I opened my eyes a little only to be met with a stupid amount of sun shining into my room.

I groaned and rubbed my eyes.

The door opened and a half naked Issac comes in with a coffee mug.

"Good morning sleeping beauty, do you have a headache from your hangover?"

"Is that coffee for me?"

"No"

"Will you give yours to me?"

"No"

"Well, why not?!" I yelled, my patience thinning.

I groaned rubbing my head.

Bad idea.

"Because you're an asshole that embarrassed the girl you love, and you so f*cking deserve that headache"

My eyes opened remembering everything.

I so f*cking deserve this headache...

"Right this way Miss"

I was actually here...

I'm so glad Kate agreed to come with me.

After I got back yesterday and her anger subsided, I explained the situation which resulted in the both of us in tears but whatever.

Anyway here I am...

In front of his door...

Ready to knock...

"Just knock already! What in the world are you waiting for?! An invitation?!" Kate yelled right next to my ear.

"My f*cking eardrums are gone" I glared at her, holding my ears.

"Don't swear at me"

"I told you to stay at the waiting room!"

"Listen if I wasn't here you would've chickened out already!"

"Well maybe I will-"

And the door opened revealing...

A nurse.

"I'm gonna go back to the waiting room, I promised someone a checker match, good luck Julie!" Kate smiled, patting me on the back before running away.

She bailed on me!

I'm gonna kill you Kate.

"Can you please quiet down? Mr. Downs is trying to enjoy his afternoon crossword puzzle in Silence"

She looked me up and down.

"And who are you?"

"I'm a visitor, if you can give me some privacy that would be nice"

"I'm not obligated to let you in unless Mr. Downs permits it" she said crossing her arms, looking down on me, man she's tall and I consider myself average sized!

"Listen lady I came here ready to chicken out, and if you won't let me in, I'll just go ask that other nice nurse to let me in"

"I don't think you-" she started.

"Felicity! What is all that ruckus?!" Interrupted a raspy voice from inside the room, dad.

"Nothing Mr. Downs, it's just..."

She glared at me and I glared back raising an eyebrow.

"It's just you have a visitor"

"A visitor? Let them in!"

I smirked at the nurse and went through the door, I made sure to lock the door so we don't get interrupted.

He was sitting by the window glasses on and pen in hand.

He still likes crosswords.

He looked good for his age, still had a head full of hair, hair that was greying in some places, nothing more than a few age marks on his face, age has become him.

"Do I know you?" He looked up while I was still staring at him.

"I wasn't that old when you left"

"You're right, you weren't, what made you want to see your old man? More importantly how did you find me?" He raised a brow.

"Circumstances"

"Financial circumstances?"

"I wish it were financial circumstances and your neighbor, I think her name was Sally-"

"Samantha"

"That's the name, she says hi and told me to tell you that she misses you"

"That old hag can't keep her mouth shut," he chuckled.

"So tell me, if not for financial circumstances, why are you here?"

"I was worried" I said looking at the ground.

"You were worried about me? Come on Juliana, I'm your father, the father that abandoned you, and here you are telling me that you were worried about me?"

"Someone told me you were in a bad condition..."

"Well, as you can see I'm fine, you can leave now"

"No you're not fine! You lied to me saying you were with family! Why did you lie?! Why didn't you tell me?! A nursing home?! Come on dad, why the hell didn't you say you were sick?!" I yelled, feeling tears in my eyes, I have had enough and seeing my dad made me want to explode.

"It's not like you actually care!" He yelled back.

"Of course I care! How can I not care?! You might have left me, but you're still my father! I thought I could move on, but the past is coming back and old wounds are opening, I need to stitch them up once and for all"

He sighed and gestured to the seat in front of him.

"Tell me the real reason you're here" he asked, more like demanded, when I had sat down.

"I want closure, I want to be reassured my dad is okay"

"Well he's fine" he huffed.

"And I also don't want my handsome father to live his life alone,"

He looked up surprised.

"Dad we might not forgive you at the moment but at least I want to try to, I don't know what changed, not then and not even now, but I want to have you in my life, I want to come over weekly to cook for you, I want to tell you about work, about Leo-"

"Wait, Leo? Do you mean Leonardo? He's back?"

"Well, I found him and he willingly came back, he's getting married, has his own business, calls himself Peter, we'll talk about that later, tell me about you, how did you end up here?"

He sighed.

"Woke up one day, too tired to cook, too tired to clean, too tired to go to work, it hit me that this must be it, I'm at that age that someone else has to take care of me, while I can live the rest of my life to the fullest, I don't know who told you I had health problems but it was probably to scare you, I'm going on a trip to Miami next week, so I'd say I'm doing good, might visit Samantha too"

I smiled at him, the old man's still got it.

"You guys would look good together"

"You think? She rejected me, I'll try again at some point"

Suddenly there was a commotion going on outside and I opened the door to be met with a chest that I'm fairly aquatinted to.

"Derick?" I asked first feeling surprised then I looked at him unamused.

"What are you doing here?"

"Look Julie, I'm sorry about last-"

"Julie? Who is it?" My dad said coming right up behind me.

"I'm her boy-"

"Friend, he's my friend dad" I gritted out, glaring at Derick.

"Well, invite him in" Dad said, understanding the situation.

As we were sitting down, I got a chair and sat next to my dad facing Derick, I'm not sitting next to him after last nights fiasco.

He told me to sit on his lap in front of his dad for crying out loud!

"Well then young man would you like to introduce yourself?"

I was about to cut in and introduce him when my dad gave me a look making me shut my mouth.

I was about to say something like 'Derick Reid, multi billionaire b*tch, biggest asshole tyrant in the world' but I guess I'll leave that for later.

"I'm Derick Reid, wether she denies it or she doesn't, Juliana's boyfriend"

I liked my introduction better.

My dad gave me another look.

"Don't look at me! I didn't ask him to come here, my God, I'd rather never see him again!" I huffed, crossing my arms and slouching into the chair.

I'm starting to sound like my mother...

"Don't mind her, she gets her temper from her mother," my dad chuckled.

Damn geezer, reading my mind.

"I'm guessing you had a fight last night, well for one I've seen you on TV young man, my daughter must've done something right if she was able to get a billionaire on his knees" he chuckled smiling at me, making my heart skip a beat.

"Papa...!" I went on my knees and held on to my fathers hand, I couldn't hold back my tears and started crying, I don't know from what, happiness? Regret?

He just smiled and pulled me in for a hug.

"Come on, wipe your tears otherwise your boyfriend's going to join you"

And I look over at Derick and sure enough, he had the most heartfelt and innocent look on his face.

"I'm going to go ask Felicity to get us something from the cafeteria, it might be sugar free but they're still good snacks" he laughed and walked out leaving me alone with Derick.

"He's not like you described him to be" Derick said, breaking the silence.

"He's changed, he's more... content"

"I guess there was something my Jackass father was good for" he chuckled sadly.

"Hey Derick, what that girl said, you know about how you both are engaged and you proposed, you were too drunk to elaborate, so was it true?"‏

"Yes it was true" he sighed.

"I'm sorry I made a fool of myself... and you,"

"I'll think about forgiving you later, right now I need an explanation"

"She was my first love, I cared about her, I gave her everything she wanted, she was from a wealthy family so I trusted that she wasn't after my money," he sighed shaking his head I held his hand and encouraged him to finish.

"Then I foolishly went ahead and proposed, not knowing that A: feeding the media lies and other types of bullsh*t about me and B: cheating on me, that's why I was so pissed when I found you going through my things, I kept the ring in hopes of never making the same mistake twice"

"Good to know she's not the self proclaimed 'kind hearted angel' she claimed to be" I chuckled, using my fingers to air quote her.

"Now that I think about it, she had no sort of personality other than her looks, she had an academic background but that's just for show, her father bribed the university" he chuckled, rubbing my knuckles.

"Juliana Lilian Downs, do you forgive me?" He said getting down on one knee, holding my hand, if anybody saw us in this position they'd think he was proposing.

"I forgive you Derick Simon Reid"

As he was kissing my hand the door opened to my dad, his nurse Felicity and Kate, standing in the doorway.

Everyone froze.

A flash from Kate's phone pulled me back into my senses and I pulled my hands out of Dericks, he stood up and cleared his throat.

"I swear this is not what it looks like!" I yelled.

"Well it looked like something to me," Kate smirked.

"When's the wedding?"

I had to hold back everything in me from raising my middle finger at her.

"Hey, Felicia! Let's give them some privacy!" Kate yelled, pulling 'Felicia' our with her.

I chuckled hearing the nurse scream; 'it's Felicity!'

I suddenly quietened down feeling the atmosphere tense up.

"Mr. Downs, about what you saw, I have no intention of saying I want to marry your daughter, at least not yet, but I know for a fact I do, I love your daughter, I've never loved anyone like I've loved your daughter, she keeps me on my toes to say the least," he chuckled and looked at my dad before looking at me.

"I just want your blessing, would you give me permission to protect and take care of your daughter for however long she lets me?"

"I don't think I have the right to give you my blessing-"

"You do, you have all the right" I smile, cutting him off.

"Then if you were the one to soften my daughters heart to this degree, you have all my blessing, I wish you both happiness," he smiled and Derick reached for my hand and gave you it a squeeze, I squeezed back and looked into his eyes.

"I'm guessing your mother approved of him, right?"

"She wasn't happy and it wasn't in the best circumstances, but I think she did" I said looking at the ground, suppressing a smile.

"Well, why don't you both go call over that friend of yours and let's have some snacks, shall we?"

We both nodded and holding hands walked out, as soon as the door shut, Derick pushed me against the wall.

"Was that a proposal Derick Reid?" I smirked.

"Maybe, maybe not, what do you say Juliana, do you agree to be my wife?"

"Maybe, maybe not" I smiled.

"I love you, my beautiful Jewel, you make the happiest man alive"

"I love you too" I blushed looking down.

He pulled my chin up and leaned in...

When the door opened, startling us and making my dad's eyes widene.

"I'm sorry!" He yelled before shutting the door.

Way to ruin the mood dad!

He looked back at my probably flushed face and we both chuckled.

He finally leaned in and gave me a kiss.

This turned out to be the best day ever.

⭐️💬

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