"What was that?" he asked himself, kneeling down to take a look.
What he saw was a cardboard box. It was small, but heavy, as he noticed when he pulled it out.
"I wonder what this is, I haven't seen it before."
He opened it up and the thing he saw on top was a piece of paper with writing on it. Zac picked it up and realised it was a letter to him.
"Dear Zac," he read aloud. "I'll probably never give this to you, or tell you much of the stuff written here, but I couldn't just keep it all locked up inside myself. I had to write it down. First of all, I love you Zac. And I'm sorry for any hurt or pain I may have caused you. I want to thank you too. Thank you for loving me back. Thank you for marrying me and fathering my child. There were two things I always wanted to do, marry a great guy and be a mom. So, thank you for granting those wishes for me. If you're wondering about the smudges on the page it's because I've started crying. I love you Zac. And tell Hope I love her too, even though we've never really met. I'm sure you'll take good care of her. Ok, I'd better stop writing now before my tears make this totally unreadable. Love you always, Cassie."
Zac put the letter down and wiped at the tears trickling down his cheeks.
"I love you too Cassie." He whispered.
Then he looked back in the box. There was a photo album with photos spaning from their elope in LA to a couple of weeks after Hope was born. Zac found himself spending a lot of time studying every picture of Cassie.
The remaining items were just some small personal things of Cassie, and Zac found himself crying as he looked at them.
Finally, he sat back and leant against the bed, not bothering to wipe the tears away any more. And there he stayed until the tears stopped.
When they did, he got up and wandering out of his room and towards the room where Hope shared with a couple of her cousins.
Zac peeked into her crib, where Hope was fast asleep. He found himself staring at her again, but this was a little different. He was noticing how much she looked like Cassie. He felt the tears start again, and left in a hurry.
"I'm sorry Cassie. I, I, I just can't."
Rita happened to be in the hallway, and she watched him in concern as he ran from the room.
**********
"I don't know, he just looked so miserable." Rita was saying to Babsie later that day.
"He might be miserable, but Hope isn't gonna see that. All she's gonna see is the father that abandoned her just because her mother died."
Rita rolled her eyes.
"Babsie, there's a big difference between Zac and -"
"Is there? Is there really?"
"Well, for starters, Zac is here. And he is trying to, to, to accept her."
"She's his daughter. He shouldn't need to try. He should just do it."
Babsie whirled around and left the room. Rita sighed.