"I am your daughter!" Eleanor partially yelled at her father. He didn't bother to face her, he kept his eyes fixed on his grand daughter, Eleanor's child, Zo. He watched the two year old play with the sand bucket in her attempt of building a sand castle. She looked to their direction and laughed before hurrying away to join the other children. Lewis smiled at her, she had been the apple of her eyes ever since she was born and she still was. Always would be, but now a new face was in the picture. Not entirely new but to the family at least he was.
Ben was what he was called. He had grown up as Ben Barnes and not as Ben Davis as he should have. Lewis sighed and chose not to look at Eleanor, she was hurt and yes she was supposed to feel that way. She had been his only child for twenty four years, the business, company, house and all the accounts were in her name and now he was asking of her a very difficult thing to do. To transfer half to Ben, his lost but found son.
"You are my daughter El, and you always will be." He looked at the sun setting, he had missed sitting and watching the sun set. These past years, the sun had set with him hunched over work in the office.
"I am, yes. So please don't ask this of me. You don't even know him!"
"He is still my son!" He stomped his walking stick hard on the ground. "And I owe him that much for being away for so long."
"And whose fault is that? It wasn't yours! She! Carol, it was her fault. Can't you see what she's trying to do now father?" Eleanor pleaded
"She's dead El, and he's now my responsibility."
"She kept him away from you for twenty one years and now this...?"
Lewis knew that his daughter was right. Carol had always been a materialistic woman and despite knowing that about her, he still chose to keep her, after all he had the money to take care of her extravagant lifestyle. Carol had come into his life when Eleanor was three years old, only a year after Grace, Eleanor's mother had passed away.
She was beautiful and young and they had fallen in love quite rapidly and he had taken it a step further when he proposed to her and with all joy she had accepted, but then just a few weeks after that, his business had a devastating shock and was about to go bankrupt. Carol couldn't endure it and she ran away. He did bounce back after a couple of months but she never came back. And now, twenty one years later, Ben Barnes had showed up at their door claiming to be his son. A letter from the deceased Carol and a DNA test result had proven that to be true.
Lewis being weak and old now, with a little extra sympathy running freely in his veins, felt he owed Ben a whole lot for being away from his life and Ben had put up quite a show with all the tears and pitiful sad tales. Eleanor had been quick to see through his charade, her father on the other hand was blinded by guilt and lost love. Eleanor could see why the twenty year old Ben had come running back home, just last month, Lewis Davis had tripled in assets and liabilities, all worth over sixty seven billion dollars, who wouldn't want to reckon with a billionaire or even have one as a father.
"Just do this for me, El." Lewis held her hand this time and looked at her, but she didn't hold his gaze instead she looked at her Zo, her daughter as a tear escaped her eye.
"I don't want to feel guilty about him anymore. I don't want to feel burdened."
Eleanor sniffed and wiped her tears, she faced her father and forced a smile. She nodded.
"I'll help you. I'll take the burden off you and your feeling of guilt."
"Thank you El." Lewis kissed the back of her palm.
"But I'll do it my way." Lewis agreed and was finally calm.
Eleanor did do as she had promised. She signed to Ben a share of the company worth one billion dollars and she watched him sell it at the very next available opportunity. Then as sudden as he came, he left them. His actions deeply hurt Lewis, weighing heavily on his heart and it eventually sent him to the hospital. Eleanor was partially relieved that she hadn't signed half the property to him as well but she felt for her father who was only trying to make Ben feel welcomed.
Eleanor sat with her father in the emergency room and watched him play with Zo, who didn't have the slightest inkling that her grand father's heart was rapidly giving out. Lewis held Zo to his chest as they both slept on the hospital bed. The image of Eleanor burned in his memory.
"I am your daughter." He heard her trembling voice say before his breath seized, sending him deeper into sleep and the monitor went off with a long beep.
I read this late but oof. That was pretty sad. And goes to show that even blood relatives can't be trusted