Valerie

by Richa Resa

  "Let's hope she listens to me first before frying me up. Give me five minutes with her alone girls. I won't like you to witness me being scolded." We all laughed at this and Shay and I stayed in his room before going out only to find them kissing.

  Shay had to cough three times to get their attention and all they did was smile at us. I had a happy family and it was still growing on.

  Chapter 31

  Valerie

  I waited for him in the cafe near my office and let me tell you it was torture. The smell of coffee was in the air and it was hard to not have it. So, I did the right thing and ordered one latte for me. I googled and even my doctor said a cup a day won't do any harm but under the watchful eye of Carmen, Shay, and dad I couldn't even have a whiff of coffee. One little sip of it was heaven for me. It had been six days since the thought of meeting him has been taking over my mind. The last I had seen him was a week before.

  Last night I had asked Aiden for his number when he came home with me. Aiden did really give me space and time. He called before even thinking of coming and he apologized times and again because of his mother showing up here. I really didn't say much about what happened between me and his mother. The only words that slipped my lips was that I didn't like her and he had promised that she won't disturb me anymore. I had called Travis and asked him to meet me at the cafe.

  There was disbelief in his voice when he heard it was me. I felt that he had cried hearing it was me. I wouldn't have the courage to call him but dad asked me day and again about Travis. Dad hadn't gone mad and haven't retrieved back to his scarred shell. He had been happy and let me tell you Carmen and his affair had been going on strong. They are happy and I'm too. A looming shadow over the table forced me to look up. Travis stood there with a gift box in his hand. There was a smile on his lips and hope in his eyes.

  "This is for you and the baby." He held out the box for me to take and with hesitant hands I took it.

  "There was no need for this," I complained but he just smiled. "Sit please," As he settled down I asked for a coffee for him while he just stared at me with happiness lurking in his eyes.

  "Thank you for this, Valerie. You don't know how much you meeting me means. Nothing compares to this." I just nodded and smiled. This small act of mine-affected someone like him so much. I just hoped that what I was going to do doesn't hurt me in future.

  "Why didn't you ever come back, Travis? You knew about my existence so why didn't come just for once." I needed to know. Ever since dad asked me to give him a chance this question has been bothering me too deeply. He was desperate to be a part of my life now but why not then. He was taken back my question. Minutes passed as people passed by us.

  "Because I didn't believe your mother."

  "Why?"

  "Six women before I met your mother tried to pass someone else's kid as mine. One of them was my wife. Each of those six times my hopes got high but after the DNA result would come up I would be left devastated. When your mother told me about you I couldn't believe her, couldn't raise my hopes and think about the disappointment and hurt of it would bring me later on. So, I decided to fly away and never look back. Your mother was married and you were three years old when your mother came to me. I thought that if you were mine your mother would have told me earlier. I just believed your mother words to be a lie and never looked back. Sometimes the thought of me being wrong about your mother crossed my mind but brain ruled over the heart. I should have looked for you maybe even go through another DNA test but I didn't. I decided not to and it has become one of my biggest regrets." His eyes couldn't meet mine anymore but I did understand now why he couldn't believe my mother. He was betrayed numerous time and hope of was lost for him.

  "How did you and mom meet?"

  "Your mother made a drunken mistake. We both did you know. I came through another DNA test, devastated to know that I wasn't the father and was drinking my pain out. Your mother wanted to get pregnant but it wasn't happening. She was tired, disappointed. She said that her husband and her were trying so long and she was just so sad and unhappy that night. We talked and then one thing led to another, feelings were shared and we ended up in a room together. When I woke the next day, your mother was already gone and I really didn't know anything about her. We were just to people who were tired and disappointed with our lives." I nodded to it but it was hard to sit there and know the past. My mom wasn't a bad woman but one mistake made her cost everything in her life. She was my mother and she fought with her pain for me until the day it became too much for her to take. She snapped under the pain and unhappiness she suffered.

  "Do you know that my mother killed herself, Travis? Overdosed on her sleeping pills, slit her wrist too, while I was out in the school." A look of shock and regret passed in Travis's Eyes. He was stunned.

  "I. ..never knew." a tremble in his voice.

  "When my father came to know that I wasn't his he decided to hurt my mother by having affairs and dangling them in front of her. My mother loved my father a lot but she understood what she had done. She knew that she had hurt him too much, betrayed him. So, she decided to not fight with dad, she fought with the pain she suffered but she didn't give up easily. Six years she lived on knowing how her husband was cheating and hurting her. She lived for me until the day it became too much to handle." Travis couldn't even look at me anymore.

  "It's my entire fault," he whispered with guilt weighing him down. Silence consumed us while Travis suffered from the things I told.

  "I don't blame anyone, Travis. Not my mom, dad, or you. The only thing I might have wanted was my mom to be alive, besides that I don't regret having anything. I want to live in the present and for my future not because of the past. Many things have happened and I really don't want anyone to go down that lane of past. I just want that chapter closed and to start a new. That is why I'm willing to give you a chance to be a part of my life and all I expect is you to not leave me and walk away again." Tears filled in his eyes as he looked at me. Deep adoration and relief swirling in them.

  "Thank you, thank..... you. Valerie," He whispered with closed eyes.

  "Just don't hurt me,"

  "I won't, never again. Even I won't let anyone hurt you, that's a promise dear." His promise didn't seem to be empty but filled with determination. If he could even fulfil half of it I was surely going lead a happy life.

  "So that's aside can you please stop with your wild days and whoring around Travis. It really isn't a good impression on your own kid." I said remembering what Laura's father said. Travis's baffled eyed looked at me.

  "I'm sorry," He asked confused.

  "Umm, Laura's father told me that you are still whoring around, like hopping from one bed to another and having wild days," I spoke slowly and clearly. Travis's eyes were blazed with anger after hearing me out.

  "I'm going to fu--" he stopped and gave me a sorry smile "freaking kill my brother. He lied to you about that Valerie maybe everything else he said. I run the business while keeping sure to keep him out of mistakes and he is just bitter because dad made me the CEO rather than him. All he said was a lie and I will make sure he understands to not to do that again." So, Laura's father was really a devil. He should have been Drew's father than Laura's. Travis was busy whisper cursing out his brother. His coffee gone cold and things settled between us.

  "Just don't end up in jail," I said making him laugh. Life was going to be good.

  **********************************.

  Two months later...................

  "Why," I questioned.

  "Why, what do you mean by why. We are just going to meet each other and Bryan called me here to meet with him, Valerie. I think we should have talked to each other months back." Dad said while standing at the entrance of the house and by dad I meant Travis. I called them both dad but this was going to be first freaking time they were going be together face to face. I have already told them if they ever were in the same room I will call them by their name rather than Dad. I ha
ven't let them meet each other until now. If you remember when Bryan met Laura's father he beat the shit out of him. I don't want a recap of that with Travis.

  "I'm having a bad feeling about this." I really was not going to tend to anyone's wound tonight. I was just going to leave them to die. I really wasn't having a great time with my pregnancy. The most bizarre foods were being eaten by me. I mean who wants Nutella with a pickle. Well me! Freaking me!

  "It's not going to be anything bad," Travis assured but I wasn't believing it. Leaving him there I went towards Bryan's room.

  "Why are you doing this?" I asked him as he combed his hair.

  "Because some things are needed to be done." His reply just annoyed me.

  "But why? Aren't we all a happy family right at the moment. A big family so why disturb it?" I prayed to god that Travis was called in the office or Bryan was called back at his restaurant. Oh yeah Bryan opened a restaurant a month back. It was still in baby phase but was going well. However, I was in a phase of hating his restaurant because I wasn't allowed to eat many things with Carmen and everyone around. Health conscious people were not so my favourite but there was one person I used to like the most who was due to come anytime now.

  "We are a big happy family Val, but some things have been left aside for a lot of time and now it's time to clear them out. We have to do it someday. Travis and I need to make some peace now before our grandchild is born. So be a good child and take care of the grandbaby while we sort things out like adults." He said kissing my forehead. I just didn't like that.

  "If any of you hit each other and come back injured I'm going to stab you both!" I yelled as he left. All he did was, laugh on his way out. I just wanted a peaceful day after coming from work well looks like I wasn't having it. Being all alone in the house I just did what relieved me. I cleaned the house. Thoroughly. Mark those words and after that like a good kid waited for my angel and saviour to come.

  ********************************

  As the doorbell rang happiness surged inside of me. At last, my angel came. Opening the door my whole concentration was on the packets in his hand rather than on him. Taking the packets for him I just went inside straight to the kitchen without a hello or anything. I just wanted to devour what was inside that packet before Carmen or Shay caught me. Carmen would literally fry me if she knew that I was busy eating fried mozzarella sticks that too with a vanilla chocolate smoothie. I heard the door close and him coming to the kitchen. This had become a norm, I would rush to the kitchen with the food and set each of us with a plate, mine always had a little a more than his. Whatever I ate, he had to eat that too, it was a part in a way for him to become the part of my pregnancy.

  As I looked up there he stood smiling at me with flowers in his other hand. Today they were yellow roses and they were arranged beautifully. I smiled at him and took them away to put in a vase but not before placing a kiss on his cheek. I couldn't bring myself to kiss him on the lips, couldn't let him in my heart that easily. I treated him as just like a friend. Aiden never complained because he knew it well what he had done. He was satisfied with what I gave him but I could see the longing in those eyes for more. At times I would think of caving in but then Laura would pop in my mind with his mother and I would clearly realize that I wasn't the woman that he had wanted in life.

  "Thank you for the flowers and the food, Aiden. Why don't you take the plates to the living room I will just join you in a minute after watering these flowers." He looked tired today and somehow it felt like he had a bad day.

  "How about you take them and let me do it. I know where the vases are and I will water them before putting them on the table." I agreed with him because now I was totally sure that he hasn't had a good day. I could hear the tiredness in his voice. Nodding to him I placed everything on a tray and took it into the living room. I so wasn't going to make two rounds. I could find myself becoming lazy nowadays. I switched on the TV and got comfy. Aiden joined me a few minutes later. I was already devouring the smoothie and the mozzarella sticks. I was so busy in my food and TV that I didn't realize that Aiden wasn't eating anything. He was just looking at the TV with a disinterested look.

  "What happened?" I asked between bites of my food.

  "Nothing," his reply came and I was sure that there was something fishy here. I finished my food before pondering him for answers. Though I was eating I kept an eye on him. He wasn't the usual Aiden that has greeted me for last two months. As I set down my empty plate I turned off the TV and looked at him. His eyes turned to me and I saw unhappiness and defeat in his eyes. It felt like he was on the verge of crying.

  "What happened Aiden?" My voice low and serious. "Please don't tell me it is nothing because I can see it in your eyes that something is bothering your eyes so you better start speaking or I have my ways to make you speak." His lips turned up a bit at my last words. He turned his eyes away from me and laid his head back on the couch and closed his eyes, breathing in a heavy sigh he started talking.

  "Mom dropped at the office today. She demanded me when I was marrying you. I told her that it was none of her business and she went ballistic on me telling me it wasn't the way I should speak to her and all." I still hated that woman. Travis had made sure that she would leave me alone; he had even cut his connections with her. Aiden had tried to do the same but she was his mother and it was hard for him. I didn't even want him to do that just for me anyway. He had a mother, and maybe she was mean and self-centred a bit, but I would never want to separate any son from his mother.

  "Then she said that if we weren't getting together and marrying then I should marry Laura. I was stunned by what she was saying." Well, forget about what I was talking before. This woman was crazy and needed to be put in a mental facility. Who says shit like that to their son?

  "She went on and on about how I was being the bad guy by ignoring, Laura. I hadn't been talking to her and not being a good friend. She said we were destined to be together and Laura and I should marry soon and then she added that once we got married I could apply for full custody of our child." I was stunned and everything went blank for me then and there. Here, I was taking a mother's side just a while back thinking that no son should be separated from their mother. I didn't want to do that to her. I was freaking being a good person and then she was there plotting to take my child away from me. I saw red and only red. If she ever ended up in front of me I would freaking give her face a new look.

  "I shouted her to get out of there right that second or I was going to have security escort her out. She said that she would leave on her own and I should think about it adding that I could have it all. Her words enraged me and I told her to fuck off, that I wasn't her son anymore and get the hell out of my life. She was stunned at how I spoke with her and she left out of there in tears saying that dad wouldn't have been proud of how I reacted today." I looked at Aiden, a tear escaped from under his eye and before I could say anything he was crying. He sat straight and looked at me with tear filled eyes.

  "I promised to my dad that I would always listen to her and keep her happy. I had never raised my voice at her, always reasoned with her calmly but today I lost it, Val. It hurt seeing her crying like that and her words did hurt me. I had done everything she and dad wanted. I took his business to new levels, built an empire so they could be proud of me." Tears streamed down his cheeks making myself cry. I didn't have a reason to cry but seeing him like that made me cry. Blame it on hormones.

  "I begged her a few weeks back to please not to interfere in my personal life. All I had asked for was one thing and she couldn't give me even that when I had given her everything she had wanted from me. I had one request and she couldn't follow that. I lost it right there, Val, and said those mean words to her. It wasn't my intention to hurt her but it just happened." He sobbed and something broke in me. Before I could understand I was crawling towards him to his lap and hugging him.

  "I never meant to hurt her, Val. I didn't mean to break my promise to my, Dad."
He sobbed and I held him close and my own tears running down my cheeks.

  "It's going to be alright Aiden," I said rubbing his back. He cried more at this.

  "I feel like I lost my mother today, Val, I feel as if I had become an orphan. I have no one left." He wept in my arms and it broke me seeing him like this.

  "Don't say things.... like that Aiden. Everything... will be alright." I said between my own cries. "And you have me and our baby. You are not alone." I tried to console him but nothing worked.

  "Aiden, please stop crying baby." I cooed. "Look at me please." He brought his head and looked at me and those tears filled red eyes hurt me.

  "I'm here for you and you are not alone. You will never be. You have Travis, me, and our baby and there is even Shay, Carmen, and Dad. You will never be alone and you aren't an orphan. You and your mother had a bad fight. I know she was wrong and her words pushed you to edge but I'm sure everything will turn out good with time. So, don't cry please because you are making me cry too and I'm hormonal and I hate crying." I sniffled. As my words came to an end he stared at me with those red teary eyes. I wiped away his tears and held his face in my hands.

  "Everything will be alright, Aiden," I said and before I could understand what was going to happen. Aiden held my face and kissed me. I was stunned. I should have pulled back but I couldn't. I just couldn't. I was responding to his kiss, tasting our tears in it. Our kiss was passionate, our lips hungry for each other. It was a kiss filled with love and passion but yet soft. I could feel every part of my body needing his touch. It was wrong and yet it felt so right to do it. I was being lifted and pushed on my back. Our kiss never breaking. His torso in between my legs and my legs wrapped around him. His face in my hand and he took control over our kiss. Our tongues danced in sync. I was breathing heavily, I was feeling a need and then suddenly out of nowhere Laura popped up in my mind and the moment was lost from my side. My body stilled. My lips no longer responding to his and we break apart from our kiss. His eyes looked into mine searching for what stopped me.