Desperate

Chapter 24

Vlad's POV:

Vlad had the perfect plan. Elizabeth was young and naive, which meant she could believe anything she was told. Therefore, she would surely give up researching the paranormal and anything related to it if he planted the underlying doubt that none of it actually existed in her mind. It was perfect.

Yes, he was deceiving her. Yes, he was setting a terrible example for her but what else was he supposed to do? She wouldn't give up unless he made her believe the paranormal didn't exist. Lying was the only way to keep her from discovering he was Plasmius.

He looked up from his dinner plate, a deceitful smirk settled on his lips as he stared at his unwitting daughter across from him. Of course, Plasmius had to be involved to solve this issue; after all, he started it.

"Elizabeth?" he called, holding his fork above his vegetables and smiling at his daughter when she glanced up at him, "There's something I need to discuss with you. I'm afraid it's rather concerning."

As he expected, she sunk down in her seat and frowned, possibly going through the several different scenarios of what he was about to bring up in her mind. "What is it, Dad?" she asked, it hardly audible from how soft her voice was.

"What have you been up to lately?" He pierced a piece of broccoli with his fork then picked it up and pointed it at her. "I've noticed you've been rather secretive."

"'Secretive'?" She picked up her glass of water, the cup trembling in her hand which caused him to smirk at how nervous this conversation was making her. "I haven't been doing anything 'secretive'."

Oh, he doubted that.

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Elizabeth's POV:

"I haven't been doing anything 'secretive'." She glanced back over at him, scrunching her eyebrows in confusion at the strange smirk stretched across his lips; it wasn't out of amusement, she could tell, so what emotion was evoked by it?

If she had to guess, it was probably served for manipulation or deceit. But, that wasn't like him, was it? He wasn't technically her father so perhaps there was more to him than she originally knew?

No, that couldn't be true. He was probably just trying out a new technique to get her into confessing the secret she was keeping from him. That had to be it. But, what should she do about it? She was keeping a secret from him, and she hated doing that, so perhaps she should confess?

But, he did keep her adoption a secret from her though. She knew she shouldn't justify that to the secret she was keeping from him, but that was a very important secret; Plasmius was equally as important. Besides, her father lied to her her whole life so why couldn't she keep Plasmius a secret for a while?

She pursed her lips then glanced over at the semi-cold glass of water that was practically shaking in her grip and set it back down, smirking in triumph when he frowned. If this was a new manipulative technique, he was going down.

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Vlad's POV:

When she set her glass down, he instantly frowned. Was she actually succeeding in resisting Plasmius' interrogation techniques? His smirk, his manipulative voice, and his menacing blue eyes weren't enough to draw the confession out of her?

His heart swelled with pride as he softly stared at his little girl; instead of the weak and pathetic person he was when he was a child, she chose to become the strong and courageous child he hoped she would be. He couldn't be more proud.

But he still had to manipulate her into confessing. He raised a skeptical brow. "Is that so?"

The smirk on her lips widened, and she nodded. "Yes. You know I wouldn't keep anything from you." She picked up her fork and knife then started cutting her steak into smaller pieces. "Especially if it was something as important as my adoption."

Oh, brownie bites. He knew she would play that card eventually, but he wasn't expecting for her to use it on him so soon. "Elizabeth, you know I kept your adoption a secret for a reason, don't you?"

"Oh, I know." She placed a piece of steak in her mouth, chewed it, then swallowed it before speaking again. "You just wanted to protect me, right? To prevent me from questioning why I was given up or what could have been if I wasn't adopted, correct?"

He blinked a few times, surprised by her knowledgeable assumption; she really was more psychologically older than her age. "Yes," he drawled out, unsure of how else to answer.

Without looking up at him, she picked up her glass, it steady in her small hands. "Good. Then you understand that I understand why you keep secrets from me, right?"

He scrunched his eyebrows together in confusion; where was she going with this? "Yes."

She took a sip from her glass of water then set it back down. "And you understand that I respect that you keep secrets from me, correct?"

Now, he was really confused. "Elizabeth, where are you going with this?"

She shrugged casually and finally looked up at him. "All I'm saying is that I understand and respect that you keep secrets from me." She smiled softly and tilted her head to the side, reminding him of how young she truly was. "Can't you respect my privacy as well, especially if you believe that I am keeping something from you?"

He blinked a few times, in shock of the point his daughter had just stated. It was, as much as he hated to admit it, rather fair. He should respect her privacy and trust that the secrets she kept from him weren't anything more than a silly belief in Plasmius.

Plus, she was nine. She was far too young for mostly everything. What kind of horrid secrets could she keep from him without him knowing about it at that age?

He was just overreacting, he knew then. Her interest in Plasmius would soon fade out within a month or two, he was sure of it. It wasn't like any other interests she had that weren't related to his lasted that long anyway. This phase would soon end.

Besides, even if the phase lasted longer than two months, how could she possibly find anything related to Plasmius when there was no information about him to be found?

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Elizabeth's POV:

As soon as her Dad closed her bedroom door after tucking her in, she immediately crawled over to the side of her bed and slowly climbed down from it. Softly landing on her feet, she bent over and squinted as she eyed the door, watching her father's shadow disappear from underneath it. Once the hall lights were off and her father started descending the staircase, she smiled and hurried over to her closet then took out a scrapbook Molly bought her, relieved it wasn't found.

Hurrying back over to her bed, she climbed on top of it, grabbed her flashlight from the nightstand then opened it. She flipped to the fourth page and reread the article she cut out from her father's newspaper; he would have never noticed it missing anyway. Because Halloween was approaching in a few days, the newspaper company allowed an article on the most recently discovered haunted mansion in Wisconsin to be printed.

Even though there was doubt lingering in the back of her mind, she believed he lived there.

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Author's note: Hey, beautiful people! Looks like Elizabeth was able to defeat her father and keep her secret of Plasmius from coming out, and Vlad believes this is one of Elizabeth's phases. What did you all think? Let me know what you thought of the chapter through review! As always, constructive criticism is welcomed and appreciated! :)

Fun Fact: Elizabeth doesn't really have the same interests as her father; she pretends that she does because she wants to stay close to him. :)