For the last thirty days, I’ve tried my hardest to keep her off my mind. Trying not to look at her, think about her, and certainly not to touch her.

She’s too young, too innocent, my little maid. But there’s no logic in the world that can convince me to avoid doing what I’ve needed to do since first laying eyes on her.

Make. Her. Mine.

As much as my need is primal, there’s clearly another part that extends well beyond that.

Something that’s been missing…something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Until now. Until her. Until the word, daddy spills from my lips.

And Daddy is most certainly what I am meant to be for my little girl.

Forever.


I shouldn’t want her. My life is way too dangerous, she’s much too young, and the cherry on top is the fact that this is my best friend’s daughter. But my feral need for her reminds me that there’s no way I can even try to rationalize not pursuing my dream, my desire, my everything, her. I can protect her from the illegal activities her dad and I are involved in. Hell, I already do.   I know she’s untouched because I’ve made sure of it.   I can be her protector and her Daddy. I can teach her all the lessons her father never did and much, much more.   She will be mine. Daddy’s little girl.

I feel a surge of heat rush through me at the sight of her.   Jewel, her name tag reads.   There’s a reason I come here every day, making sure there are no other little boys her age looking at my Jewel. Making sure everyone around here knows who she belongs too.   Even if I’m too old for her, and forty-one is way too old for an eighteen-year old, as I keep reminding myself, I still need to be here. To protect her. To watch over her. To be here just in case.   She’s the light to my darkness, the smile that can give my scowl balance, and more accurately wipe it from my face forever.   I don’t care if she deserves better than me, it’s me she’s going to get. No other is ever going to lay a hand on her. No one will take her from me.   She’s my little Jewel and I’m her Daddy. Forever

She’s a once in a lifetime. And no one like her has ever walked into my shop in the twenty years I’ve been in business, which is probably longer than she’s been alive.I’ve yet to see this girl in the flesh, to lean in and smell her hair, to run my calloused digits across her smooth skin. Nothing. But I already know she’s everything. Girls like her don’t walk in and try to buy handguns, especially with a fake ID, unless they’re in trouble. And something has come over me, that tells me I have to protect this little one.Protect her. Keep her safe. Be her…Daddy. That word, this feeling that I’ve never felt before, has a grip over me so hard I don’t even understand it. It’s like something that’s been buried inside me for a lifetime has finally woken up, been called from a lifetime of hibernation. For the first time in my life, I know my purpose, and I know exactly who that purpose revolves around. My Destiny. My Little girl. She came into my world, flipped it completely upside down, and I’ll never be the same without her as mine.I am her destiny and she is mine.

Nobody really seems to get me and I remind myself that all I need to do is get through this last semester and I’ll be a high school graduate, and combined with my eighteen years of age that means I’m free to do what I want. Unfortunately, my parents want me to go to college, or at least that’s what they say. But what they really mean is they want me gone. Pronto. I love to write, draw, and more than anything, get mail. That being the case maybe this assignment for my psychology class will be a blessing in disguise. But I made a mistake and it resulted in an inmate receiving my letter. A convicted felon. He seems…not like I’d expect an inmate to seem. Something about him seems more genuine, caring, and tolerant than anyone in my life.He understands me and doesn’t want to change me, and calls me his little one. I need to do this for my school project in order to graduate, right? That’s what I’m telling myself at least, but I know that this is so much more. Dear Daddy, come for your princess and make her your queen.