Broken Piece

Blank Blue

Her father was acting strange and when her father did strange things, she had learned it was best to pay attention.

He had been taking meeting after meeting after not having one for over a month. He had gone from depressed, to hope filled, to damn near gleeful lately. It didn't sit well with her.

Callie would describe her relationship with her father as a strained one. She had been much closer to her mother, or rather, stepmother. But Suzanne had been the only mother she knew, so she was just her mom.

Her relationship with her father got worse when he started cheating on her mom and treating the woman like crap. Really, her father had always treated them both like crap, but had started doing it in public in more recent times.

Callie sighed and sat at the oak vanity in her bedroom, her deep brown fingers tracing over the white envelope sitting before her. 'RETURN TO SENDER' was sprawled in red over the front. She had written to her mom's son sixteen times now since the woman's death, but he had never once returned a letter of his own, just hers. She didn't even know if the address she had was current for him or not, but it was the only one she had.

She had wanted to talk to him about their mom, she wanted to talk to anyone about the woman, but everyone just pretended she never existed. It maddened her but saddened her more, especially such behavior from her dad. She could remember a time when they were happy, when her dad seemed to love her mom and her mom her dad and they her.

She remembered her mom going on and on about how happy and content she was, but then there would be a flicker in her eye and she would whisper about the one thing that was missing. Davison. The look in the woman's eyes had made Callie jealous at first, her childish mind thinking Davison would come and steal her mom away, despite mom being his mom first. She had always thought he had an advantage, being her natural child. A child who looked like her. So, she was certainly jealous of Davison for a while.

But after awhile the jealously changed into hate upon seeing the sadness in her eyes each and every time she returned from visiting him. She just couldn't understand why he wouldn't want to live with them. Though she thought she understood when she overheard her father saying 'your racist son' during an argument.

So Davison was a racist and that was that. She could understand that, she knew a lot of racists in their circle, the kids she went to school with. Despite having just as much money as they did, people still found a reason to look down on them. She knew what a racist was and she didn't want to live with one.

But now, as an adult, she wished he would just return her letter and talk to her. They both lost someone very important to them, who loved them so much.

Callie took a shaky breath as she ran a hand over her face as tears dripped from her eyes. She cursed and quickly stood from the little stool and made her way over to her nightstand, there she placed the letter in the drawer with her other returned letters.

Closing the drawer, her eyes fell on the picture sitting a top her nightstand. She's not even sure why she kept this one out and decided to showcase it. It was always the one she kept by her bed. It was of her, Davison, and their mom at the amusement park they went to that one time they met. Their mom looked so happy as she smiled for the camera. She noted that she looked as happy as any four year old would be at an amusement park and that Davison was not gazing at the camera, but at his mother with a shy smile on his face. He clearly adored her.

That made her heart tighten, wondering how he took the news, if he even knew.

Davison and their mom had similar coloring, blonde hair and blue eyes, tan skin, but she guessed he had his father's face.

"Callie, dear?"

Callie looked away from the photo and towards her door, finding their housekeeper, Rosa standing there. The woman was their fifth housekeeper in four years, her dad simply couldn't keep his hands off the workers. But Rosa was nice, older, so likely not to grab her father's attention.

"Rosa, good morning, how are you?" She asked glancing at the clock next to the door. She had to be in class in an hour.

"I'm fine, thank you, Ms. Barks. Your father is downstairs and he asked me to tell you to come down." The woman smiled at her.

Callie frowned. Why would her father want to see her? He went most days ignoring her. "Do you know what he wants?" If it was just to degrade her she would promptly bow out.

Rosa shook her head. "Sorry, but there is a man down there with him. Very handsome."

Callie raised an eye brow at that. That was interesting, her father's 'friends' never really came by anymore, not with the business not doing so well. "Uh, tell him I'll be right down then." She grinned at the woman. "I have to see who this man is you think is so handsome. You better not be giving out that title all willy nelly. He better be on some thor shit."

Rosa laughed. "I'm not sure who thor is," Callie stared at her in disbelief, "but he is very handsome, like a Latin actor. I don't think he's Latin though, chica."

Callie laughed, she diffidently enjoyed Rosa's presence. It was a comfort in her lonely life. "I'll be right down."

Rosa smiled at her one last time before leaving. Callie got dressed for the day in a simple pair of shorts and a loose sliver t shirt. Her mom had always said silver looked good against her skin. Silver and orange, were her colors according to her mom.

Thinking of the woman almost had her crying again. Instead she grabbed her bag and headed downstairs, planning on leaving for class as soon as the talk with her father was over. She walked down empty halls and a long stairwell. Lately her home had been empty, since her mom it certainly felt that way, but a lot of the workers had been let go as well because her father was unable to pay.

As she walked into the living room her father used for entertaining guests, she pulled up short in the door way, face falling into a frown.

Latin this man was not, but familiar in a way she couldn't quite place he was. She just stood there trying to remember where she had seen this man before.

He had stood when she entered the room, a custom not many people did. He was wearing a dark blue button up and slacks. His blonde hair was gelled back and despite the smile on his face, his eyes were dead.

"Long time no see, Callie." He spoke. "You've changed a lot, though that's a given, since the last time I saw you we were crying over ice cream and about this tall..." He motioned to around his upper thigh.

Callie frowned, confused, completely confused, mostly by his smile more than anything he said. She glanced at her father who was sitting in his chair, a cigar in his mouth, an eager grin on his face.

"You don't remember Davison, Callie?" Her father asked, leaning forward.

Davison? It clicked then, why his face was so familiar. She looked at a younger version of it every day. She didn't know what to say. Davison was here, her mom's son was here. She couldn't comprehend that after returning all of the letters she sent unopened he would end up standing in their living room.

"What...What are you doing here?" She blurted without thinking.

"That's rude, Callie!" Her father snapped harshly.

She glanced at the man and the sweat tainting the area of his shirt underneath his arms. "I didn't mean to be rude." She defended. "I..." She looked back at Davison. "Mom..." She began but trailed off with how his face darkened.

"I heard," He admitted quietly after a second, dark look gone.

"Callie, how about coming and having a seat?" Her father said, annoyance in his voice.

Callie did as her father asked and sat in the chair across from her father, diagonal of Davison.

"Davison is here to talk business," her father continued once she was seated. This made Callie glance at the man again. She then noticed the expensive shoes on his feet and the expensive watch he was wearing. "Davison is the owner of Kindness Co." Callie eyes widened, everyone knew about Kindness Co. Everyone wanted a piece of the up and coming company.

Davison laughed and shook his head. "Co owner." He clarified.

Callie frowned. "Mom never to-"

"I didn't get the chance to tell her." He interrupted her. "It's one of my biggest regrets." He sat his elbows on his knees and scratched at his cheek with his thumb. "I was dumb kid."

Callie stared at him, stomach churning at the tangible sadness and regret. No one said anything for a while after his admission. It made her still wonder why he was here. He went his whole life not wanting anything to do with them, now he was here...sharing his feelings.

"Davison wants to help us out." Her dad was the one to speak again.

Callie blinked hard, eyes darting between the two men. "That's great," she said, though she couldn't understand. Though maybe, she pondered, Davison was doing this as a favor to their mother, having no idea how terribly her father had treated her the last couple of years.

"I was telling Davison how great it is for us self made guys to stick together, help each other out in this sea of old money." Callie kept it to herself that her father was technically second generation wealthy. Her father had benefited a lot because of her grandfather's hard work during a time period when black men had a very hard time reaching the level of success he had. "He's willing to help...but he wants an insurance policy, I understand completely. I made some mistakes in my youth that makes it hard for some to trust me." As Callie listened to her father spew his crap, she began to wonder what this had to do with her. She doubted Davison just wanted to see her again.

She glanced at the man again, finding him staring back at her in an intense way which made her uncomfortable. She was getting a bad feeling about this.

"Can you two just be straight with me?" She broke under his stare. She looked at her father, finding him the safest sight, despite his shifty eyes.

"Your father has given his blessing to my marriage proposal."