Chapter 60 What Are Your Plans.
Seating with his hand arranged on his laps, Gabriel tried to keep his cool. Although word on the street had it that Benjamin was weak and sickly, his aura had not wavered and he remained the same formidable for on the battle field. That aside, seating like this, steaming cup of coffee in between both males, was a rare occurrence for Gabriel.
Even during his marriage with Leonica, he hadn’t gotten the chance to seat with Benjamin this way, so today, was definitely something new.
Taking a sip from his coffee, placing the cup down afterwards, Benjamin was the first to break the silence. "We’re both business men so I’ll be straight forward. What do you plan to do by coming back into my daughter’s life?"
Gabriel shook his head. "Nothing, Sir. All I want is to have legal rights to be in Ashley’s life...to be his father?"
His answer, earned a loud snort of mockery from Benjamin. Gabriel winced at the familiar sound, mentally noticing where Leonica had gotten it from. "You want rights, to be his father?" The older man questioned. He shifted his coffee aside and leaned on the table, entwining his fingers as he questioned. "Tell me something, Gabriel. Do you think five years of absence from a child’s life can easily made up the moment you decide you want to start playing family?"
His words, meant to deter Gabriel from whatever determination he had suddenly taken on, did the opposite and angered him. "And who’s fault is that?" He shoot back. "I would have found Ashley and given him that family he deserves if you hadn’t stopped me from finding him all those years ago. It was you who made sure that every route and search I began ended up futile."
"Me?" Benjamin shook his head, leaning back into his chair with a sigh. "I had nothing to do with that, Gabriel."
"What?"
"Exactly what I said. The one you should blame for not being able to find Leonica and Ashley for the past five years, is your incompetence and your lack of Knowledge towards Leonica. Even though you both had been married for two years, you know very little about her and even when clues we’re sticking out in plain sight, you failed to take them, allowing yourself to be blinded by the wrong person." Taking one last sip from his coffee, face scrunching up in distaste as he now realized the sugar added was far less than what he took, Benjamin concluded. "If you knew Leonica well enough, you’d have known that Colorado was her favorite state. She always longed to go there."