A Penny For Christmas

A Penny For Christmas Chapter 7: Christopher’s Memories

By Anthonia Nicol

Christopher Wallace was distraught. How in the world could he have ever fallen in love with such a woman? He put his head against the brick wall at the corner of his office and let his tears flow for the first time in eight years.
She destroyed his heart and any other hope of falling in love again, but she didn’t stop there. He was her target. Thinking about it now made his heart pump wildly in his chest. She would have milked him dry and ruined his career, but she fell short when a terrible car accident revealed that Daisy was not his child. She couldn’t get child support, and she was stuck with a child she didn’t want.
He shook the truth out of Sarah the day she confessed.
He had met Herbert several times before the accident. She passed him off as her half-brother, so Chris ignored how he touched her when he came visiting.
Five years of deceit! Five years of raising a child that wasn’t his! Suddenly, his love for Daisy felt like an illusion, like everything else in his life. He had given Sarah a life of luxury, and she paid him back by emptying all the accounts she could. On the day she left, Herbert visited him. He could remember his words like it was yesterday he said them.
‘You should forget about Sarah because she is mine. However, if you want any chance of seeing your daughter again, all you have to do is to give me access to the rest of your bank accounts’.
Chris was outraged.
‘Daisy isn’t my daughter,’ he told him. ‘I know she’s yours, so take her with you!’
Herbert was startled.
‘Your darling lover told me everything. Take your spawn and get out of my life before I have the both of you arrested!’
Herbert laughed. ‘So what if she’s mine? I have seen how much you love your little Daisy. This bravado won’t last for long. You best pay up before I increase the stakes’.
Chris lunged at him, ‘If you don’t leave, I will break your face!’
They fought. Chris broke his jaw and threw him out of the office. He should have called the police, but he didn’t. He was at the peak of his career, and he owned one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. He couldn’t afford a scandal like this.
He got home that day to an empty house; they had cleared out all the furniture and everything else of value, including Daisy. That was the first time he cried in his life.
Herbert sent letters threatening to hurt Daisy if he didn’t comply in the days that followed, and he almost gave in, but his lawyers advised him not to. In time, the threats stopped. Everything stopped. His lawyers told him they had taken care of it.
He didn’t hear from Herbert or Sarah in eight years.
He had moved on.
Then she showed up in one of his stores with his biological daughter.
The pain hit him like a thunderbolt again. Speaking with her about Penny made him realize that she was still the same old heartless Sarah that didn’t care about anyone.
There was a knock on the door.
‘Doctor, this young lady is here to see you,’ his assistant said, and Penny emerged from behind her.
‘Penny?’ Chris said in surprise, spreading out his arms to her.`
She ran into them. ‘Chris, mum is gone!’

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