Justice For Juniper (Tatienne Richard) novel Chapter 131

Justice For Juniper

Juniper … I Am Your Father – Part

Juniper clutched her phone in her hand. It was full of hundreds of photos of her mother. Somehow though, it felt like she was opening Pandora’s Box, and she was terrified of what might come out of it.

She held up her phone and showed her display photo. “This is the most recent photo I took of her. Phineas sent us to a spa for the day. We were given the full package including hair and make–up after and then she and I went to dinner. She insisted I take our photo and change out my screensaver because it was, well, it was one I didn’t want on there anymore.” It had been a photo of her and Kyst at Niagara Falls for their anniversary.

He took the phone from her hand, and she noted the slight tremor in his fingers as he did so. Inigo was still holding her other hand in his grip, but he was staring hard at his son.

Fermín puffed his cheeks out as his eyebrows knitted together while he stared at the photo. “Do you have any of her when she was younger?”

“I do.” She took the phone back from him and felt the slow movements of Phineas‘ fingers tracing patterns on her shoulder. She was aware the entire table was no longer eating and was watching the interaction, and she felt very much on display. She rolled through her photos on her phone until she found one of her high school graduation day. “I’ve always kept the same number since Mama got me my first phone in high school. I just keep transferring everything over. This is the day I graduated high school. She was really proud of me.”

“As she should be,” Fermín said quietly as he accepted the phone again and this time his gasp was audible. “Your mother,” he cleared his throat, “is incredibly beautiful.”

“Thank you. I like to think I look just like her.”

“You do but, there must be some of your father’s family in there.” Fermín was staring at her now hard. “What do you know of your father?”

“Nothing.” Juniper didn’t lie. “My mother always told me I was a gift to her which came without my father’s name. My best friend’s father is a piece of work, and we’ve known each other since we were babies pretty much. Hers was the only father I ever met, and I was always afraid if I asked my mom about having a dad, I’d get one like Suki’s. As I got older and met other people’s fathers or whatever, I was never really interested because I was lucky to have with my mother. She’s always been such a good mother, I never really felt like there was anything missing in my life.” She saw the flash of hurt on his face.

“You never missed having a Papa?” Fermín asked seriously.

“I guess I always, intuitively knew it would hurt my mama if I longed for something more than her.”

“Why not?”

“You would have to ask her that,” she shrugged carelessly, in spite of the way her heart was thundering a million miles a minute now. The longer she sat here, looking at him across the table, the more she was confident he was her father. The more she knew he was her father, the more guilty she was feeling about somehow this being a betrayal to her mother. “It was only on Monday afternoon she even told me his name. She said she never knew his last name, only his first name, and he’d promised to call her after the one time they were together, and he never did. She said she tried back then to find him but all she had to go on was a first name and the bar where they met.”

“What was his name?” Fermín’s eyes were daring her to confirm what he already was feeling.

“Fermín,” she lifted her chin rather defiantly. “When Abuela mentioned your name I asked her how common it was in Spain, and she said it was very common. My father lived in Toronto according to her understanding.”

“Your father did live in Toronto but on the drive back to his place after dropping your mother off, he got a call his grandmother was dying, and he needed to get home to Spain. When he landed here, they were told she had only minutes left to live so his sister who was here ahead of us, was driving rather too quickly and she crashed the car.”

“Holy shit.” Adil gave a snicker as Fermín simply laid it right out there. “Abuela called it.”