FATHERLY LOVE.

Prologue.

**~~**

"Danny, don't you dare walk out on me!" Christie yelled angrily at the back of the departing man.

Danny, spun around fuming in anger at the woman. "What do you want, woman?" He asked, nose flaring.

"I want your father gone."

"That is never going to happen and you know it." Danny was getting frustrated and not to mention tired of having this repeated argument every time his father visited.

"Why?" Christie throws both hands in exasperation. "Just why won't he leave us the fuck alone? Why is he always here?! It's barely three months since the last time he was here and today he's back again!"

"He is my father!" Danny was yelling now, he's had enough of this woman's bickering. "He has every right to be here and as well stay as long as he sees fit!"

"We have been married almost ten years, Daniel, and your father has lived with us eight years out of that, sometimes it's like I'm married to both father and son!"

"And yet you're not used to it," Danny mumbled under his breath.

"I'm supposed to get used to your father always invading my space?"

"Invading?" Danny asked bemused. "This is his house as much as it is yours."

"Lies, all lies, Daniel. This is my house and he has his. He should learn to stay there."

"Why do you always have problems with my father around, uh?"

"Because each time he spends his many undesirable months with us you become a changed man, a completely different person!" She couldn't pretend she hasn't noticed the closeness between them, not that she's insinuating there is anything behind it but it drives her nuts how Danny shifts from a caring husband to 'it's all about my father' whenever his father is around and what's worse? The man wouldn't leave for months.

They have always been close, she knew this but when she wasn't married to him she dealt with it alright and now they're married for years, it's become a repeatable circle one she's no longer interested in keeping. She might as well move into her father-in-laws' house since the man can't last a month without his son.

She's had enough.

It's not bad to have your in-laws around and she understands that they're both the only family they've got left...yet, that doesn't imply that he spends eleven out of every twelve months of the year in her house.

That is unacceptable.

The fact that she has endured it this far, is more than enough.

This is where she draws the line.

"That man is the only relative I've got left, Christie, so it's either you get used to this until he's dead or..."

"Or what?" Christie fired back. If he's suggesting she leaves her home for his father then he's got another thing coming. "He's fifty-two years old and still very much in his prime. He's a fine man, why doesn't he just remarry if he feels too lonely living by himself, hmm?"

"What??" Danny didn't realize his voice had gone higher than he had intended it. He cleared his throat when he caught the glares thrown suspiciously directly at him. "He gave up his life for mine. He wouldn't remarry because he feared another woman would never treat me better. He gave his youthful life up for me and you dare talk about him like that!" He took a step closer and she backed away from him, her legs ran into the island and her hands went up to grab onto it, eyes on her husband whom she feared smoke was starting to blow out from his ears.

There is nothing bad about what she had just suggested. He indeed gave his life up to make sure he gave his son the best things in life, if only her father was devoted to her and her mother then maybe she would understand this strange love between them but even at that, her mother devoted her life into raising her and her stepbrother yet the love she has for her mother is nothing compared to what Danny and his father have.

**~~**

Danny isn't a bad husband neither is he a terrible father, he's proved that from the moment he had met her son whom she had had at the early age of fifteen. Having been deceived greatly by Mickey McCain who got her pregnant and abandoned her the second he learned of it. Forced to go to school with shame and a swelling belly until she couldn't move anymore.

She dropped out of school and gave her life into providing for herself and her son. Of course, having a supportive mother made life a lot easier and she was able to return to school a year after she had her son but she couldn't go further than high school.

She was twenty-two and her son seven at the time when she had met the handsome Danny Boyle Williams who was still in college and a year older than she was. The first time she set eyes on him the second he walked into the coffee shop she worked she knew love, at first sight, had been established between them.

Danny didn't stop coming to the coffee shop until he'd gained her mobile number and they had gone on their first dinner date two weeks after that. It took her another six months to finally open up to him about her son. She had expected him to react like all the other jerks she has had the misfortune of being with but on the contrary, Danny had bonded with her son on first sight just as he had captured her heart on that fateful day with just a simple glance her way and she was trapped in those bedroom eyes. Soft and tender, she was enthralled.

Nothing made her love the man more than when she saw the love he showered on her young son who lacked such fatherly love at the time. She had long since made up her mind to remain a single parent until she met Danny.

She knew she owed it to whoever was responsible for raising such an amazing man. She was sad when she learned Danny's mother had passed away due to a heart attack when he was fourteen. It broke her heart. Then a year after their relationship had blossomed, Danny engaged and took her home to meet with his father.

Now, at twenty-four she was expecting his father to be an older man but when she met the handsome forty-two-year-old Mr. Williams she was shocked beyond words. For months she doubted he was indeed his biological father. Williams had told her he got his seventeen-year-old girlfriend pregnant when he was eighteen and freshly into college. Five years after Elaina had Danny, he had returned from school and married her. She also happened to be the only woman he's ever been married to. After her passing, he had vowed to live his life for his son alone.

She is yet to understand if that was the reason behind the clinginess and love but she still can't react to it okay. Danny is almost thirty-four and happily married with kids, he's a grown-ass man and his father has nothing to fear about marrying anyone who would mistreat his precious son, so why wouldn't he? Why is he always in her house, dragging her husband's attention with her by always being by his side? Why does it feel as if she's trapped between a love triangle, one she's well aware she would never win knowing she can't compete with the love Danny has for his father. She would lose the battle long even before it had begun.