For My Daughter

Chapter One

The day is a Friday and the time is one in the late afternoon when we see Troy Miller walking around in the offices of the corporation which represents his life's work, it was this small business; inherited from his father which he built up in to the multimillion dollar corporation it is today and how grand it felt. This only Mr. Miller was aware of as he looked about the place which surrounded him with elegant furnishings that included sofas, desks, lamps and above all computers; holding all the information regarding the sum of Mr. Miller's assets, from stock in other corporations to real estate.

This corporation was Troy Miller's pride and joy and as he looked at it, it seemed to him that he was doing so for the first time, as he had never really taken the time to see all that he had accomplished and how strange it should be that the first time he did so would be the last as he had made up his mind to leave this world that very evening and what better place to do so than where he had spent most of his life. In a way it even struck him as funny now that he knew that he was looking at it all for what would be the last time, it even seemed to him that every piece of that furniture had a history behind it; as if it were more than just an item but a part of his life.

Of course unlike the furniture, all his employees given the late hour had gone home for what would be a long weekend; that group of men and women who under his leadership had been so crucial in helping develop his company were also that which though out of sight occupied his mind as he bid farewell to the business which he had dedicated most of his life to. This for better or for worse had been all his life included that saw him contribute sixteen hours a day to, sometimes at a rate of seven days a week; was soon going to be behind as he soon would be dead. Also strangely enough in all this, it was then as he made his way over to his office, where he had decided would be the place he would take the tablet which would put him out of this world that he for the first time felt pride. His feeling of grandeur however was not one of having created all he had and owned but that he was going to be able to leave it to his daughter, Tiffany and the child of his, her womb was expecting.

As for Troy Miller, himself he was a man who at the age of the half century mark was what for the most part could be considered middle aged with a body that was rather on the short side as he stood at an unimpressive 160 centimeters and weighed at for what his height would have been a rather plump 70 kilos. Looks wise several would say that his was a face that in all honesty only a mother could love, though kinder opinions would simply say that he was just not what most would consider handsome. This being the case since his facial features were not really what most admired as his eyes though nice in their emerald green were small in size and were made to look more so when one saw them behind his nose which apart from being overly large was crooked in how it went in all directions. As for the rest of his small round face that include an average size forehead with a mouth and a pair ears that were so plain that almost went unnoticed, it was something that was not really pleasant to look at for the most part as it gave Troy, the look of someone who was of extremely devious ways even if the appearance was misleading.

Personality wise it could also be said that he really did not have much of one as he was not one who did a lot of talking, for the most part preferring to husband his speaking till he had either something which he considered either interesting or important to say as he for the most part was a quiet man who many would say was also boring. However it was in this unassuming persona that he was a careful observant; both of people's nature and character as well as all the things that went on all around him. Characteristics such as being one who worked extremely hard apart from being persistent to the point of almost not knowing what it meant to surrender; were other attributes in him that helped to make him an overachiever despite not being what some would hail as a man of a brilliant mind. However among his strong points he also had the common sense to know his weak ones. Troy one could say without much room for doubt knew himself not to be overly intelligent in any form of the word so it was with the acceptance of this that he worked on his strong points. One them being the ability to find the right person for the right job and the one that allowed him to put aside his pride and compromise when a situation called for it.

After looking over the place for the last time and knowing it was all going to go to his daughter's and mother of his second child, he went to his private office and sat down to take that final step which would see him exit this world to the place which in his mind would be complete oblivion. Nothingness would follow as his faith was one that gave no creed what so ever to even the most remote possibility that a superior force might exist or any kind of an afterlife for that matter. He was an absolute atheist whose only believe was in that which he could see, buy and sell and nothing else, so it was not with worries of weather he be heading to heaven or hell that he would be departing. The next stop for him which he was going to take with the help of that slow acting poison that would make it seem to all that his was not a suicide but a heart attack was a place where he would know and feel nothing as all that he was; his senses would have been eliminated as he would simply go nowhere but complete and total nothingness. This is what he wanted for himself and this is what his mind held no doubt would come just like death would after he took the poison, he had been told would surely send him where he wished to be.

With regards to the way he had planed his suicide, this like everything in his life and business he had done so extremely carefully, taking almost every step in to consideration; such as doing it in his office on a Friday, a place he knew no one would come back to till after the long weekend was up which would be on Tuesday. He had bought a poison from a doctor at an almost exuberant price that would make it appear that he had been the victim of a heart attack and though he knew and cared not about the name of this poison, it was one that would not be found during the autopsy unless the person performing it was told to look for it. In his planning he had even told all those who knew him that he wanted to spend the long weekend alone in his upstate cabin fishing, this being something he had done on many on occasion when he simply wanted to get away from it all, though this time he would be getting away in different manner.

As he took the pill, which he knew would kill him, joyful did he become knowing that all he had done and worked so hard to achieve would not be lost to him, true he could not take it with him not that he would have done so even if he had been able to; for he needed it more than ever to leave to the only woman he had ever loved. Tiffany who was expecting his baby would get all of it, this by itself would have been cause for him to die in happiness but added to this was the fact that he was leaving her to her mother's loving care, whom he knew would take great care of her in his absence.

Troy naturally would have been arrested had there been evidence which there was not but in all this an investigation in to Tiffany's pregnancy had been started. DNA tests would be performed on Tiffany's fetus which would only serve to verify that Tiffany's child was Troy's. Naturally in all this affair which would prove incest had taken place, Tiffany would also be blamed for she was no longer a minor at the time their affair had come to light even if she had been one when it started.

A DNA test had already been ordered by a judge and it would be the following week that it would be confirmed that this child which Tiffany was expecting was his and only his but it was not fear of the results that prompted Troy to the decision he had already taken but another. There was another fear in him that was bigger than death, or prison or even loosing all he had and that being the one that would see him disappoint or hurt Tiffany in any way, shape or form as she believed him to be her loving father and that is the way it had to be and would be. This he had even promised his Chinese wife, Gong who had given birth to Tiffany that is how it would always be. So much would be exposed if his case should go to trial that he feared it more than even the death that would be coming soon now that he had taken the poison and sat in his desk ready, not so much to leave the world as in his believe he would be going nowhere but be eliminated totally.

Many may be of the opinion that suicide is the act of the coward who has not the courage to face life and to a certain extent there is a lot of truth to be found in that statement but is that always the case? Hannibal, for instance who was and still is considered one of the greatest military commanders of all times chose to end his life in this manner rather than face capture by his foes, the Romans. In this one could also give the example of Erwin Rommel (the desert fox), one of Germany's greatest field marshals during World War II; who after it was discovered he knew about a plan to assassinate Adolf Hitler said nothing and therefore was given a choice. A choice which came in a letter that presented him with two options. The first of which being to take the synod capsule included in the letter and by virtue of which his actions would not be considered as treason and his widow would receive the full pension of a German field marshal along with guarantees that there would be no actions taken against any other member of his family. Of course this was an offer which he could have refused but his other option was to stand trial for treason which with all the evidence staked against him, he was sure to loose after which he would have been dishonorably discharged from the German military and sentenced to death by hanging. For what concerned Rommel either choice amounted to the same though for his family the second choice would have led to loosing not only a field marshal's pension but the disgrace of a public trial for treason. Rommel, as those who studied the history of World War II are aware of took the first option of suicide which guaranteed him that his family would not be implicated in the failed attempt to assassinate the Fuehrer.

Did Rommel do the right thing? Was he a coward for having opted suicide over a trial which there was no way he would have won, that would have seen his family not only loose a large pension but disgraced in public? This is a question that I would answer in the negative but then again this like many other questions has no right or wrong answer for that matter, just different points of view. In many ways Troy Miller considered his choices to be like Rommel's, he could live on but that way, he would be arrested and made to stand trial for incest which there was no doubt that he was guilty of or was he really? Yes, the child Tiffany was expecting was his and this there was no doubt about and she was his daughter but were matters so simple? Of course, a trial would have meant a public scandal which would have meant disgrace for himself as he would have been known in the press as the man who used his daughter for sexual reasons. His company's interest would have also suffered along with exposing how Tiffany was a woman of twenty who had for the past four years been knowingly and willing engaging in illegal acts of intercourse with her own father.

The trial was inevitable and what would come as a result of it was predictable to say the least but to Troy Miller's mind there was another reason that made his suicide necessary and that was that his mission had been fulfilled. He after all had made it possible for his daughter to take over the company he was leaving behind and had even given her a child which made it that he in his mind would have to eliminate himself from the scene. He like the actor who has just finished his role should leave the stage or else risk playing the fool and ruining the spectacle not only for his fellow actors but the spectators.