Chapter Forty-Eight
Angela's dad returned home late from his laughter club. It didn't help fill up his gloomy days. He sat down on the couch and sipped his orange juice like every day. His glance fell upon the wall where a huge photograph of Damian and Angela along with a baby was hung up. He got up and went closer to the photograph to get a good look at it. So Angela had a baby and no one informed him at all. He felt hurt. Going closer he saw all of their happy faces. So they were happy without him in their lives. He felt a pain that they didn't miss him at all.
He knew deep within him that Stefanie was true to him and that he had wronged her but he didn't want to acknowledge that he was wrong.
He was born into a poor family and his dad worked for Ronald's father, Ralph Anderson. All his life, he was treated like an inferior by Ronald who had everything that money could buy him.
Ronald showed off his wealth and had lots of friends at school while he had no one since he was poor. Ronald boasted about his position and everyone at school knew that Gerard was a mere worker's son upon whom Ralph Anderson took pity and had him admitted at the same school as his own son.
They made fun of him and didn't mix with him. Although Ronald claimed to be his best friend, his ego was boosted by these petty little things. Gerard was crushed always by Ronald's attitude towards him. He was more intelligent than Ronald yet he couldn't study engineering as he had wanted to due to financial constraints. So he just graduated with his own money which he had earned through working part-time. He enrolled in an assistantship program while doing his master's degree. He did his doctorate and got a chance to teach at the prestigious University of Austin. He built himself a small house beside Ronald's mansion as Ronald insisted that they live beside one another. Afterward, Ronald kept showing off his mansion and making fun of his humble home.
Ralph Anderson used his connections to get his son a good job at a prestigious hospital after he became an orthopedic surgeon. Ronald boasted of his career choice by making sarcastic comments about Gerard's teaching job. Gerard's family had shifted to California and his younger brother was doing well in his real estate business. His parents also started a cafe which was running successfully. They weren't poor anymore yet Ronald looked down upon his whole family like he always had.
Throughout the years, Gerard boiled with anger and frustration at being treated like shit by none other than his only friend. The wish to get back at him someday made Gerard keep in touch with Ronald.
When Ronald fell in love with the same pretty nurse whom he liked at his hospital, he saw red. He had tolerated Ronald's insults, yet visited him every day just to see her. Her name was Stefanie and he fell for her more as he saw her every day.
However, she fell in love with Ronald, and Gerard's heart was again crushed. He watched them together every day for four years and his heart was shattered into pieces. But, Ronald eventually married his father's choice who was Ralph's business partner's daughter.
Gerard saw his chance with a heartbroken Stefanie and proposed to her, confessing his love for her. He was ecstatic when she agreed to marry him but soon that happiness turned into a nightmare as she could never love him back. She loved only Ronald and every night cried out for Ronald in her sleep. Whenever they made love, it was Ronald's name she moaned out.
While he and Stefanie had four children already to prove how happily married they were, Ronald and his wife Erika had a broken marriage with no children of their own. Every day Ronald's unhappy broken face cheered Gerard on and gave him a strange sense of victory that at last, he could get under Ronald's skin.
So, when one day, he saw Ronald taking advantage of Stefanie at their hospital after night duty, he lost it. Although she tried to explain herself, Gerard felt cheated. He couldn't trust them anymore and broke ties with her and stayed away unable to forgive them.
Erika gave birth to a baby boy and after fifteen days Stefanie gave birth to a baby girl. Gerard was convinced that the baby was Ronald's. With that belief, a fresh plot to get at Ronald appeared on his mind. He showed off Angela as a trophy and it made Ronald long for Angela's custody.
When Stefanie produced DNA evidence to prove that Angela was actually his baby, he refused to believe it. He was getting a lot of satisfaction seeing Ronald unhappy and dissatisfied with his life. Ronald took to drinking seeing his daughter grow up right in front of him yet he couldn't call her his own. Money could buy him everything but not his own daughter.
Days passed and Erika left Ronald for her lover and Gerard was more pleased that Ronald was shattered. Destiny had proved to Ronald that money couldn't buy him everything. Gerard started loving Angela as she grew older more and more each day. She was the sweetest daughter a dad could ever have. They shared a beautiful bond and Ronald was more jealous of him.
Gerard's game continued and Ronald's downfall began. In all this, Stefanie started dying a slow death. Although she was true to her husband, she loved Ronald and she couldn't see him destroy himself. She couldn't leave her job and Ronald and continued to meet at their workplace much to Gerard's disapproval.
When she eventually did transfer to another hospital, Ronald followed her there and they kept in touch as friends. Gerard didn't want her to keep ties at all with Ronald but still, she did behind his back. Gerard lost the will to patch up with Stefanie. What was the use? After having four children with him, she still loved Ronald.
She too took to drinking like Ronald and ultimately died. Ronald was too broken after Stefanie's death. He regularly started fights with Gerard. After a bitter fight with Ronald regarding the growing proximity between Angela and Ronald's son Damian, Gerard had to send his daughter away.
However, when she returned, he was furious when he caught Angela making out with Damian, Ronald's son. He still couldn't come to terms with the fact that she wanted to marry Ronald's son. Although Ronald was no more, Gerard still had the feeling that he was watching him, ready to taunt him and laugh at him.
He stared longingly at Angela's photograph and he felt the need to have her in his life again. Ever since she left home, Alex, Adam had stopped interacting with him. Arnold who was very level-headed had left home after Angela did.
Gerard looked and looked longingly at his daughter. She looked so happy. Could he accept her relationship considering that Damian made her happy? He looked at his grandson. So adorable! He looked closely and it was then that he noticed that the baby's eye color was different from that of his parents. It was green, just like his.
Gerard took the photograph out and sat with it on the couch, minutely inspecting the photograph. Yes, the baby's eyes were indeed green like him. He closed his eyes at what it all implied. Angela was his own daughter after all.
He felt tears stinging at his eyes. For years he had refused to acknowledge the fact that Angela was his just to take revenge upon Ronald Anderson. Now that he was no more, Gerard couldn't ignore the truth any longer.
Although he knew it all along in his subconscious mind, this natural God sent proof was something he couldn't ignore.
He took the photograph and went to his room. He didn't repent his behavior towards Stefanie. She had never loved him once in all the years that they were together. If she would have confessed her love for him once, he would have forgiven and forgotten everything. She had forgiven Ronald although he had tried to rape her and Gerard couldn't forgive her for that.
He sighed and again looked at the photograph. Should he make his only daughter and grandson suffer because of his own complicated past? He closed his eyes.
Damian, Ronald's son was always respectful and nice towards him. He shouldn't punish that boy for no fault of his own. He took care of Angela so well at such a young age. He was lonely without anyone to call his own other than Angela. They loved each other since they were babies. It would be cruel to separate them and now they have a baby too.
Would he accept their relationship? Yes, he would. But what if they refuse to accept him into their lives? Gerard Saunders lay his head down on his desk and wept bitterly, not knowing what to do.