Take Me Daddy: Unholy Devotion

Give Me A Chance

Melissa’s POV

"So how have you been?" Samuel Quinton, my supposed dad, asked. I stared at him long enough that he removed his eyes from me and looked outside the bar. We sat opposite each other with a bottle of water and a glass cup in front of each person. He convinced me to have small talk with him even though I really wanted to go back badly. I'm having mixed feelings after seeing him. I'm not happy nor excited and that's weird, judging from the fact that I have been waiting for him a whole night.

But now that he is here, something inside me doesn’t match the picture I had built in my head. I thought I would feel something stronger. Relief maybe. Anger maybe. Even joy. But instead, there is just a hollow space inside my chest that refuses to settle into any emotion I can name properly.

"Look..." He wanted to talk when I cut him off with a low voice that displayed disappointment.

"You never cared to know all these years then, why now?" I kept my gaze on him as he tried to find words to defend himself.

For a moment, I watched his face closely. The lines around his eyes looked deeper than I remembered. His hands stayed still on the table like he was afraid any movement would make things worse. But none of that softened anything inside me. Time may have changed his appearance, but it didn’t erase the years of absence I had lived through alone.

"I don't want to defend or give excuses, I'm totally sorry," he said and bent his head in shame.

The way he said it was quiet. Too quiet. Like he had rehearsed it in his head many times before saying it out loud. But apologies don’t erase empty birthdays, unanswered questions, or nights where a child keeps asking why someone didn’t stay.

"Sorry for what exactly?" I asked, not minding the remorse written all over his being.

"For everything," he replied with his head still bent.

I let out a slow breath through my nose, leaning slightly back in my chair. “Everything” felt too light for what it covered. Too simple for something that shaped my entire life.

"You better f*****g be! But you know what? That won't change a thing in my life. I just wanted to see how my dad looks after all these years. I just wanted to set my eyes on him, that's all. And right now I have done that, I will take my leave." I said and tried standing, but he held my hand, which I yanked off immediately.

His touch was warm and unfamiliar. It made my skin react before my mind could even process it. I hated that.

"Please.. I have been looking for you for a while now. I really, really wanted to set my eyes on my princess. Please don't be mad at Daddy..." He was still talking when I burst into laughter, and he paused and stared at me.

But the laughter wasn’t real. It came out broken, almost choking on itself. It surprised even me. I wasn’t laughing because it was funny. I was laughing because the words didn’t fit the reality sitting in front of me.

Princess. Daddy.

Those words felt foreign, like they belonged to someone else’s life, not mine.

"I have heard, go back home and pretend today never happened," I said and walked out of that bar.

The air outside hit my face differently. It felt colder, sharper, like it was trying to pull me back into reality. The noise of the bar faded behind me, but the weight inside my chest only grew heavier. My steps were fast at first, almost rushed, like I was escaping something I wasn’t ready to fully process.

"Gosh! I stink," I lamented as I walked to the road to get a taxi. I stood there for a while waiting, hugging myself slightly without realizing it.

My mind replayed everything in fragments. His face. His voice. The way he said “princess.” The way I laughed when I shouldn’t have. It all clashed together in my head like broken pieces trying to form something whole but failing every time.

And what scared me the most wasn’t anger.

It was the emptiness.

Because I had spent years imagining this moment would complete something in me. I thought meeting him would bring answers or closure or even pain I could understand clearly. But instead, it just left me standing in the middle of a road feeling like I had stepped into something unfinished.

Cars passed. People moved. Life continued around me like nothing important had just shifted inside me.

But inside me, everything felt paused.

I swallowed hard, blinking a few times as I tried to steady myself. My throat felt tight, but I refused to let anything fall apart outwardly. Not here. Not now.

All I knew was that I didn’t want to go back inside that bar. Not to him. Not to those words. Not to that version of a man who suddenly wanted to be a father after years of absence.

"Melissa!" I heard my name and turned immediately to see Samuel, my supposed dad, running toward me. I stood still, both hands resting on my waist, watching him close the distance between us.

There was something almost desperate in the way he ran. Like he was afraid I would disappear again if he didn’t reach me in time.

"Damn! What do you want!" I shouted the moment he got close enough, his chest rising and falling heavily as he tried to catch his breath.

"Please, give me a chance. I really want us to bond," he stuttered, struggling between words as he breathed.