FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 15 ~~~~~~~

"It will."

She continued to smile back at him. "You know, this is going to sound dumb, but I'm happy to see you back at work."

"And I'm happy to be back. Though I still get the occasional odd stare here and there. Like I'm newly widowed. Even though that couldn't be furthest from the truth."

Vivan put her right hand on her hip and shook her head, sending the dark, tight curls of her hair about. "Is it the temps again?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "New blood always has the habit of staring. But it won't be for long. It never is."

That was true.

Whenever they had new hires, many would often stare and marvel when meeting with Alastor for the first time, many coming here because he inspired them. Some, men and women, asked to date him, yet he politely held up his hand to show his wedding ring, and that would usually deter them.

At least most of the time, but when they would become deterred when discovering that dating a man with a child meant that the kid would ultimately come first. And he would always be devoted to his child.

Those who didn't like it would later find themselves at the end of scrutiny from Alastor's fans, who would call out those people that hated his kid. Those people would later vanish, probably just gone off to hide in another province or even the States to get away from the onslaught of angry fans.

Alastor would ask time and time again not to be angry, for people had their preferences regarding relationships. However, even he drew the line at those who insulted his kid.

Katie was like that, Al's old co-host made a horrible comment about Amalie and her family, mainly her mother's side, and the look Alastor had could very well turn someone's blood to ice. Or so Vivan was told since she wasn't there to see it for herself. The thing was, Katie had a slew of enemies, both at work and in her personal life. She was a real bitch to deal with. But not long after she died in a horrible car accident, her body mangled beyond recognition because her car stalled when crossing some train tracks late one night and died instantly.

Many saw it as divine justice, and others just wondered if someone finally snapped and took out their anger on her and had her killed, while Alastor just didn't seem to care. He paid his respects at her funeral and moved on as nothing happened.

But then that was just kind of how he was. Utterly indifferent to those who were rude and could care less if they died, even more so if that person disliked his child for whatever arbitrary reason they had.

Like seriously, what kind of stupid dumbass hates on a kid because she's Alastor's daughter? That kind of shit just boggled Vivan's mind. The girl was seven, SEVEN, for god's sake! And who in their right mind would even hate such a sweet girl, to begin with?

Why do people suck so damn much!? Vivan thought in aggravation.

"Something on your mind, Ms. Bone?" Alastor asked, snapped Vivan out of her train of thought.

"Huh? Oh, no, I'm good. But I should probably get going, been here longer than I normally am."

"I was wondering why you were here so late. Normally you'd be at home already."

"I was asked to take over for parts during the early morning, Bethany went into premature labour. Since I kind of saw it happened and called the ambulance while we were all panicking since this is her first kid, and when she was taken to the hospital, our boss asked if I could take over her spot since her co-host was going to be in late due to his kid's operation."