Chapter 8

Xander stood in an empty familiar space, his in laws house. Everything looked well arranged and not a speck of dust can be noticed. The couch and sofa were cleared of any spot, including the spot Helena had stained with red wine. The sky blue tiles sparkled under the chandeliers and lights but the familiar pine scent was absent.

He stood and looked around at the place he called home for three years. He remembered the burning feeling the first time he entered the house as a son in law. It lacked safety but it was okay as long as he had a roof over his head.

A strange sound brought him out of his thoughts, when he listened more it was a muffled cry.

"Emily?" He called, searching for the direction the sobs came from. He walker into the kitchen and check the cupboards and cabinets in case she was hiding there.

With no fruitful effort he left the kitchen back to the living room. The muffled cry got clearer when he reached the staircase that led up stairs to-

"Why did I not think of this first" he muttered to himself and climbed the stairs. This stairs led to Emily's bedroom, he stopped at the door that was usually pink but for some unknown reasons it was black.

"Emily" Xander called and knocked on the door

"Daddy" a little voice cried out from behind the door.

Not wasting any more time, Xander twisted the lock only to find out that it was locked. He used his body weight to push the door as his daughter's cry became hysterical.

Fortunately the door opened and a sharp light hit his eyes. He winced and twitched his eyes as he step through the door. Instead of his daughter's room, he was met with a blank space.

"Xander" he heard someone call his name, the thickness the voice show that it wasn't a child's voice

"Xander" the person called louder. A masculine voice he thought to himself.

"Xander, wake up" his eyes peeled open in a jerk

"Jeez, you sleep like a dead person" Max hissed and removed his hand he placed on his shoulder.

Xander looked around to take note of his surrounding. He sat beside Max in a sofa in a room made total from glass. A room that has a desk, chair and a desktop, an office. They were in his father's office.

All the walls were transparent except from one which he suspected was used to separate the office from the meeting room. He could see blurred structures of people which means the room was being in use and that's where his father was.

"Do you feel?" Max asked professionally with hints of concern.

"How do I feel?" Xander asked back with his eyebrow raised in confusion. "I feel many things right row, I feel startle from being jerk awake, sad and anxious about a nightmare about my daughter I keep having, nervous for being in this kind of place and pity for myself for being this kind of situation that is straight out of a novel" he blurted out, he scratched the back of his palm as he felt his anxiety creep in. He noticed bumps appearing on the surface he scratched and willed himself to stop.

"Sorry I asked" Max said and turned away from him. It didn't a minute before he was facing him again. "You never said anything about your daughter"

Xander's shoulder relaxed and his breathing slowed at the thought of her.

"Her name is Emily" he started.

"A nice old name" Max commented

"Don't dare judge, you are old and the name was stuck in my head" Xander shot back and the older man chuckled.

"Whatever makes you sleep at night" Max said, causing Xander to scoff before he continued.

"Her giggles use to fill the house when she was one, it was annoyed most of the family members especially, Helena"

"The lady from the mall?" Max inquired and Xander nodded.

"When she two she started to laugh less as Hermia scolded her for it. At three she stopped laughing and only laughed when I am the only one around. She is smarter than she looked, she behaved like a five or six years old when she just going to be three in two months" he signed and continued. "It made me wonder if it was because of the environment she grew up in that made her mature faster."

"So nobody else had a good relationship with her? Even her mother?" Max eyebrow frowned as he asked this questions and he could see trace of anger in his eyes behind his glasses.

"I never blamed her for not having any relationship with Emily at beginning. There was some complications at the birth so Emily had to take baby formula instead of breast milk. When Hermia was healthy enough, she didn't our daughter of breastfeeding stating that he spoils her body. I never argued even when she called Emily disgusting for creating a mess, I never complained when they denied us of eating at the dinning because I had a home for once in my life" Xander eyes narrowed and his sight blurred with tears and clenched his jaw so hard that surprising that it didn't break. The itchiness behind his palm resume. He scratched so hard that it left mark. A firm grip caught his hand stopping the scratch torture.

"Xander, get a grip"

"Get a grip?" Xander said and chuckled maniacally. The simple aura in the office was replaced by a dark and wicked one. "I accepted everything throwed my way, I got a grip on my anger because I had a home, a love, and a family but she dared to snatched everything away and leave me bare. I'm done containing my anger not until she feel everything last bit of pain I did" Xander said and at this moment he looked unrecognizable.

Max was about to say something before his phone dinged.

"It's time, Xander" Max said, pocketing back his phone.

With fury in his eyes and anger in his vein, he stepped out of his father's office into the meeting room.