Agata stretched her palm out.
Gia handed her a cup of vanilla ice cream and paid the cashier.
"Not this!" Agata frowned.
"You don't like vanilla?" Gia asked as they left the ice cream truck and looked for a place to sit in the park.
"My photo! You stole it from my room, didn't you?! Don't even think of lying to me!"
Gia saw no luck in acting clueless. "Can't you give it to me?"
They sat down on a bench and began eating their ice cream. Agata glanced sideways at Gia. It was a short split-second look, but her eyes, as if automatically, focused on his lips. Her cheeked turned crimson almost immediately. She cursed herself but frankly, felt a little disappointed. Gia had mentioned nothing about their last meeting in his office. Could it be that he did not remember anything from that day? He was drunk after all. Agata pursed her lips.
"You don't like it? You are not eating." Gia asked.
"I am annoyed."
"Why?"
"Think about it yourself!" She spooned a large scoop of ice cream into her mouth and suffered a brain freeze for a second. Oucchh.
"Don't eat too fast." He put down his dessert cup on the bench and took out his wallet. He pulled out a photo and handed it to her. "Here. I am sorry for stealing it."
"Huh?"
"Aren't you upset because I stole it? I am returning it to you. Please don't be angry."
Agata wanted to hit him. How could he act like nothing happened? She had expected an awkward tension between them when she called him out to meet today. The photo was just an excuse. She just wanted to see him. What was she supposed to do then if he gave her back the photo so easily?
"I don't want it anymore!"
"So I can keep it?" Gia asked with a delighted look in his eyes.
Annoying. Agata was annoyed at him but she could not help it when her heart beat for him every time he smiled warmly at her. She slapped her own face many times that made Gia jumped. He stopped her hands.
"What are you doing??"
"I must be crazy." How can I yearn for someone with a fiancée just because of one or two stupid drunk kiss?
Gia looked confused.
Agata shook her head. "It's nothing. Sorry for calling you out like this suddenly."
"You can call me anytime." Gia smiled.
"That won't do..."
Gia's phone rang. Agata saw the caller ID when he pulled his phone out. She quickly stood up.
"My lunch hour is almost over. I need to go back now. Thank you for the ice cream."
"Uh... oh... hold on." His phone was still ringing.
"You do your thing. I'll leave first." She threw the paper cup into the bin and waved goodbye at him before walking away hurriedly.
Gia watched her back disappeared in the crowd and picked up the call finally. "How can I help you, Miss Lassham?"
***
"I have to admit I am surprised when you called me, Mr. Dignita." Eric took a seat across Leo. They had agreed to meet at the old man's house.
"It has been a while since I came here." Eric's eyes circled around Leo's office. "Nothing changes much I see. We used to spend a lot of time talking here, and I admired your books collection. Still do." He smiled. Leo did not respond to his comments. Seeing the host went silent, Eric let out a polite cough and began himself.
"Inviting me like this today, back to this house. I assume you have something to ask me personally. Am I right, Mr. Dignita?"
"Eric..."
Eric felt a little happy when he heard Leo calling his name again just like how he used to.
"Who is Agata Fores?"
The question startled Eric a little. Eric adjusted his seat and leaned forward. "You met her?"
"She is the lady your son is supposedly dating." Leo clenched his fists.
"She is working for us as I told you before." Seeing how Leo managed to find out her name, Eric was sure he had done some work behind.
"Is she... Does she... have something to do with Dara? It's too much of a coincidence! You know something, don't you? Is that why you let her working for you?!" Leo's hands were visibly trembling.
Eric looked at him thoughtfully. "I cannot just share my employee's private information to anyone, you know that, but one thing I can tell you is that I'm not involved in any hiring process in my company."
Leo looked sicker by the seconds. "Please help me, Eric. I need to know."
That was the first time Leo Dignita lowered his head to him. Eric contemplated his actions. He knew how much Leo loved his daughter and how disappointed he was when Dara left the house and ended their engagement.
"The girl grew up in orphanage and just moved to the capital a few years ago."
Leo looked up. "Orphanage...?"
Eric nodded and straightened his back. There was something he wanted to confirm himself. "Now it's your turn. Tell me honestly. Do you know where Dara is?"
Leo looked taken aback. "What..."
"You know something, don't you? Serogia didn't come out of nowhere."
Leo looked away. Maybe it was time to tell it all, he thought. That his daughter was no longer alive. He at least owed him an explanation for breaking off the engagement.
"She... is dead. 18 years ago, in a car accident."
Eric could feel his heart beating fast but he kept silent.
A grave look crossed Leo's face. "She wasn't missing as everyone believed. I was the one who threw her out. Left her without anything to protect herself. She was..."
"Pregnant. With Alistair, one of our professors in the university." Eric continued Leo's sentence.
Leo turned to him. His eyes widened. "How..."
"She told me."
"Dara did...?" Leo muttered in disbelief.
Eric nodded.
"So you knew everything from the beginning?" Leo remembered how Eric had looked when Leo came to Crown's residence to apologize personally for breaking the engagement. The then young man looked sad but not panicked like someone whose dear friend or fiancée had gone missing.
"Don't tell me you..."
"I helped them." It was not anything big. Eric just sent out a lot of fake leads to the police and Leo's men back then.
"How dare you...! Why didn't you say anything back then?!" Leo looked like he was about to get a heart attack.
Eric felt angry all of a sudden. "How dare...? It was your fault!! How could you disown her just because of one stupid mistake!! Dara was your daughter!!" Eric shouted. "If only you didn't chase her out that day, she would have still been alive today!!"
Leo was shocked to be shouted at but he received everything silently. He knew. He knew his daughter's death was no one's but his fault.
"One day she suddenly came to apologize and say her goodbye. Said she was going far away with Alistair and their unborn child, away from her family. I tried to persuade her to stay but she would not hear me at all." Eric looked distressed. "And she was gone, just like that. I kept telling myself that she would return soon. That she would soon realize that Alistair could not make her happy and she would return to me..." He buried his face in his hands. "I wouldn't have mind if she wanted to keep that child. Nobody needs to know if the child isn't mine. We could still go on with the engagement. But Dara... she never returned."
Leo pitied the man in front of him. Looking back at how adamant his daughter opposed him, he was certain that she would never leave the unborn child's father for Eric.
Both did not say anything to each other for a while.
"Then why did you help them run away?" Leo knew Eric had loved his daughter since long ago.
Eric leaned back. His eyes got teary every time he remembered the day he last saw her. "Dara came crying to me for help. How could I refuse her? Before she was my fiancée, she was my friend." He clenched his fists. "If only I knew it would end like this, I wouldn't have let her go..."