"Is Rudi Santoso inside?" Renessa asked calmly.
"He was not at home, miss. You can leave a message or come back later when he gets home," the man offered.
"Can I go in and wait inside? I need to see him," Renessa persuaded the man. She understood this man did not recognize her as one of the owners of the house because she had been away for too long. She also felt so tired and wanted to rest after a long flight. She refused to wait in other places and wanted to get inside right now.
She initially wanted to tell the security guard that she was one of the owners of the house but she could already guess that this security guard might not believe her. The shabby clothes she used right now made her look more like a busker than one of the residents of this elite complex.
Before coming home, Renessa had contacted Rosalin, an old maid who was still working at her house. She just got the maid's phone number from Jefri, a friend of her late mother who had been looking for her whereabouts all this time.
The maid bursted into tears when Renessa told the maid who she was. The woman was so happy that she was finally able to speak to Renessa again. She had thought that Renessa might have been dumped by her father somewhere and had died but they couldn't do anything about it since they have no proof.
According to Rosalin's story, almost all the maids in the house had quit and were replaced with new ones. The only people who could recognize her in this house besides his father were Rosalin and Kano, the sickly old gardener.
Her father didn't tell anyone that he sent Renessa to a boarding school abroad. If someone asked, he would answer that Renessa was staying at a distant relative's house because she felt depressed by the memories of her late mother when she lived in that house. Gradually, memories of Rudi Santoso and Claudia Pratama's daughter began to fade in everyone's memory.
"You can contact sir Rudi first and if he allows you, I will let you in," the security guard said calmly, but Renessa could catch the accusation from his tone. She appeared like a fraud in the security guard's eyes.
Renessa sighed. Her father had probably forgotten her existence. She had tried to contact her father while living in the dormitory. At first, she tried to create a problem, but when she realized that the one that would come was not her father, but Shinta, she stopped creating the problem. Then as she grew older, she started to find information about her father on the internet. She did not get the private number, but when she called the company number, no one believed her. They thought that it was a prank call.
In the end, when she finally got her father's number, the man never picked up her phone calls and totally ignored her messages.
In the end, when she finally got her father's number, the man never picked up her phone calls and totally ignored her messages. A month later when she tried to contact him again, she just could not reach the number anymore. Uncle Jeff gave her Rudi's phone number the last time they met, but she was not that brave to experience the same rejection in the past.
"Then I would wait until he came," Renessa said in a final tone.
The last time she saw her father in person was when she was left in the hotel room 11 years ago. His father, who never looked at her or tried to approach her, visited her room that night.
"You want me to love you and be a dutiful daughter to your parents, right?" the man asked coldly.
Renessa was stunned. Her father never initiates a talk with her. It was either he gave her a cold shoulder or he would look at her with sinister eyes. She was surprised that she was speechless. It was happiness and disbelief.
"Is she deaf or just dumb?" the man asked Rosaline who was in the room with Renessa
"I want it. I can be a dutiful daughter," Renessa answered loudly as she nodded vigorously at her father's question. She would do whatever her father wanted her to. She was so happy that her father approached her first and even initiated to talk to her. Usually, the man treats her like air and ignores her existence.
"If you want me to love you, you have to listen to everything I say. If you are naughty and do not listen to my word, I will hate you forever," her father said coldly, making Renessa shudder for a moment. Just thinking that her father would hate her made her want to cry. It was a nightmare.
Renessa looked up to her father and repeated his words, "You will love me if I listen to your words?"
Rudi sighed in frustration then nodded his head.
The innocent Renessa nodded excitedly after that. Her eyes sparkled when she finally understood her father's offer. She always hoped that her father would like her, but her father always avoided her all the time like her whole body was covered with germs.
The happiness bloomed in her heart as she imagined her father hugging her tightly in his arms, kissing her at night as her grandpa did, and even attending a parent's meeting in her school.
She was too desperate for her father's love that she would do anything he wanted.
Hearing Renessa's approval, Rudi immediately asked Rosalin, who was in Renessa's room to pack some of Renessa's clothes and put them in a small suitcase. Rosalin had a bad feeling, but she tried to shake off the thought. There's no way her employee would hurt his daughter.
Renessa still remembers her bubbling happiness when her father took her somewhere. She didn't care about anything. The most important thing was that her father would love her after this. She often felt jealous when her friends at school began to tell her how their father loved and pampered them. Now, she no longer needed to feel that way because her father would love her like all her friends. She just needed to be a good girl and she was good at it. Her teacher often praised her and said that she was a good girl.
Rudi then took Renessa in his car and took Renessa to a luxury hotel. Renessa couldn't feel anything but happiness when her father grabbed her hand while entering the place. Her father never held her hand before. Grabbing her father's hand for the first time made her father's offer start to become a reality. They stopped in front of a room on the 19th floor as an elderly woman opened the door.
"I thought you wouldn't have time to take care of everything," said the woman when she saw Rudi's face.
"Get inside and wait for me," said Rudi coldly, letting go of Renessa's hand. Renessa's face turned somber. She still wanted to hold her father's hand. But fearing that her father might hate her for not listening to him, Renessa quickly walked inside the hotel room. Her curious eyes looked around the room.
She wanted to explore the room, but she also did not want to stay too far from her father.