Pressing her face against the cold fabric of Antonio's shirt, Aubrey had since stopped crying. She stood there with her ear listening to his heartbeat, committing every thump to memory. She was glad to feel Antonio's hold on her not let up because Aubrey felt drained, and wasn't sure if she could even stand on her own. With a gentle hand patting her back, and a soft peck on her forehead, Aubrey began to pull back.

   "I kind of ...snotted... on your shirt." She grumbled, seeing the wet stains left in her wake.

   "I could care less Aubrey." It seemed that now that he knew her name, he was insistent on saying it out loud. Aubrey wiped at the tears falling down her cheeks, feeling the raw skin they entered as they passed over her scrapes and cuts.  Within a blink of an eye, she was able to grab a hold of herself for the first time all day. Though her throat ached as she spoke the muffled words, she forced them out anyway feeling like it was her only option.

   "You don't have to do anything, y'know. I'm not asking for money, gifts, or you. I didn't think it would go this far so, I guess we can end it here." She took a step back, swinging her arms before her, a soft fist meeting the open palm of her other hand as she bit her lips, trying her best to paint on an indifferent façade.

   Shaking his head in disagreement, Antonio crossed his arms as he slightly waved his hand.

   "Aubrey, we're not done or whatever it is you're trying to say. I-I want to do this right-‘

   "I'm not asking you to!" Her voice rose unexpectedly.

   Blinking rapidly, Antonio searched her eyes that were now hardened. Aubrey sensed the hurt that she had caused by her words. Biting her lip, she struggled with taking them back.

   "I just wanted to keep it moving. This-this was all I wanted I guess."

   "We can't just keep it moving now like this never happened. Why would you even think I could forget this so easily?"

   "I don't want to bother you." Her statement sounded unsure to even her own ears as she shrugged her shoulders. She was a motherless daughter looking for a father that she was hesitant to touch. The sound of Marquis telling her to take this as a chance to start a new life played in the contours of her mind.

   She couldn't do that.

   She wasn't some cute little kid. There was no way he would want her now, she had nothing that could possibly make him want her around. She couldn't promise to be easy to deal with. They even came from two different worlds. How would it all work?

   "We could make it work, Aubrey. I promise you this isn't impossible if you just allow it.I know-I'm certain that this...thing is a lot to take in right now, but there's no turning back or forgetting. It can't be that way." Antonio sighed heavily, gritting his teeth." I'm not going to allow it to get to that point." Aubrey hadn't realized that she had begun speaking out loud as he countered her doubts. It was obvious that coming up with excuses for him-for herself-to express how she supposedly didn't care was difficult to do. All of the emotions, thoughts, questions she had never thought to feel the need to possess came rushing forward. She was far away from her blanket of security she had with Sandra, and Aubrey had no idea what she wanted to do.

    Antonio watched as Aubrey's head fell into her hands, he could barely make out her cry," I just want to go home." This time when he wrapped her in his arms, she didn't fight. Her sobs were heart wrenching; even as he held her, he felt as if she was drifting on an island all by herself.

    Leading her towards the awaiting car, the two looked like a picturesque father and daughter pair. He granted her wish as he sat her in the backseat, climbing in to find her not on the opposite side of the car, but right beside him.

   "Take me back to my job please. I have to pick up my car from there and then you're done for the evening." Antonio felt the weight of Aubrey's body reluctantly lean into him. Her head tilted forward slowly as the last of her sniffles could be heard.

   She let herself, for just that ride, bask in the presence of the man she finally knew as her father.

oOo

     "Thank you Oliver."

    "Sir."

    The driver slightly bowed to Antonio as he called to him from his parking spot. He watched the black car drive away into the night, and he turned to look at Aubrey who sat slouched over in his passenger seat.

    When they had arrived, he found her fast asleep, understandably exhausted from the day's events. He had nudged and poked at her, trying to wake her from her slumber, but she was too far gone to be stirred. So when Antonio scooped her in his arms, and carefully placed her into his own car, he wondered how that would have been the first day bringing her home from the hospital after she was born.

   What kind of state was he in all of those years ago?

   He was still in high school. Still a kid emotionally distraught over the events that had taken place his junior year before Sandra had abruptly left town.

    Aubrey.

   Did she know before she left that she was pregnant with Aubrey? It suddenly occurred to him that there was even more to the untold story that was their break up.

   Peering down into the glass window, Antonio braced his hands against the frame of his car.

   It was senior year. He was trying to shake the wreck he had been left in behind Sandra at the time, combined with getting ready for all of the college offers and soccer recruitments from both national and college teams that were sent his way that school year, he had been in way over his head getting everything straight.

   He tried desperately to place himself in Sandra's shoes. She was still young, yet somehow she brought a life onto earth which was a product of them both. He stared at Aubrey profusely. There was no way he could have handled a kid all of those years back.

   Would he have helped Sandra? Being a beam of support during such a tough time?

  Or would he have been like his father; turning the pregnant girl to the first abortion clinic in sight.

  A clench at Antonio's chest told him that thought belied his nature. He couldn't have fathomed forming that idea to Sandra. Of course that was easy to say when Aubrey was before him now. He wasn't sure what the confused teenager Antonio would have done or have suggested to fix their problem, but he knew that now he wanted to grab on to Aubrey, and build something with her from the time that they had already lost.

   As he walked around to the driver's side, he let out a deep breath, rubbing his face as he laid his head back in the seat. What was he supposed to do now? He had a sleeping Aubrey in his car, and wasn't certain of their next move.

   With regret, he once again attempted to awaken the girl.

   "Aubrey. Aubrey, we need to talk." He spoke just loud enough to hopefully break her slumber. A deep sob came from her chest as her face scrunched, her body turning away out of his sight. She took a deep breath as she moaned in pain.

   Knocking his knuckles on his steering wheel, he stared off in the dark parking deck, wondering how likely it would be for him to find her hotel with absolutely zero information. Eyeing her book bag lying at her feet, Antonio reached down, carefully slipping his hand into its pockets as he searched for anything that would give him a name.

   His hands came in contact with the buttons of a cell phone. Pulling it out slowly, he held it tightly in his hands.

   A familiar tightness entered his throat as he contemplated calling Sandra with the phone. After all these years, he still felt the weakness that only she could cause just from the thought of hearing her voice. His shoulders tensed as he wondered how their first conversation would go after all of this time. She obviously had no qualms about keeping their daughter a secret after all of these years. His mood transitioned quickly as the thought resonated with him.

  Lighting up the screen, he went to the contacts list, finding it completely empty. Antonio scrolled through curious as to why such a nice phone seemed untouched by the teen. There were no messages, no trace of any kind of communication being done on the device, but that was until he found himself looking at the call history.

   There was one number that stood out to him, and as his thumb lingered over the green call button, he held the phone to his ear, waiting for a dial tone to play, giving him time to group his thoughts together. What he got instead was an automated voice, telling him that the number was no longer in service.

  "Shit." He said aloud.

   Turning his ignition, Antonio looked at the figure curled up in his passenger seat.

   As he pulled out and onto the street, he began racking his brain for a plausible plan of action.

oOo

         Lillian could hear the faint sounds of knocking sounding throughout her house as she pushed her head further into her plush pillow. The knocking turned into insistent banging that refused to be ignored, dragging her from her sleep.

   Angrily, she stomped through the house blindly, knowing the layout by heart as she reached the front door.  As she fumbled with the lock, she looked to the security display seeing Antonio with a body in his arms as he prepared to kick the door with his heel.

  "Who did you kill?" Her question bordered the line of humor and seriousness as she watched wearily behind a small crack in the door.

    "Are you going to let me in?"

    "I don't know, that depends on if I'm now a part of whatever that thing is." She said pointing a finger at the limp girl in his arms. She peered at her, but her face was obscured by her hair. "What the hell is going on?"

   "I can explain this to you a lot better inside. Please." Lillian watched the expression in Antonio's face turned from annoyance to a cry for help as she slowly let him in.

   "Antonio, I don't know what the hell is going on here. Why are you carrying around a girl?" She followed behind him as he carefully made his way to Lillian's sofa with Aubrey in tow. He lowered her onto the cushions softly; glad to see that he didn't disturb her peace as she buried her face into the pillows.

   "Answer me Antonio."

   "She's my daughter." Feeling the weight of the day beat down on him, Antonio found that he had no patience for beating around the bush or coming up with some elaborate explanation for Aubrey's presence. He also felt a need to not hide that piece of information from someone like Lillian. Out of everyone else close to him, he knew that with her it wasn't necessary to bullshit around the issue at hand.

   A long silence fell between them, and when he faced her, Lillian's face was blank of emotion.

   "Seriously, I don't have time for this shit. Who is she? Why the hell was my address in your damn GPS? Take it out please; I don't want another visit like this."

   "I have never been more serious in my life than right now. She's my daughter." He told her with exhaustion laced in his voice.

  He had driven around as he thought of a place to take Aubrey. He wanted to take her somewhere that she could be comfortable. His apartment had seemed like a good idea until he thought of the uneasiness it could give even to him. He wished to not worry her, to not frighten her by doing so. The wariness which surrounded her was apparent to him, and he had no intentions of making it worse.

  Antonio in times of indecision would look to his mother for advice. How to go about telling her of a new, but not so new grandchild was something that he didn't know how to do, but somehow knew that she would be accommodating until the morning. He had been close to calling her until something in his mind brought his father to thought with great caution. Deciding to bring her to Lillian's seemed like a safe bet, and even if she fussed about it, he was sure she would scoff as her acceptance to letting Aubrey sleep over.

   "I'm not some safe house, get her out of here."

    "Lillian, I'm just asking for her to sleep on your couch. Look, she's not even going to budge." He pointed to Aubrey's still form that only showed signs of life by the slight rise of her back. Antonio turned to find Lillian sniffing the air around him.

   "You don't smell like liquor, but I know you're on something." She narrowed her eyes at him as he pushed her away.

   "The one time you feel the need to question me about something..."

    "Look, I'm just trying to steer clear of getting caught up in some kidnapping or whatever crime you may have committed tonight. " Yawning, Lillian waved her hand as she retreated to her room.

   "When I wake up in the morning, this better had all turned out to be a hallucination." Antonio flinched at the slamming of her bedroom door, holding his breath waiting for Aubrey to wake from the noise.

   When her breathing continued as normal without a hitch, he sighed heavily rubbing his face. It was clear that she was beyond exhausted, and he felt his own self mirroring her tiredness. It had only been but a handful of hours, and he had met turmoil of emotions and thoughts coursing through his mind.

   There was anger, confusion, sadness all rolled into one bleak ball that came hurling at him. He gripped the keys he had clutched in his fist. Antonio wondered how an entire kid like Aubrey could somehow slip out of Sandra's sight. There hadn't been a point in the entire day where he could recall Aubrey trying to reach her, or vice versa. He knew that Sandra had an aunt in the city that she had lived with when she first came into his life. He hadn't kept up on the older woman, but maybe he should try looking in to contacting her; surely someone would be missing Aubrey by this point.

   The sound of rubber against rubber brought his attention to the sneakers she fought to kick off in haste. Sighing, Antonio bent, unlacing and placing the offending things beside the couch as he watched Aubrey get more comfortable, burying her head into the cushions of the couch.

  "Are you not gone yet?" Looking up, he saw Lillian exiting her bedroom, a comforter in tow as she walked to the couch, laying it haphazardly across Aubrey.

   "Jesus Antonio, the kid is good. I'm not buying your reason, but I can ignore the questions I've got for you as long as you disappear.Go."

   "Lil-"

    "No, no, no. I didn't come in here for conversation. "Directing him out by force, Lillian pushed the larger frame through her door, glaring at him from the confines of her doorstep.

   "Good night. " She said with finality as the door slammed in his face.

     Lillian watched him through the security display as he lingered around her door for a few more seconds before walking away with slumped shoulders. Throwing a glance over her shoulder, she eyed the body laid out in her living room.

    "You're his kid?" She  shook her head in disbelief. "I'm really looking forward to hearing this." Walking back to her room, she killed the lights, leaving Aubrey in the dark until the morning.

oOo

    The sounds of screeching tires brought Aubrey out of her slumber. Without any concern, she pulled her comforter over her head, ignoring the sounds of the streets. It sounded as if firecrackers had been set off as the rapid sound of gunfire struck through the night time silence. Clenching her eyes tight just the way she had for all of her life, she waited for the sound to end and the gunmen to drive off into the night as if nothing had happened. She saw lights from neighboring houses flicker on through her drawn curtains. Waiting patiently, she knew that her mother would be in any moment now to check on her.

   The heightened panic of familiar voices drawing closer to her window spiked curiosity as Aubrey sat up in her bed now, her eyes darting around in the darkness as she tried to make sense of the muffled words and screams from outside.

    She let her feet meet the carpet and gripped the sides of her mattress as her fear began to set in now as she waited for Sandra to peak her head through her door. She saw no lights flooding the space underneath her bedroom door, or heard the sounds of feet walking in to comfort her.

   Standing up, she went to the door, hand on the knob, as she felt all of her muscles constrict. They were almost too tense for her to move as she struggled with opening the door.

    When Aubrey  stepped out into the darkened hallway of their home, she found two figures on the living room floor. Both familiar, yet completely different as the body of her mother laid lifeless.

   Shooting up, Aubrey gasped with a shout as she relived the bad memory. Her eyes weren't focused as she looked around in horror at her surroundings. Everything was a blur, and there was a strong thumping at her temples as her heartbeat raced throughout her entire body.

   As soon as she could, she recognized that she wasn't in the plush hotel bedroom that she had spent so much money on, but on a couch. In a house. A very nice house at that as she looked to the grand fireplace before her.

   "Why, good morning. Welcome to my abode."

   Aubrey's head turned so quickly that Lillian feared the girl would catch whiplash as she stared at her with the biggest, clearest eyes she had ever seen. The panic that was in them was soon replaced by a quizzical look that almost made her laugh.

   "Who the f-"

  "Hey now, is that anyway to speak to the owner of the house that you're in?"

   "Where the hell am I?"

   "Didn't I just kind of say that? I mean I know it wasn't word for word, but it was implied-"

   "What am I doing here?" Aubrey jumped from the couch, dress rumpled and hair all over the place as she stood guard watching the woman behind her taking a casual sip from her coffee mug. Lillian waited for the barrage of questions to come to an end as the frazzled kid looked ready to fight her way to freedom.

   "Relax." She said softly.

   "Don't tell me what to do."

   "Hmph." Lillian watched with scrutiny as she tried to place the face of the girl before her with one of Antonio's old flings. The kid was definitely in her teens, and if the claim she had obviously made last night was true, then Lillian would have to put on her thinking cap and conjure up the faces of girls from way back when.

   "What are you staring at?" Aubrey felt tense as the stranger cocked her head to the side. Looking down, she spotted her shoes and quickly began to push her feet into them, not even bothering to tie them.

   "Oh my fucking God." Lillian burst out loud as she was hit with a realization.

   "No fucking way!" She nearly slammed down her coffee cup, sloshing the hot liquid onto her dining room table as she clapped her hands in astonishment. She knew now. Those eyes, the face.

   "Sandra Taliaferro is Antonio's baby mama?" She nearly howled with laughter as she ignored the angered face of Aubrey.

   "Excuse me?" Walking around the couch, Aubrey's pursuit to standoff with Lillian was halted as the door sounded with heavy knocks.

   "This is some Jeremy Kyle shit!" Lillian's face reddened and her stomach ached with laughter." Oh my God." She couldn't stand anymore as she bent at the waist and headed for the door. Her hands trailed along her walls as she opened her home to the only person she was expecting, Antonio.

   Casting her a worried look, Antonio's eyes travelled between the two women with questions in them.

   "What's going on?"

   "You got Sandra Taliaferro knocked up? How the hell-" Lillian's laughter came to a near squeal as she tried to compose herself. "Antonio, what have you done?" Tears fell from the corners of her eyes as she looked on at the pissed expression on her friend's face.

     "It's good to see you've found humor in all of this Lil." His jaw clenched as he stepped in past Lillian, his focus now on the person who he was really there for. As he took a step forward, Aubrey's body tensed and backed away.

   Noticing the hostility between them, he all but grabbed Lillian by her collar to tell her to cut it out. He wasn't sure what had happened in the moments before he arrived, but by Lillian's laughter, he knew that her rather crass side must have been unleashed.

   "I'm getting out of here." Aubrey grumbled as she pushed past him and ran out of the door.

   "Fuck." He let out as he glared at Lillian's shrinking form."Was any of that necessary? Honestly?" He dashed out behind Aubrey, intent on not losing sight of her as she quickly walked down the home's stairs.

   "Aubrey, wait."

   "Just leave me alone, Antonio."

   "Aubrey just hang on for one minute." He quickened his pace, reaching her before she could sprint off. He wasn't expecting someone of her stature to deliver such a hard push that could knock the wind out of him as she turned on Antonio.

   "Didn't I tell you to leave me alone last night? I told you!"

   "I couldn't do that."

   "You should have!"

    " I wasn't going to Aubrey!"  Irritated, Aubrey eyed him with watery orbs and let out an ear splitting scream. She looked around, completely unaware of where she was. The houses all looked the same, and were nothing like the buildings she had become accustomed to.

   "I need to get out of here."

   "Let me explain first before you start jumping to some crazy idea."

   "Oh, I'm pretty sure I've passed that point. I was stupid. God, so fucking stupid for coming here."

   Antonio watched in silence as Aubrey tried her best to ignore his presence. She hoped that he would just leave. Leave her to wallow in the insecurity and anger of the plan that was seemingly backfiring in her face.

    "Get in the car."

    "Aubrey."  Having heard enough of his voice, Aubrey began to walk down the sidewalk. Without any rush, Antonio got into his vehicle, following her at a slow pace. He could tell that whatever kept her determined to find her own way out of the neighborhood was a force that he would have to learn and figure out. She walked with all purposed even though  she and he both knew she had no idea of where she was going. Rolling down his window, he began to speak to her back.

    " I was coming back to get you, Aubrey. That was a really good friend of mine, Lillian.Whatever she said or did, don't take it to heart. I promise you she is harmless, you'll see."

   Aubrey bit her tongue at his words. He made it seem as if there would be future encounters with Lillian and her.

   "It's still early enough for breakfast. I figured I could take you to get -"

   "I hate breakfast." She interrupted without thought. Antonio smiled at her small break of the silent game.

   "Well that's something you and I have in common." He chuckled.

    "You and I have nothing in common! Don't get it twisted." Aubrey whirled on him, the complete opposite from what she was last night. Then, she had cried out her frustrations on his chest, but now here she as shouting them out at him with fire in her eyes.

   "We can talk a bit more before we get in contact with your...your parents to let them know where you are." An inkling of wariness entered his voice as he spoke. He knew for sure he had no right to feel off about the thought of another man raising her, but somehow he did. He didn't know whether or not he could speak on the matter when everything was still so fresh.

    "I don't have parents." She seethed. Antonio took that to mean Sandra had been a single mom, and hadn't caught the flash of pain behind the truth of her words.

   "Okay, I'm sure your mom is worried about you. Don't you think you should call her?" Late last night, Antonio had made several calls around town in search of Sandra's aunt, Debra Taliaferro. He had gotten nowhere until he found someone who could give him her home phone number. When he had called, he had been met by a family member of Debra, and discovered that she had passed years ago from late stage lung cancer. When he had spoken of Sandra, the person on the other line had acknowledged her, but had apologized for not being able to give him contact information.

   Of course he was confused at this. When he had brought up Aubrey, he received an honest reply which told him that he may as well have been talking about someone off the street.

   Now, his inquiry was peaked even more. He had questions to ask Aubrey. Things he needed to know, the first being why people who were supposed to be her family didn't even know that she existed.

     "I really think that you should just go." She urged. Her legs came to a halt as she crossed her arms. Antonio's foot pressed on the brake, putting the car in park as he got out.

     "At least let me take you to wherever it is you're going, Aubrey." And just like that, the innocent and helpless child she had been last night returned as she took his offer in silence, climbing into the passenger seat without waiting for him to open the door for her.

oOo

       "Here we are." The car was barely in park before Aubrey unhooked her seatbelt and reached for the door. Pausing, she turned to look at Antonio watching her. The ride had consisted of him trying to convince her to go to breakfast, and engaging in conversation.  After the third or fourth try, he saw that he wasn't going to get anywhere.

      Now, he watched as her eyes pierced his."I still have a while before I need to go to work. I think it's best that I come and explain all that has happened to your mother."

    "There's no need to. You don't have to explain anything to anyone. She doesn't even know about this, and I intend on keeping it that way." Aubrey looked out the window. She had him drive to a hotel that she knew to be just minutes away from her actual one. She hoped that if she went in, he would leave quickly and give her a chance to go on about her business without leading him to where she was.

   Antonio didn't know what to say, say he remained quiet. And when Aubrey climbed out the car, and shut his door without a slam, he could only watch.

    "I-" Aubrey had turned, prepared to say one last thing before they parted, but nothing could be thought of at the moment. She felt the weight of her backpack and with one last thought, swung it around as she began to dig through them. When she presented the various handwritten letters to Antonio, she held a small lifting of her lips that didn't reach her eyes.

    "You can keep these. She won't be missing them." Taking them from her, Antonio's eyes fell to his steering wheel as Aubrey took that chance to walk away. He watched her walk slowly to the front doors of the hotel, glancing over her shoulder every couple of steps.

   When her back disappeared behind the glass doors, he put his car into drive and  left.

    Aubrey thought that when she watched his car move into the flow of traffic, that it was done. Over with. What she had was all that she was ever going to have now that she managed to push him away. To help her case, she encouraged herself to believe that Antonio had just finally listened to his common sense, and to her that meant that he would ignore her and the impending problems she could possibly cause him. She would be a threat to his bachelorhood, his own life, and him driving away without pressing the envelope just proved that she was insignificant, and better handled if she was just forgotten.

    With all of her imagined thoughts, Antonio would do the complete opposite. The first thing he intended to do was check every hotel within a five mile radius for every Taliaferro that could possibly be booked there. He knew with the name alone, his search wouldn't take long.