Chapter 55
Her accurate movements told him that she desired to stay to share a cup of tea with her father.
Orland knew that even though he wanted to do what she had just suggested... his daughter was not aware as to why he did not say it himself.
He wanted her to know it. He wanted to tell her that he also hoped for them to be together a while longer, that he only worried about her... and... that his continuous worry was the cause of his self-restriction from asking for her company.
That is why, after telling her the reason behind it, his voice got weaker as he expressed his happiness about her staying with him.
"... I’m happy... you want to stay longer..."
He felt silly about how the last few words almost got stuck in his throat. However, he also felt nostalgic, delighted and even foolish about his hesitation.
’I should have been the one to invite her to stay...’
The chain of the last words she told him when she was little, and the lack of interaction between them in the last decade had put a boundary on his ways of approaching Marianne. Although he could see that she wouldn’t reject him harshly as she did back then... Orland felt afraid of messing it all up... and terribly pathetic of his cowardice.
Because... Her sudden willingness to approach him seemed like a miracle. And Miracles... Can hardly happen once.
’My child has already let me back into her life... yet... here I am... scared of every action I take to get closer...... Marianne... your father is such a pathetic man.....’
Orland belittled himself in shame and didn’t get to notice how Marianne averted her gaze.
The one inside her body felt guilty about the lack of interest, in whatever he was troubled with as she sensed his inner turmoil. Hence, in shame, her eyes drifted somewhere else after staring intently at him.