I am mute for some time as my brain whirls in every direction. "Cat's got your tongue?" He asks in a playful tone I do not appreciate.

I clear my throat to dislodge the fear building up in me. "Why are you calling?" I ask, trying to sound calm even though I am nowhere near that.

I hear a sigh on his end, he tut tuts before speaking. "I am inviting you to lunch at Gabriel Kreuther beside Bryant Park at 1;00 pm. Dress formally. I'll be waiting on you." Before the shock wanes, he has already hung up.

I am shaking, unable to fathom what on earth he wants from me. The audacity he has to order me to lunch with him, who says I even want to be there? I take slow breaths, in and out, to steady my racing heart.

Carter catches onto the change instantly. I can tell from the way he stares at me, analyzing me intently, that he knows something is wrong.

"What are you doing today?" Carter asks and I wonder if he can read my mind.

"I am going out for lunch." I answer evasively.

"With one of your friends?" He is eating pancakes with a lot of maple syrup drizzled on it.

"Not really, just someone I know." He focuses back on his food. "My father." I add.

He looks taken aback. "What does he want?" He asks.

"I can take a few guesses." I give a short laugh. Carter laughs with me, finally the tension ebbing from the room. "I have been prodding him recently, and he wants to silence me." I offer. He nods in agreement, looking at me with keen understanding eyes.

"Well I think you have something to say so let the world know. We'll thank you later." My lips curve upwards with appreciation. At least I know Carter supports me.

The conversation dissolves into comfortable silence.

I get up. I am no longer in the mood for food. I try to do some work at the dining table as the time for lunch approaches. I see Carter milling about. He doesn't say anything but he keeps passing through the kitchen, getting this and that from the fridge, from the cabinets. He is not helping one bit. I turn the laptop off .

"Let's play a game." He stops in the doorway, oddly taking a lettuce to the bedroom. He turns in his tracks and sits in front of me.

"What do you have in mind?" I laugh at how eager he is.

"Twister." I say a sly grin on my lips. He leans back ready to refuse. His brows are knitted and I can see him calculating all the ways things could go wrong. "Don't say no. It was fun in highschool. We are not too old for Twister."

"Fine." He goes to collect the mat which I know is lying somewhere in a closet abandoned.

We set up on the kitchen floor and start smoothly. Each of us assumes easy targets, gradually calling out harder maneuvers for each other. Thirty minutes later, I am on the floor straining to reach a patch of yellow with my right hand. I m A few inches away from a win. I reach across the mat and land on the yellow, winning the game. I collapse on the mat unable to get up anymore.

Carter hooks his arm on my back and pulls me up, a little too forcefully. I land flat on his chest, our faces inches away from each other. I lean in. He closes the distance, initiating a series of fireworks under my skin. My hands wrap around his neck as he hoists me up with his hands under my bare thighs. I had forgotten about how short my pajamas are until I feel the force of his open palms on my skin supporting my weight.

He doesn't break the kiss. It goes from being soft and playful to something fierce and fervid. The tension pulsing between us only gets stronger, I feel a need being unleashed from within and I know he wants me just as much.

The thought of my father brings me crashing back to reality. I break the kiss and unwind myself from him. I can feel my face flush under his intense questioning gaze. I look at the watch and it is already twelve o'clock.

I leave the room wordlessly and run through a quick shower and put on the nearest decent pants suit I can find. I put on a pair of pearl earrings I got myself for Christmas last year and finish the look with a pair of nude chunky heels. With my favorite bag, a brown Rebecca Minkoff one of my friends got me eons ago.

I arrive at the restaurant ten minutes late. In the foyer, I state my name and leave my coat. A sharply dressed waiter leads me to one of the semi private compartments where I can see my father waiting, and he is not enjoying it one bit. He glances at his watch three times as I am walking towards him.

I take the seat opposite him. He watches me throughout, an impassive expression on his face. He doesn't look like he has aged since I last saw him, his hair's a little more shaggy. There are bags under his eyes and faint crow's feet sprouting around his eyes. He is tired.

"What would you like on the menu?" He asks straight away. Pervasively, I wonder if he is trying to pretend that this is something we usually do. A father daughter bonding moment.

"I am not here for the food."

He nods like it is merely an inconvenience, like I am just a child who doesn't know what she wants. He calls a waiter over and orders a bouillabaisse and clam toast with pancetta for the main course. Trust my father to order my favorite meals when I say I am not eating. But who can fault him, he doesn't know me well enough to know what is anyway.

"How has work been?" He asks out of the blue.

"Very good." I answer, my armor going up.

"I hope this," He waves hand about, "harlequinade hasn't been making things hard for you."

"Not at all. It is just as I expected. How about you?"

His eyes narrow for a split second before he regains his cool complexion. "Not even a hitch." Something outside the windows draws his attention. I follow his gaze and land on a young couple sitting right across the street with a baby stroller between them. Their smiles look so brilliant from this far. "Your mother would be worried about you."

I turn sharply, a rage building within me. I take a moment to respond as I calm myself down, "She would." I wish my mother was here, she would support me through and through.

"And your baby too." The cool distant gaze he trains on me when he says that speaks volumes.

How does he even know that? To say it so breezily like it's the weather! No one but my mother knows about that and I am certain she took it to the grave.

"I do not understand." I reply feigning ignorance.

"Monthly checks, being AWOL for a whole year and then you return with sutures on your abdomen, visiting the hospital every other week, and surprisingly only the children's cancer ward." It finally clicks what this whole interrogation is about.

"You can't buy me off with that. Gianna was none of your business and she should stay that way."

"So you agree that she is yours?" He quips smuggly. I feel so foolish for falling into his trap, once again. "Does her father know? What was his name again? Calix? Carter? I forget. You should have told him now that you live together, I wager" My face crunches up with pain.

I never wanted anyone to know, most of all not Carter. Now that it is being thrown in my face, I feel the pain of the break up and finding out that I was pregnant resurface. I was too young and my heart had already been broken, I didn't want to give him the chance to deny the child.

"Don't fret, I have my answer."

The food arrives then carried by Nathan. "Nathan?"

"Tara." He sets the plates infront of my father. He pours him a glass of wine with a motion so casual, like he does this every other day.

A smug smile colors my father's face. Among the surprises of today this is the greatest. "You are insufferable, you know that?" Nathan takes his leave leaving behind an icy silence.

He takes a couple of bites as I watch, my mind whirling. Belatedly, I acknowledge my father has too much on me. Whatever I think he knows, he knows more than that. About Carter, about Gianna, and probably about every damn person that ever walked into my life. Resignation slowly creeps in. Why did I even started this lawsuit in the first place.

I can't let him get to Gianna.

"What do you want?"

He looks up from his plate. He wipes his mouth with a napkin before speaking. "We both know what I want." I cock my head to the side quizically. "You only have to stop this madness and then we'll talk about a reward, say I make you the Chief editor at NNC and get rid of that bastard Donald."

If I was a different girl, I would have taken it up instantly. "No deal." I reply curtly. Suddenly, I see the similarity between us, we are both hot heads and he knows it too. He'll have to try harder to get me to concede.

His brows knot with exasperation "Well I could very well obliterate you in court. Take your chance or don't." The thought that he wants to buy me with material things doesn't sit well with me. "You reveal how mom truly died and we have a deal. I don't need your help in my career."

He laughs a short mirthless laugh, "Tara," He draws out my name with indignation. "You are in no position to haggle with me. Be smart and just take my deal."

I have alot to ose either way. But at least one way, I'll still have my dignity intact. "I won't." I collect my bag and get up, "See you in court, father."