Chapter 126 - Xavier’s Acting Strange…

Moving on from Briar and Adrian. 

Meanwhile, with a certain coral-haired girl… 

"Who is it?" Emilio questioned once he heard the knock come from the other side of the door.

His hair was curly, and he looked distraught. That was what days of staying in a hut with nearly no company other than Rose, Madeline and Xavier's few visits as well as only having a limited space to move in did to him. 

"It's me, Madeline," Madeline answered. 

Emilio turned to face where the voice was coming from, a smile now on his face. 

"Madeline?" He asked. 

It was great to see her! He had lots to tell her.

Firstly, Xavier was reconsidering leaving him there, since it wasn't the safest place to store him. 

And with a little more convincing, Emilio was sure Xavier would let him of the hook for a little while and let him clean up and have a meal. 

Madeline was unaware of that at the current moment, but Emilio would wager that she'd be ecstatic once she heard the news.

Of course, with everything to tell her running through his head, he hadn't anticipated Madeline coming to his hut to inform him of some news. 

Especially anything that had to do with powers. 

It was something Madeline didn't brought up, so Emilio had always presumed she didn't want to talk about it. 

Maybe Madeline didn't want any powers and found them to be burdens to shoulder. 

Or maybe, she refused to talk about powers since she didn't have any.

Either way, Emilio didn't mind. He had learnt long ago that there were many reasons to cherish someone, not just for their powers. 

Ironically, Cornelia was the one that thought him that.

Thinking of Cornelia caused memories to surface, but Emilio shook it off. He wouldn't let the memories he shared with his ex-lover ruin his daughter's visit. 

He had grown accustomed to being visited and having guests. Sure, only Xavier was allowed in his hut and both Rosalynn and Madeline were told not to enter unless extremely important, but some company was better than no company. 

Having someone to talk to, even if they had to stand outside the hut, usually in the burning sun whilst they did so was great for him, albeit the same couldn't be said for them. 

For once in a long, long time, Emilio felt like there was someone there for him. 

Brushing aside the fact the meaning he had for the people there for him was his daughter, the man that stole his job and tried killing him and Cornelia's best friend... Emilio was content. 

It was more than he had expected when he first arrived at Eudora.

For a moment, he was under the impression that Xavier would shoo him away and kill him if he refused. 

Xavier had been acting quite strange in front of him since the first moment Emilio had stepped on Eudora, Emilio knew that. 

At the beginning, Emilio had concerned himself with why Xavier was behaving this way, until he realized ages later...

Xavier hadn't treated him with any hint of compassion. Not until it was discovered that Emilio was Madeline's father. 

Emilio already knew it was one of the only few reasons he was alive, no one needed to remind him of that.

However, he was certain Xavier thought of Madeline differently than everyone else. 

In what way? Emilio was unsure.

However, there was no denying that Madeline was special to Xavier. And not just because she was his mate. 

Emilio had this gut feeling that this had something to do with one word, but he couldn't get himself to spit it out.

Was it strange he found it disgusting if his daughter and Xavier were… 

'I should stop thinking about that before I get a headache,' Emilio told himself, rubbing his forehead.

"You there?" Madeline asked for what seemed like the millionth time, wondering why Emilio had been so silent for the past few minutes. 

Had he passed out or something? Had he fallen asleep? 

Emilio wasn't responding to anything she was saying or making any sound. That was enough for Madeline to grow concerned. 

"I am," Emilio nodded.

"I spaced out before, sorry," he apologized. 

"It's alright, I just asked you if you'd eaten yet and you didn't reply so… I became worried," Madeline admitted. 

Emilio heard a crinkle from the outside of the hut, and he smelled the familiar yet distant whiff of…

'What did Madeline bring with her? Why does it smell so good?' Emilio asked before admitting to Madeline that he had not eaten anything the entire day.

Madeline opened the hut door and placed a bag inside. 

"You said it was your favourite food so I—"

"Thank you," Emilio said, meaning it from the bottom of his heart. 

She was so considerate, bringing her his favourite food when she wasn't under any obligation to. 

How sweet!

Whilst a part of him wondered why she wanted anything to do with him when she could have advocated for him to die at the stake or something along those lines, a part of him felt relieved. 

Relieved that his daughter wasn't anything like him or inherited the parts of himself he wanted to hide and keep buried from the rest of the world once he had done some retrospection. 

"Thank you so much," he repeated.

"You're welcome, it's no problem," Madeline said before she cleared her throat, trying to get herself to tell him. 

'It's now or never. Maybe he knows something about how I got these powers and how to use them.'

"Emilio?" She called, her voice now faint and softer than before. 

"Yes?" Emilio asked seconds before he was about to dig in the food Madeline had brought him.

"I need to show you something," she mumbled, knowing Emilio could very well hear what she had just said.

"What is it?" Emilio inquired.

With how Madeline was behaving, this must have been something big. 

Was it that bad?