Aurelia Stark, the girl with everything. Only daughter of billionaire, Tony Stark, she has anything a girl could of ever wish for. But when her father goes missing in the Afghanistan desert, the cracks in her seemingly perfect life start to show.
Wh...
Just behind the doors to the conference, Pepper, Obadiah, and I stand, the only noise being my heavy breathing. My foot taps anxiously and without even realizing what I'm doing, I twist my ring around my finger.
"Yeah, yep. Let's just get this over with.", I nod, reassuring myself, before twisting the handle.
A crowd of reporters sits on neatly arranged chairs, all ready to record what I say. Burying my nerves and emotion deep within me, I walk up to the stage and stand at the podium. Obadiah stands just behind me, placing a hand on my shoulder, whilst Pepper stands near the back of the room. As I take my place, I see all of the reporters exchange confused looks when they realize my father isn't here.
I fix my eyes on the clock on the back wall, then take a deep breath and start talking, "Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you all for coming.", I say solemnly, "Earlier this week, my father and I attended a weapons demonstration in Afghanistan. On Sunday the twentieth of March, on our way back to the airbase, our convoy was attacked. When the dust cleared, my father was gone, and as of Sunday...", I take a deep breath, preparing to let the words slip from my mouth, "he is officially missing."
The reporters all stand up and yell questions at me, cameras flashing, but I just turn and walk off stage, away from the cameras- away from everyone.
He swore he'd always be there for me- he promised.
2 WEEKS LATER...
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Obadiah, Rhodey, and I sit in the back of the limo, nobody speaking. I invited Pepper to come with us, but she said it would be more appropriate if she just got there on her own. So, it's just the three of us.
Then again, it's always just been me and Dad. I was the only family he had; he was all I had. Now it's just me.
I was entirely against the funeral- entirely. But Obie said it'd be good, that we needed to be realistic. There's no coffin though; there's no body. Doesn't mean this hurts any less.
We pull to a stop and I glance out the window at the crowd of people, all dressed in black. The door opens and Obie climbs out, before helping me out.
Half an hour or so later, we stand around a US flag and a much smaller tombstone than Dad would have wanted. Rhodey stands in front of us all, "I first met Tony in college when he was the fifteen-year-old kid, who managed to make his way into MIT, though knowing the man he became, that doesn't surprise me. I've been with Tony through a lot, we graduated college together, I was there when he found out he had a daughter,", we lock eyes and he offers a soft smile, "I watched him grow into a great father. I was also there for some of the lowest points in his life. I've seen Tony turn from a kid with a brain too big for his own good, to a real American patriot, who I'm proud to call my friend. I remember being woken up at five am one time in nineteen-ninety-two by a phone call from him. Then I was forced to come over and help him find Aurelia because she had crawled out of her cot and was hiding somewhere in the house. It's the little things like that, all the panicked phone calls we'd have and the crazy nights he'd coherse me into having that I'll never forget. He was a great man and I'm lucky to have known him."
Everyone claps, as he comes to stand next to me. Next up is my speech, so I breathe in and walk up in front of everyone. I feel at least a hundred eyes fixed on me and look out at the crowd of people, at least ninety percent of which I know didn't care about Dad.
Like I said, it was always just the two of us.
"Hi, as most of you know, I'm Aurelia. All day, I've been listening to people talk about Tony Stark and the different things he's achieved. But I never knew him for his accomplishments, I just knew him as Dad. Our family was small, to say the least, but we had each other. That was all we needed.", my voice wavers, "There have been times in my life when I've had nobody but him. People say that Tony Stark doesn't have a heart, but as much as he hates to admit it, he had the biggest heart of anyone I know. Well, sometimes.", I smile at the thought, "If I was ever down in the dumps, he knew just what to say to make me feel better. He was always looking out for me, even in the last moments I saw him. He threw himself in front of a bomb, just to protect me. Say what you will about Tony Stark, but in my eyes, he'll always be a true hero, patriot, but best of all, a man I'm proud to call Dad.", my lip begins to tremble, but I bite down on it hard.
Everybody always thought of him as a cold, unloving man, who cared about nothing but himself. That's not true though. Not to me. I know better. He acted as though he thought so highly of himself, like all he loved was himself. But that's far from true. If anything, I think he hated himself a bit. He that he couldn't save his mother all those years ago. He hated that he wasn't good enough to earn his father's love. He hated that he didn't even give my mother the time of day to know she was pregnant, let alone try and save her life- not that there was anything he could have done. Most of all, he hates that he couldn't keep me safe on that night in nineteen-ninety-nine. He hates the thought that I could've met the same fate Grandma and Grandpa did and he would've been at some random club, laughing and dancing as I took my last breath.
But none of it was his fault. None of it.
As I look out over the crowd, I see faces of people I've met at award ceremonies, mostly senior military officials with wives a quarter of their age. Not a single one of them actually cared about Dad. They're probably only mourning the loss of new Stark inventions that they can blow up more people with.
"Thank you all for coming.", I hurriedly say, walking back into the crowd.
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A message from the author: (rant incoming) Literally got decked at football this morning (still fuming about it). We won our match at least but now if we lose another match all season we most likely won't win the league, which isn't great. ALSO, our star center back has a dance competition next week and we're playing the best team in the league. Anyway, I'm gonna go cry about that. Hope you all had a good week! Remember to vote and comment! See you all next chapter! (;
