Chapter 15

12 PM

Los Angeles

February

4 days until Valentines Day...

"Come on, Zoey...", Leon told her, as they went on top of a hill nearby a huge playground with swings and a merry-go-round.

"Alright!", Zoey replied before he got a huge cover to lay it neatly on the grass, he got a good amount of shade from the tall tree over him.

"Go ahead and play with Fionna. We'll watch from over here", she nodded her head happily before she brought her teddy bear and ran towards her babysitter as they went down towards the playground.

"Noel, sit down...", Leon ordered his bodyguard, he was wearing a black leather jacket, white shirt, and some gray cargo pants with red shoes.

"Yes, Sir Cashmere...", Noel replied to him as he sat down next to him.

"I never knew you had piercings and tattoos...", Leon said as he examined him intensively, which actually suited him.

" I got it when I was young, but I guess it's good to show off sometimes, Sir Cashmere...", he laughed softly, his lips curled into a gentle smile.

"Right", Leon viewed the playground from the distance.

"You're half-Mexican. But what's your other nationality?", Leon started to ask him, Noel turned his head to look at him. "Honduras. Why the question, Sir Cashmere", Leon felt quite confused. "I mean, when you speak Spanish, your accent is...different", he explained to him as he continued to watch her daughter from the distance.

"People usually think I'm not Mexican because of my accent when I speak Spanish, that's because I have a  Honduran accent", Noel explained himself, Leon did knoe his accent is different from others like Julian, so it made sense.

"I have never heard of Honduras before...", Leon said to him, curiously.  Noel turned his head before looking around briefly.

"Hey!", a voice greeted them out of the blue, Leon suddenly turned around and looked over at a woman with ginger hair and dark blue eyes, she had a red sweater and black pants.

"Giana", Leon told her as she walked on top of the hill, sitting down on the grass next to Leon and waving at Noel, he waved back at her.

"It's been some time", she told him, smiling happily. "What happened to Dimitri?", Leon asked her, she laughed softly. "He's with his dad...", she replied, she looked much younger than Leon, it made Noel assume she was his cousin.

"How's Sophya?", Leon questioned her as he took a fork and ate a strawberry, he barely eats anything with his hands.

"My sister...she's out there", Noel paused, realizing she was actually his aunt.

"Does he work with you?", she looked over at Noel with a smile on her face.

"He's my bodyguard", he replied. "Nice to meet you", she said, his bodyguard was astonished to find out a young girl like her was actually his aunt. 

"You too", his bodyguard responded while getting his phone from his pocket, he had a missing message from someone.

  "Oh, I have something my aunt Anya gave me, here you go...", Leon got a necklace with a gold heart shaped pendant in his hands, he frowned slightly.

"What's this?", he opened the pendant, it was a locket with a photo inside of it, a woman with diamond, blue eyes and dark brown hair, wearing a black shirt and having the same necklace around her neck.

"That's your mother...", Leon felt a wave of nostalgia, he hasn't known anything about his mother nor his father, his parents died when he was a newborn in a car accident in San Francisco.

"You have her eyes, how pretty isn't it?", Leon felt quite unusual, he did have her eyes though he had never seen pictures of his mother before.

"Look at this...", Giana pulled out a small picture from her purse, a man with silky black hair, small dark brown eyes, a straight nose, was wearing a white t-shirt with jeans and white sneakers, he was smiling brightly with the same woman who was her mother next to him.

"That's your dad, you actually look just like him...", Giana giggled happily, pointing at the man. "Oh...", Leon muttered quietly, he reached for the picture and stared at it deeply.

"But since you're here, those are yours...", she told him nicely, he decided to place them in his coat pocket.

"Well it was nice meeting you again, I will get going. Ciao!", Giana got up before walking away.

"That was awkward...", Leon mumbled under his breath, Noel took a glance around before going back to scrolling through his phone, liking women's posts as usual, Leon peeked over at his cellphone as he wrote a comment in Spanish and posted it.

"Who are they?", Noel turned over to look at him, wondering what was he talking about.

"Who, Sir Cashmere?", Leon stared over at his phone.

"Them", Noel looked over at his cellphone, he let a small laugh which made his boss quite confused on his reaction.

"They're my family, Sir Cashmere...", Leon's hands reached over to play with Noel's curly hair gently, his fingers running through his curls slowly.

"Right...", Leon inspected Noel's light brown hair, his hand letting go before he wrapped his arm around his neck, laying his head down next to his shoulder. He felt a need to rest his head on his bodyguard's shoulder, it made him feel quite comfortable, yet startled him in some ways.

He's really not affectionate with everyone except for his daughter, Noel is getting the best of him, which he thought he had to refrain himself from being too considerate with him, but he can't help himself from doing it.

"It's like they put a curse on me that I can't break from...", Leon thought to himself, Noel didn't bother for him to stop, maybe due to not make a conflict between them.

" Sir Cashmere, are you alright?", Noel asked him, concerned by the sudden move.

"I'm just tired...", Leon replied to him, he actually did feel tired, he only slept for a few hours at night.

He gazed intensively as Zoey played in the playground with other children, running around the small bridge before going down a red slide, she got off and ran around happily with a huge smile on her face. He could hear her gleeful laughs from the distance, along with the laughs of the other people surrounding them.

°~4:45 PM~°

He got off the car before Noel opened the car door for Zoey, Leon grabbed her and got her out of the car as he lifted her up, carrying her with his arm.

"Let's go. Alvarez, you're good to go...", Leon told his driver, Alvarez nodded in agreement before giving a small wave.

They all walked down to the building, Noel reached the door before opening it to feel the cold breeze inside the building, he went in before letting Leon and his daughter inside the building.

He looked around the building, everyone seemed to be working, but he was going to drop off Zoey with his aunt since his daughter usually liked being around her often.

He walked down with Noel beside him, he looked over at Zoey before she laughed happily.

"Dad, you look sleepy...", she laughed at him, he smiled slightly at her.  "Look! Auntie!", Zoey shouted loudly, they turned around to see Anya talking to two people, a girl with short dark wavy brown hair, and the same man from before...he instantly recognized them.

"Sweetie!", Anya shouted back at her, the two people turned around, the woman glared at Zoey and Leon as he let her down, she ran towards Anya before hugging her tightly. Anya picked her up in her arms, while she smiled at the two people looking at them in astonishment.

"Here's the kid you were looking for...", Anya told them, Zoey frowned. "What?", she asked, Anya looked over at her. "These are your family, Zoey", she looked over at the people in confusion.

"No, they're not...", Zoey shook her head, the woman glared over at Leon. "Long time, no see, right Mr. Cashmere?", she asked him, he glared at her in exchange.

"Nina...", Leon muttered, it was Zoey's biological aunt.

"Say hi to your aunt and your uncle...", Anya waved at them, Nina gazed over at her and gave the girl a bright smile while waving at her.

"No, they're not", Zoey looked over at them, she felt scared.

"They are, Zoey. Want to give them a hug?", Zoey shook her head again, she got off of her aunt before running to stand behind her. "I'm not going to hurt you, honey. Come on...", she nicely talked to her, she shook her head again.

"You're not my aunt...", she told her. "Yes I am. I was the one who took care of you when you were a baby", Nina said, as she lowered herself before extending her arms.

"My dad took care of me. Not you", she told her, Leon looked over at them, he decided not to intervene trying to not stir anything.

"Who's your dad, little princess?", the man asked her, with a smile on his face.

"He's my dad...Auntie, they're lying...", Anya turned around to gaze at her. "Zoey, my dear. Do you know that they're your real family? The one who saw you when you were born?", Zoey looked over at them, timidly.

"No...", Zoey told her, Nina was standing there smiling at her brightly.

"It's ok, come on. We'll go together to the park and get some ice cream, tell you some stories, play in the swings...", Nina was trying to convince her as she stepped closer and crouched down to look at her in the eyes, beaming ear to ear.

"And maybe we can go see your mom, she'll love to see you...", she grabbed Zoey's hands softly, she was scared since she didn't know them.

"My mom is flying right now, she can't come to see me...", Zoey said in a lowered voice. "Your mom is with us, she'll love to see you again. Come on, I love you so much, you don't know how much I've missed you, darling. It's been so long, please come with us. We love you more than everything in the world", she told Zoey as she slowly kissed her hand, leaving a stain of her bright red lipstick.

"It's so long since I last seen you. You were a baby, when your first word was "auntie" , we are going to be together forever-", Nina gets cut off as Zoey shook her head relentlessly before smacking her hand away from hers before running away in a panic.

"Dad!", she cried out as she ran towards Leon, he picked her up in his arms, she started to cry relentlessly while wrapping her arms around Leon, burying her face against his shoulder.

"It's ok, sweetheart. It's over, don't worry about it, ok?", he consoled her as he glared at all of them, Anya frowned slightly in defeat before sighing. Nina glared at him intensively as she realized it wasn't going to be easy for them.

"I'm sorry about that...", she apologized to Nina and the man. "We have to talk about that later, right?", Nina asked her, Anya nodded her head, Leon was confused on the whole ordeal.

"Leon, give me the girl...", Anya walked over towards him, he backed away from her.

"I won't until they leave", he told her, sternly. "You know what? Fine", Anya turned to them before pointing towards the door. Nina rolled her eyes arrogantly before storming out along with the man without a single word.

"What the fuck was that about?", Leon glared towards her aunt. "I was trying to make ammends with her aunt, she wanted to see her niece, that's all", Leon scoffed at her. "Don't do that shit again, only do it when she's ready", Leon warned her, she nodded her head.

"I'm sorry, sweetie. Do you still want to come with me?", Anya asked her, she lifted her head before nodding her head.

"Alright, I'll let her go but don't do anything shitty behind my back", Leon warned her again, Anya simply nodded her head.

"Bye Dad...", she kissed him lightly on the cheek, he smiled happily before putting her on the ground.

"Alright, have fun", Leon told her as she walked away holding his aunt's hand and Anya wiping her tears away.

"Noel, we can go now", Leon told his bodyguard who stood there watching the whole thing in silence.

"Yes, Sir Cashmere", Noel replied to him, they suddenly went out the door towards his car awaiting for him.

He wondered what was all of that shit about, he'll need to talk about it with Zoey later.