"What happened?"

Noah asked after Antonio ended a call from the head security of his apartment and his ex-wife.

"The building security was alerted when Miss Liu entered the wrong passcode into your apartment. Security personnel received a positive identification from Miss Zimmerman stating that Miss Liu was someone you knew, so they let her go. Also, I told her about your offer of a room at the Crown. However, she declined. She said she was merely dropping by as she was on her way back to China."

"Keep an eye on her. Why would she drop by my place when she knows we're here?"

"Noted, Sir."

He took his glass of brandy and walked to the window overlooking the garden where Lucille and his grandfather were playing frisbee with the dogs. He could hear his daughter squeal in delight every time one of the dogs caught the frisbee.

He has an idea why Nicole was confident to open his place. In the past, he used the same combination of numbers on all doors. He would just rumble those numbers but they were the same numbers. So Nicole could easily remember the numbers since she knew them by heart.

After all these years, she still thought he used the same number combination. He pinched the bridge of his nose, he thought, when did he stop using the date of their first meeting as his door passcode.

They were young, but so deeply in love. But he has a terrible alcohol problem. It was not an easy feat to let go of alcohol when he started drinking at the age of fourteen. As far as he remembered, alcohol had been a part of his life.

When Lucille became a part of their lives, there were already too many holes and gaps in their relationship. It was a ship sinking, but they tried to salvage their relationship for the sake of Lucille. During the first three years, they thought things were going smoothly, only to discover that the ship had been capsized. The only one holding them up was Lucille.

However, a child won't hold them up for too long when both of them are cruising dangerously. He, on alcohol and work, Nicole on the other hand, was a workaholic like him. She has big dreams and he became a shackle for her dreams when he drowned in alcohol.

Nicole found another shore to throw her anchor. She found a new wind and current to power the ship of her dreams. He was left on the shore drunk and had no recollection of half of their life together. It was a haze of alcohol, staying long hours in the laboratory, and more alcohol.

He wished he could change the past.

His thought was jolted to the present when he heard another scream of delight from his daughter. He finished his drink and decided to join his daughter in the garden. He can no longer change the past, but he can make the present and the future better.

"Papa!"

Lucille came running with her arms in the air the moment she saw him entering the garden. Two huge German Shepherds were skipping behind her. One of the dogs has a frisbee hanging on its mouth.

"Papa, I want a dog!"

He caught Lucille mid-air when she jumped to his arms and twirled her in the air as she shrieked in delight. How could children be so happy with the little things? A dog, a frilly dress, and a twirl in the air.

How did adults turn out to be so greedy? Staring into her daughter's same blue eyes, he wondered.

"Schatz, your mother is allergic to any animal that has fur." He gently reminded her daughter. He felt sad himself when her daughter's smile turned into a frown of disappointment. He grew up with dogs. He wanted her to experience that too, but with Nicole's allergy, he doubted that would happen.

She pouted and her small arms snaked around his neck.

"I'm sorry, darling." He gently patted her back to soothe her. He was still murmuring comforting words when his grandfather emerged from the bushes with the solution that made Noah's forehead furrowed in disapproval.

"Liebling, stay longer and we could bring the dogs to the countryside. You could play with the ponies!"

He never saw his daughter's head snap so quickly when she heard ponies.

"Truly?" She wriggled in his arms to be put down.

"Truly! We can go tomorrow."

He threw his grandfather a warning look but the old sly geezers just grinned at him and picked up his great-granddaughter, promising her all the fun she would have with the dogs and the ponies.

He clenched his teeth as his sly grandfather was using all those damn animals to keep his daughter in his company longer than the agreed number of days.

He promised Lucille that he won't be working for the duration of her vacation so, he can't stop her with the excuse of work. His grandfather perfectly knew that fact and he was using it to his full advantage.

"But your Papa might not agree to it." The old man dropped his voice in a low tone, telling her daughter of such possibility.

'Sly Old Geezer.' He never was forced to smile like today when he gave his daughter and grandfather a happy smile. He watched his grandfather snicker behind his daughter. The sly old geezer knew he could not break her daughter's heart with his cunning antics.

"Daddy?" her daughter pulled out the big gun when she called him with her accented 'Dahdeh'. She batted her lashes in clear blue skies that were her eyes, and he has no way of putting gloomy clouds on those.

Both of them were so cunning and they knew it. They knew that he could never say no.

He put a smile on his face as he said the magic words, "Yes, princess."

A huge smile spread on her daughter's lips that he doesn't mind being played. He doesn't mind being twisted in his daughter's little hands. Only his daughter has been given this privilege, and no one else...

Although he won't mind being played by Miss Zimmerman's little fingers, he smirked inwardly as he remembered Jess.