Chapter 155: Useless Truth
“Why do you have this? I’ve obviously seen this before and there’s nothing significant about it so...” I asked with more confusion rather than shock.
I held in my hand a photograph that was taken from my childhood before my mother married Lucien. At that time, we were living alone, just the two of us.
“Do you recognize who is in the photograph?” Lucien asked.
“Of course. This photograph was taken many years ago when I was a kid, but I do remember it. This is my mother, a younger me...and this is Uncle David. I guess you don’t know him...he’s one of my mum’s friends. He would drop by now and then. He’s really kind and has many interesting stories to tell, I really liked him back then, I guess...” I replied casually as I reflected on my days with mother and Uncle Dave.
I don’t remember when was the last time that I saw him. Now that I think about it, I haven’t seen or heard from him for many years. With my mother marrying Lucien and all that, I guess I just forgot him. Then when my mother died, I guess it was sort of natural that I didn’t expect to see much of her friends anymore...
“Uncle David...I see,” Lucien replied softly followed by a huge unsuppressed sigh.
“What’s wrong? You know, you didn’t have to make it out to be such a big deal...about this photo...” I said as I put the photograph down onto the table.
...
Lucien sighed loudly as he stared at Natalia’s disinterested face as she brushed off the photograph as if it was no big deal. His emotions were mixed, and he was unclear of his next move. However, Natalia’s reaction had reconfirmed his suspicion. For some reason or another, David had decided against revealing the fact that he was Natalia’s father to Natalia and somehow, Natalia’s mother decided to go along with it. All her life, this woman sitting right in front of him never knew that her father was still alive and was so close.