A Broken Fate
Page 46
Chapter 21
Bad Decision
Sixteen hours on a plane may as well be an eternity for a three-year-old. We were only two hours into the flight home when Max started to get bored and restless. Aggie, a mom after all, had thought ahead and planned for the long flight. At a moment in the trip that might have seen Max in a major meltdown, she pulled from her carry-on a tote bag full of crayons and coloring books, storybooks and puppets, little race cars and trucks she had found in the airport shops. She entertained us both with a little puppet show and then gave Max a turn to play out a story of his own. I laughed until my stomach muscles started to complain. Aggie’s animation and Max’s little-boy enthusiasm gave life to the little plays and when Max was ready to settle down, he had pictures to color and little books to look at. Aggie’s gift for soothing him made me think of all the cute projects she must have shared with Ari when he was little.
Once Max started to get sleepy, I put some PBS cartoons on my iPad. He took to them immediately and very shortly after, he fell asleep.
“Ava?” Aggie said quietly.
“Hmm?” I asked shutting my eyes and leaning my head back on the seat.
“How are you going to do this?”
“What do you mean? Do what?”
“Well,” she started, “I mean, how are you going to make living with Max work? You have a house full of people living with you. You are newly married. And you scream all night long in your sleep. Max can’t stay in your room, surely you see that. And you are busy, sweetheart; you have a very full plate right now and parts of that plate are scary and threatening. You have to figure out your issues with Margaux. Max isn’t safe as long as that last Kakos is out there.”
I placed my head on her shoulder, “I don’t know what to do, Aggie. What choice do I have?”
Just weeks ago, Aggie had been pressing Ari to start a family and there she was, telling me I’m not ready for a child. Her signals were full of contradictions, that was for sure.
“Here is what I am thinking, Baby. Let Andy and me take Max,” she said cautiously, as though she were afraid of my response.
Her proposal completely floored me. I furrowed my brow and frowned. My emotions rebelled against the idea but my serious side saw the wisdom of her idea. Still I felt asking Aggie and Andy to take Max would be placing a burden on them.
“Aggie, I can’t expect you to drop what you’re doing to take on my responsibility. I can’t push Max off on you.”
“My kids are grown. They don’t need me anymore and you aren’t pushing anything off on me. I know you would never do that. I want this. I want to take care of Max.” Her sentences were careful and full of conviction.
I looked her in the eye, then looked down at Max. His little head was nestled into a pillow on Aggie’s lap. I could tell she was serious. In fact, I could tell she was more than serious. Her heart was already involved.
I pushed back my emotions.
“Um, ok,” I said nodding my head. “I can tell he already loves you.” Saying the words aloud hurt and I immediately regretted my decision. I think my heart may have been involved already as well. She was right, though. Max would probably be safer and more emotionally stable if he stayed away from me – stayed safe. I knew not to allow Max into my life considering that my time left on earth was at the mercy of No. 7.
“Thank you, Ava,” she said as she wiped a tear from her eye.
“I think Ari is going to be disappointed though; he was pretty excited about having Max.”
“I know, I know,” she said quietly while softly rubbing my cheek, “but you and Ari will be right next door; you’ll see him every day. And you will give Ari his own baby one day.”
I couldn’t respond to her. I put my head back against the headrest, closed my eyes and stayed that way until we landed.