Deception | Scarlett Johansson x Daughter

1 | Rain.

Outside the small book store, the rain was falling in big clots from the dark sky, hitting the ground and splashing up on the people who walked by. The wet paving stone almost glittered if Andie looked hard enough. She squinted her eyes and tried to make the dirty stone look clean and polished, because if you looked hard enough, even the dirtiest and roughest could get the chance to shine.

Andie loved the rain, she loved the sound it made when it splashed against the roof and how it made everything look cozy. She would say her life was one big rain shower, the water getting in everywhere and getting everyone soaked. But maybe she was the rain though and everyone else was just the city she passed as the wind moved her from place to place. She watched as the rain stopped and the sky cleared up. The water coloured world now glittering in the fresh sunlight.

"Miss, do you need help with anything?" A shop assistant asked.

It was an older woman with wrinkles that was etched into her face when she smiled and grey streaks in her otherwise brown wavy hair.

"No thank you, I'm just looking around" Andie lied, forcing a smile on to her pink lips and tucking her auburn hair behind her ear.

"Okay, well if you do need any help I'm somewhere in here" the woman chuckled and turned to walk away.

Even though she loved this little hidden bookstore in New York, Andie had other motives than buying books this particular Saturday morning. A letter in her mailbox that asked her to come to this bookstore for a meeting. A meeting that her dad would never agree to. A meeting with someone who was supposed to be long gone.

"Andrea?" A voice chimed behind her, making Andie snap her head around to search for the voice.

A blonde woman in her late thirties was walking towards her dressed in a grey coat paired with black boots and blue jeans. She had a purse over her right shoulder and a warm smile on her plump lips.

"Scarlett?" Andie asked, just to make sure.

Of course she knew who she was, the Scarlett Johansson that was best known for playing the role of Natasha Romanoff. Andie had taken some time to research her the evening before, to try and shed some light on who she was dealing with.

"That's me" Scarlett chuckled and somehow smiled even bigger.

Not sure what to say, Andie put her hands in the back pockets of her jeans and returned her smile.

"It's really nice to finally meet you, even though it's in such a peculiar place" Scarlett referred to the book store, looking around at the pink and green shelves matched with a blue floor and white furniture.

"It's nice to meet you too." Andie scraped her foot behind her and let her gaze fall to the floor.

"Are you ready to go for our walk?" Scarlett asked, making Andie bring up her eyes back on her.

"Sure."

They made their way out off the small bookstore towards Central Park and somehow Andie couldn't find the words to say what she wanted to say.

"First off" she forced herself to say. "No one calls me Andrea, I'm Andie."

Andie tried on a smile to soften her statement.

"Okay, good to know" Scarlett smiled.

"So what do you like to do in your spare time?" The woman asked.

"I love to write poetry and paint" Andie responded and took in the beauty of the park.

The big oak trees and the gravel roads was the thing Andie loved the most with the park. Their texture that made them so fun to paint, how their colours that shifted, creating dimension on the canvas

"Oo, can I see?" Scarlett's question stumped Andie because she wasn't used to people being interested in her art.

"Yeah sure" she said, pulling up her phone from her pocket and clicking on to the picture app.

After scrolling for a few seconds she handed the phone to Scarlett and waited as she silently took them in.

"These are beautiful Andie" she smiled and handed back Andies cracked iPhone 8.

"Thank you" Andie couldn't stop herself from smiling.

She wasn't used to someone praising her so she didn't know how to react.

Andie had found her birth certificate along with a few letters in the attic last week and that's how she had discovered the name of her mother. Her father, Evan Jones, would always ignore Andies questions about her mother so after a few years Andie had given up. They had lived in Hartford all Andies life but for some dumb reason she was forbidden from going to New York, even though it only was a short drive to get there. So here she was, meeting a woman her dad didn't want to talk about in a city he didn't want her in.

"I found your letters last week." Andie confessed as they walked.

Scarlett seemed surprised, turning around to look at her.

"So you mean that you haven't seen them before?" It wasn't a question, but Scarlett made it one.

"I didn't even know your name" Andie shrugged and watched as the woman's face fell in to a frown.

"All this time" she sighed. "I thought you just didn't want to see me."

"I've asked about you for as long as I can remember" Andie sighed, kicking the dirt as they walked along a gravel road.

Scarlett was silent for a while and Andie could almost hear her thinking.

"So you didn't get my letters?" Scarlett finally said.

"No" Andie shrugged.

Scarlett let out a breath before sitting down on a bench close by.

"Ever time I sent you a letter, your dad would call to say that you didn't want to talk to me" Scarlett clasped her hands in her lap and dropped her eyes down on the ground.

Andie sighed as the realisation hit her. Her dad didn't want them to meet.

"I'm guessing he doesn't know that you're here either?" Scarlett smirked and looked over at Andie.

"Nope, I'm not even allowed to go to New York" Andie admitted, crossing her legs and leaning back on the bench.

They sat in silence as they thought, when suddenly Scarlett grabbed Andies hand and held it in hers.

"I'm gonna try to put this right" she said. "If that's what you want then?"

Andie nodded, not sure what that meant. She had always wanted a mother figure and yes, her dad did have a few girlfriends over the years but never someone that stuck. Her favourite was his first serious one, she'd watch sitcoms with Andie when she couldn't sleep and held her through thunderstorms.

When she had searched through their attic last week to find some spring decorations, Andie had stumbled on a box that she'd never seen before. It was old looking and very dusty so, curious as she was, she snuck it downstairs and hid it in her room. Inside was her birth certificate along with around sixteen letters, all dated on her birthday sent from Scarlett. The weirdest part was when she compared the name on the letters with the woman on her birth certificate they matched. Andie, of course, put the box back but she kept the letters and stayed up all night reading them. This Scarlett person talked about how much she missed her and how big she must've been now and how she hoped that Andie would respond. 'I'm sorry' was a phrase she used often too, not that she had anything to apologise for.

"I'd like that" Andie told Scarlett and turned to meet her eyes. "I'm tired of getting lied to."

"Okay."

—

Okay so first chapter eeeeeee!! Idk honestly I don't really like my writing in this so yeah.

This chapter is quite short too, but the other ones I've written are longer! :))