“Ariella lost her father. Then her grandmother. They were basically her whole family.”
“Basically?”
“Her mother left when she was little.”
I looked away.
“So she came looking for you.”
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She found me online.”
“And you are really sure that she is your granddaughter?”
“At first, I thought it was a scam.”
“Then what?”
“We did a DNA test.”
“And?”
Robert looked at me. “She is my granddaughter.”
My legs suddenly felt weak, so I sat on a bench near the entrance.
Robert remained standing.
“How long have you known?”
He took too long to answer.
“How long?”
“For almost two years.”
“Two years?”
“I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“What happened the first time she contacted you?”
“I was confused.”
“And after the DNA test?”
“I was in shock.”
“And after you met her?”
I looked at him.
“How many times have you seen her?”
“Eight.”
“Eight?”
“Maybe nine.”
“You don’t know?”
“I know. It’s eight.”
“Eight times you came here.”
He said nothing.
“Enough times that the receptionist knows you.”
“Yes.”
“And you paid for her room.”
“She lives four hours away. I didn’t want her paying for a hotel just to see me.”
“Why here?”
“It was a neutral place.”
I laughed bitterly. “Neutral? This is where we spent our honeymoon.”
“I knew the hotel. I knew it was safe.”
“You could have chosen any hotel.”
“I know.”
“Did it ever occur to you that bringing your secret granddaughter to our honeymoon hotel might be strange?”
“Every time.”
“Then why keep doing it?”
“Because the first meeting happened here. After that, she preferred coming somewhere familiar.”
“So you’d meet her and leave?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
He almost looked offended.
“We talked.”
“About what?”
“Mike. She wanted to know whether things he did came from me.”
Robert’s voice softened.
“She asked whether I was good at math because he was terrible at it.”
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