calm.
Too calm.
The kind of calm that came before a storm.
"Dad!"
Elena ran toward him joyfully.
He caught her immediately and hugged her tightly.
Too tightly.
For a moment, he simply held her.
Then he stepped back.
His eyes found the letter in her hand.
And something dark passed through his expression.
Gone almost immediately.
But Rosa saw it.
"John."
He looked at her.
"We need to talk."
The seriousness in his voice made Elena's smile fade.
A few minutes later, they sat together in the small living room.
Elena was told to give them privacy…..
She stood up and obeyed.
The admission letter rested on the table.
Nobody touched it.
Finally, Rosa broke the silence.
"Would you tell me what's going on?"
John stared at the letter.
Then laughed quietly.
A humorless laugh.
"I knew this day would come eventually."
Rosa frowned.
"What day?"
John looked up.
His eyes seemed older than she had ever seen them.
"The day the past found me again."
The room became still.
"What are you talking about?" Rosa asked.
John leaned back slowly.
Then spoke.
"Rosa..."
A pause.
"Do you know that the man sitting in front of you was never supposed to become a newspaper delivery driver?"
Rosa stared.
"What?"
"My mother came from one of the most promising and respected families in our region."
Silence.
"She was Victoria Hawthorne."
Rosa's eyes widened.
The name sounded familiar.
Too familiar.
John continued.
"Her father owned one of the fastest-growing firms here."
Elena looked between her parents.
Completely confused.
"My father was her driver."
A sad smile touched John's face.
"She fell in love with him anyway."
Rosa couldn't speak.
Years.
Twelve years together.
And she had never heard any of this.
"John..."
He shook his head.
"My full name isn't just John Parker."
The room seemed to shrink.
Slowly, he said:
"My name is John Alexander Hawthorne Parker."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
“My mother's name ….. Victoria Hawthorne Parker ,” he added.
“My father?... Ben Parker.”
Even Elena stopped breathing from where she was eavesdropping.
Rosa stared at him.
"Why?"
Her voice barely emerged.
"Why would you hide that?"
John looked away.
"Because I needed to survive."
The answer frightened her more than if he had shouted.
"You left everything behind?"
"I lost everything."
His jaw tightened.
"There's a difference."
Rosa felt a chill crawl down her spine.
"What happened?"
John remained silent for several seconds.
Then:
"St. Alden happened."
The words settled heavily.
Elena looked up immediately.
"The school?"
John shook his head.
"No."
His voice hardened.
"Not the school."
"The people behind it."
A silence followed.
The kind that demanded answers.
"What people?" Rosa asked.
John's eyes darkened.
"Powerful people."
"Connected people."
"People who decide who rises..."
A pause.
"And who disappears."
Rosa stared.
Unable to reconcile those words with the man she knew.
John continued quietly.
"When I was younger, I graduated years ahead of my age group."
Elena blinked.
"You did?"
John nodded.
"St. Alden invited me."
Rosa frowned.
"As a student?"
John laughed again.
That same empty laugh.
"Worse."
Silence.
"They invited me as a consultant."
Even Rosa's mouth fell open.
"I was helping train students older than me."
The room went completely still.
"That's where everything started."
Rosa swallowed.
"What happened?"
John looked away.
For the first time, genuine pain crossed his face.
The kind of pain that never truly healed.
"Someone made sure my future ended before it began."
No one spoke.
No one knew how.
Then his phone rang.
The sound shattered the moment.
John looked at the screen.
Work.
He answered.
A brief conversation.
Tomorrow's assignment.
An early trip.
Normal…. Ordinary.
Almost insulting compared to everything that had just been revealed.
When the call ended, he slipped the phone away.
Then looked at Rosa.
Looked at the admission letter.
And finally said:
"Some pain is best left buried."
His voice lowered.
"Elena goes nowhere near St. Alden."
Rosa immediately shook her head.
"You can't make that decision alone."
John looked exhausted.
"I have to."
"No."
Rosa stood.
"Not when you've spent years telling her she could become anything."
Silence…..Heavy…..Uncomfortable.
Then John walked away.
The conversation was over.
At least for him.
Or so he thought, because as he reached the hallway, he stopped.
Elena stood there.
Just beyond the doorway.
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
She had heard enough.
Not everything, but enough.
John's heart sank.
"Dad..."
Her voice broke.
"You don't want me to go?"
The pain in her eyes hit harder than any memory ever could.
John crossed the distance between them.
Slowly.
He wiped away a tear.
"That's not it, Little Star."
"Then why?"
Her voice trembled.
"What happened to you at St. Alden's?"
Silence.
Rosa watched.
Waiting.
John looked at his daughter for a long moment.
Then he gently touched her forehead.
The same way he always had.
"St. Alden's didn't ruin my life."
Elena blinked.
"The wrong people did."
The answer only created more questions.
John's gaze drifted somewhere far away.
Somewhere buried.
Somewhere dangerous.
"And if they're still there..."
His voice became quieter.
"...then I don't know what they'll do when they realize whose daughter you are."
The room froze.
John immediately regretted saying it, b
ecause neither Elena nor Rosa understood what he meant, but both understood one thing.
It mattered.
A lot.
John forced a smile.
A weak one.
"Get some rest, Little Star."
"We have a long day tomorrow."
Then he walked away.
Leaving Rosa and Elena staring after him.
Neither spoke.
Neither moved, because for the first time in years...
John Parker looked like a man preparing for war.
- Writer
