Line 30 / Part 2

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"Wow. You're really making progress with the speech thing! You sound almost normal," was Julia's attempt to distract from her embarrassment about Victor's praise. Before she could give her opinion about pioneers the phone started vibrating in her hand and the good-looking face of Peter Banes appeared on the screen. "That's my dad," excitedly showing Victor the picture, filial pride adding a nice full sound to her voice.

"Hey dad! I'm so glad you call. I tried you earlier but you didn't pick up."

"I know! Couldn't get to it. Had to be Black Beauty for Fiona coz Claire isn't feeling too well today. The heat is getting to her. Then we went to the store and just now I wanted to check something online and saw the missed call reminder. So how are you princess?"

"To be honest Dad, all that talk about Fiona and Claire and the baby in her belly is doing nothing for me," is what Julia wanted to say more than anything else. However, despite Victor's thinking her to be a heroine, she lacked the courage to do so and therefore just silently waited until more socially acceptable words would find their way around the knot in her throat, the lump of unexpressed hurt and old emotional pain.

"Sweetheart are you there or did I lose you?" she heard her father say.

"No, no," afraid he would hang up, "I'm here. It's just, you know, I'm on my way out there to come and be with you for a while..." There. She said it.

"Sorry baby, you were breaking up. I couldn't quite get what you were saying. No Fiona. No! You can't have that! Stop tugging. I'm talking on the phone! Sorry Julia. I tell you, three-year-olds are a handful! Don't even wanna think about what it's going to be like once the baby is here. I mean I'm in the city all day for work but Claire ... and so far we haven't found a new nanny since Guadalupe went back to Puerto Rico. Fiona no! I said stop! Julia I have to go. Why don't I call you back later when we're back home and have a better connection? Say hi to your mom, okay?"

Julia was frozen. "Okay dad. Bye," was all she could say before she tapped the screen to end the call. And no longer able to keep up her pretense in front of Victor, she started to cry.

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