Southgate's Secret ~ Marcus Rashford

I

"Lilly" Gareth smiled awkwardly

"hi" I replied

"you're so beautiful" he gasped

"I guess I've got good genes" I giggled

"I guess so" he laughed back

"so what should I call you?" I asked him

"I don't mind, you don't have to call me Dad if your not comfortable with it" he told me

"I don't think I will, not yet anyway" I said

"not yet? so you'd like to stay in touch?" he asked hopefully

"I'd love to get to know you, you are my Dad" I smiled

"thank god" he exhaled giving me a hug "sorry was that too soon?" he panicked letting me go

"no it's alright" I reassured him

"good, so should we go grab a bite to eat?" he suggested

"as long as it's McDonalds" I smirked

"McDonalds!" he exclaimed

"hey I know you're a football guy so you're probably like 'oh no it's so bad for you!' but I grew up with that greasy food so I like it" I chuckled

"alright, McDonalds it is then" he said with a slight laugh

~~~~~

"I'm sorry I didn't find you earlier Lilly" Gareth apologised

"you don't need to apologise, you didn't even know about me" I told him

"but I should've know about you, I can't believe what you've gone through already in life" he frowned

"if anything it's my mums fault for not telling you about me and then abandoning me with my Grandad. The only thing I knew about you was your surname and that's because it's mine too" I chuckled

"why's that funny?" he asked confused

"because I can't believe how stupid I was, I always thought my mum was the victim. I felt sorry for her because the love of her life abandoned her when she got pregnant, now I'm old enough to realise how naïve I was" I sighed

"why did you think that?" he asked me

"my mum left me a note that I read when I was 8. It said that she loves me but I'm a constant reminder of the love of her life and that she couldn't be around me without seeing my dad and the pain he caused her" I explained "then when I was moving out of my Grandad's house I found the letter and I read it again, afterwards I spoke to my Grandad about it because it just felt manipulative. Grandad told me that she got pregnant from a married man. He said that she didn't want to ruin the man's life as he was a good guy who made one mistake so she was just going to raise me on her own. But when I was only 2 weeks old she left without a single word, only this letter which was a lie anyway"

"Lilly I am so sorry" he frowned

"seriously, I don't blame you at all. You made one mistake which is why I never looked for you, I didn't want to ruin the relationship you had with your wife" I said

"then how did you find me if you weren't looking?" he asked surprised

"my Grandad got sick and didn't want me to be without family so he looked for you, and when he passed away a couple months ago he left me a letter explaining who you were and where I could find you. It took me a while to do it but I finally called you" I told him

"I'm so sorry about your Grandad" he apologised again

"okay from now on the word sorry is banned" I chuckled

"okay okay deal" he smiled

"so I feel like I've just told me my life story so tell me about you" I said to him

"okay well I was a footballer for a couple different clubs until 2006, then I started my managing career and I now manage England. My wife's name is Alison and I have a daughter called Mia who's 18 and a son called Flynn who's 15" he briefly explained

"wow you manage England! I knew you were a manager but not an important one!" I said shocked

"you didn't know! wow I guess you don't follow football then" he laughed

"not really, I love sport but I'm not obsessed with football, like I'm sure you are!" I smiled

"well I'm sure that'll change if you start hanging around my family" he chuckled

"do your family know about me?" I asked

"yeah after you called me I told them about you. It was tough especially to tell Alison as I did cheat on her, but we've had some counselling and we're still going strong" he answered

"oh thank god, that's what I was worried about" I said relieved

"yeah you don't have to worry about that, Alison has the biggest heart and she'd love to meet you someday if you're okay with that" he told me

"I'd love that!" I exclaimed

"perfect, would you like to come round for dinner tomorrow and meet them all?" he suggested

"yeah that'd be good, I guess I'd better get my fancy tastebuds out if it's at your house" I joked

"yeah fortunately enough for me, we will not be eating McDonalds" he laughed