Learning Claire's story

"So tell me, how has Claire been doing in my absence?" Garrick asked softly while trying to avoid eye contact with his friend.

Connor was silent for a moment and then he spoke. "You still care about her, don't you?' he asked.

"I never stopped, we both know that. I only left because I was heartbroken by her rejection." Garrick replied honestly.

Connor sighed and drank from his cup. "Well, she has been trying her best. It was difficult at first but she began to handle it much better with time. I think she has been doing just fine in terms of her emotions, but not so much financially." He answered.

"What do you mean?" Garrick queried with curious eyes.

"Well, you see… after you left and she found out that she was carrying your child, her parents had her kicked out as she couldn't provide the father of her baby."

Garrick clenched his fist on hearing that and crumpled his face, "Those old fools, I never liked them to begin with. If not for their daughter, I might have strangled them with my hands," he groaned.

"Relax, this was exactly why they didn't like you, they didn't want someone with a short fuse to marry their only daughter. Forget about her parents, Claire had to move out of their family house after the pregnancy was revealed. She asked if I knew your whereabouts but I thought you wouldn't want to be awakened so soon and so I lied to her. I told her that I had no idea where you had gone , but I advised her to move in here as she had no other place to go."

At this point, Connor paused and took another sip of the drink while examining his friend's expression to know if he should keep talking or stay quiet. Garrick had his eyes locked on the polished carpets with a gloomy expression on his face. He obviously felt bad for leaving her to suffer that fate.

"Claire didn't want to move in here at first, she wanted nothing to do with you but I assured her that you could come back anytime soon and it was best for her to stay at your place. I convinced her that it was safer for her here. She then moved in and just to make sure that she wasn't alone, I moved in as well." Connor once again paused to see if Garrick reacted to his last statement.

Garrick didn't still look up, maybe he didn't care much about his best friend moving into his house with his baby mama, or he was more concerned with what she had to go through. Connor then continued…

"As you already know, Claire had a job back then. She had to keep up with the job for the first few months of the pregnancy but then she was forced to drop the job. We had to rely completely on my savings till the child was born and even after birth. Claire wanted to get back to her job when Clarisse was a year older but I told her there was no need for that. I had more than enough to take care of her and I wasn't complaining. However, tragedy befell us when fifteen years ago, my vault was robbed and all my wealth from generations were looted by this thief. So for the first time in centuries, I became poor." He confessed.

At this point Garrick looked up and shook his head with a look of disappointment, "Did I not always tell you that it was a bad idea to keep all of your wealth in one vault? That is a foolish thing to do," he blamed Connor.

Connor sighed, "Well, the mistake was made and unfortunately we both had to pay the price. Claire and I didn't have enough to take care of ourselves, Clarisse and even the castle. So we started budget cuts by releasing all of the maids and servants I had previously hired. Claire had to take up a job as a teacher again and I went back to being a librarian; doesn't pay much but at least I can support her while doing something I love." He narrated.

Garrick stood up with a frown. "You would never stop being silly, would you? How could you do jobs for pennies when you could have just gotten millions without even working? Sometimes I wonder if you are really a vampire. My child's mother needed financial support and the best you could do was take a job as a librarian?" he yelled.

"Easy there Pal, at least I was here for her and we were surviving just fine." Connor replied.

"Surviving? That is not enough! She deserves better. If you didn't have it in you to do what was necessary, then you should have woken me!!" he retorted.

"Seriously? Is this the 'thank you so much for being there for my family' that I get? Never mind, now you are here, you can give them the life they deserve," Connor fired back.

Garrick sighed and walked back to the window. Connor was right, he should be grateful rather than appoint blames, Claire was never Connor's responsibility to bear. He knew this was the part where he was supposed to apologize but unfortunately, he wasn't that guy. He would rather just let it slide like he was the offended.

"Speaking of vaults, how is the priest doing?" Garrick asked in a soft tone and turned back to face his friend.

"So that was where you hid your wealth? I should have known. The old man is doing just fine," Connor replied and walked back to the mini bar for a refill.

Garrick smiled, "Good, then I should pay him a visit anytime soon. I will give my family the life they deserve," he said confidently.

"You mean after you are able to convince them to accept you back? Because the way I see it, they don't see you as family, especially not Clarisse," Connor uttered.

The smile on Garrick's face disappeared the moment he heard that. "Shut up Connor or I will break your neck," he threatened and Connor smiled.

"It is good to have you back," Connor chuckled as he walked out of the room with the glass cup in hand.

Garrick thought of everything that his friend had said, he began to think of a way to win his family back and an idea came to his mind. He smirked and looked out to the garden, this should be fun!! He was Garrick Verne after all, he shouldn't be bothered about this, nothing was impossible for him!!

To be continued!