Chapter 63: A Father

Daniel later let go of Clancy, completely unaware of the shockwave he had just caused in the room, and walked sleepily up the stairs. His small steps faded as he reached the top floor.

David, who was already on his way upstairs and Selen stood completely still, looking at Clancy for a long moment. They were trying to process what had just happened. After a few seconds of silence, Selen gave Clancy a quiet look, turned around, and followed her sons up to the bedrooms.

JK cleared his throat to break the silence. He carefully set down the stack of plates he was holding onto the dining table. Then, he walked over to the couch to pick up Diana , who was still sound asleep and did not notice any of the commotion.

Newton stayed completely silent throughout this. He stood by the wall and just watched everything unfold, observing how everyone was reacting to the situation.

As Clancy finally walked out of the house and made his way to his car, he stopped for a second in the driveway. The night air was cool, and the house was slowly getting quiet. He realized right then that everything had changed.

He was not just a guest or a casual helper anymore to them anymore. He felt a real shift in how they saw him, and he knew he was finally a part of their family.

When everyone had gone, Selen was left completely alone in the room. The space was suddenly very silent, as opposed to how it had carried the sounds of laughter, joy, and excitement just an hour earlier.

She walked around the living room and one of her workers was cleaning the place up. Despite the mess, she was genuinely happy about how things turned out that day.

Although she had explicitly told everyone beforehand that she did not want a part in a big celebration which she ended up not having, she was glad she spent the day this way.

She was happy to be surrounded by true friends and family. It felt good to be around people who were genuinely happy that she was turning another year older and wanted to celebrate her life.

She sat down on the couch, took out her phone, and opened her messages. "Thank you so much for my birthday present, Newton," she texted him. She looked at the screen for a moment, feeling like a simple text message wasn’t enough. She honestly did not know how many times she would have to say thank you to Newton for it to be enough for what he did.

Newton was at his own house when his phone buzzed. Reading her message, he was incredibly elated that she had loved the present. He had been highly skeptical about the gift up until the exact moment he gave it to her. He knew the gift itself was a great object, but he had been worried about how she would react to it.

He knew exactly how much she liked to do things for herself without relying on outside help. She was a very independent person and was definitely planning toward buying a professional studio with her own hard-earned money.

But Newton had really wanted to do something significant for her to ease her burden. He figured that if he bought the studio for her, she could use whatever money she had set aside for something else entirely.

He knew that Diana ’s recent medical surgery had definitely cut her finances back a bit. It had taken a large portion of her savings, and this gift was his way of trying to even things out for her.

When he saw her text notification pop up that evening, it felt like the perfect conclusion to the day. It was the absolute cherry on his icing. He smiled to himself as he sat up and began to type back a response to Selen.

"You are most welcome, Selen. I hope your day was as great as I witnessed?" he texted back.

He kept his eyes on the screen, waiting. He did not want the conversation to end so soon. Even though he had just spent the entire day with her at the gathering, he particularly cherished quiet moments like these.

These were the moments when he knew that he had her completely undivided attention. There were no distractions, no other guests, and no kids running around. She was spending her alone time communicating with him, even if they were not physically in the same room.

Their messages went back and forth for a good while, talking about the party and their plans, before they both finally went to sleep to prepare for work the following day.

The following morning, Clancy woke up early. As soon as he opened his eyes, a wide smile was plastered on his face. He felt like he was in an incredibly good mood today, and he decided that no one was going to ruin it for him.

The reason for his happiness was simple, his son had called him daddy for the very first time the previous night. The memory kept playing back in his mind as he got out of bed.

He got dressed in his work clothes, grabbed his keys, and left the house for work with the same smile still on his face. The positive expression lasted for a long time as he drove through the morning traffic. It kept him in high spirits until he received a phone call from his mother.

She had called him early in the morning to catch up. During the conversation, she asked about how Selen and the kids were doing. Clancy decided to keep things simple. He had not mentioned anything to her about Diana ’s surgery, and he chose not to bring it up then either.

He just told his mother that everyone was doing fine. The mood shifted quickly when she asked her next question. She asked him directly about how things were going with his plans to get his family back together with him under one roof.