by Vivian Ward
Natalia smiled at her, apparently liking what she heard. It was strange hearing someone talk about me that way. In the business world, I’m so used to being called every name in the book and not once do I ever get to hear what a great guy I am. Of course, that’s all in how I portray myself. In business, you can never appear to be soft or people will walk all over you. Fortunately, this wasn’t the business world. This was real life and I was allowed to be the real me. This, in turn, allowed Natalia to see a side of me that nobody on the outside ever gets to see.
“I’m not really sure what to say,” Natalia announced. “When you said you had a secret to share with me, this was probably the last thing I would have guessed.”
“I know and I probably should have told you instead of dragging you all the way out here, but I wanted you to see him with your own eyes. I hope this doesn’t make you look at me differently.”
“That’s the thing. This does make me look at you differently, but that’s not a bad thing. Before we came here, I thought you were pretty much one-dimensional. Now I know that there is so much more to you. I like seeing this soft side of you. It’s nice. I’m pretty sure there is a lot more to his whole story, though.”
“Yeah, there really is. There’s a LOT more to the story. It’s not a very easy story to tell, but I’ll tell it if you really want to hear it.”
“I do. I really do.”
“Okay, the story starts back in high school. I had a girlfriend that I was crazy about. I met her during my sophomore year when she came into school as a freshman. We were inseparable from day one. We did everything together and we were the couple that everyone else wanted to be. We were homecoming king and queen. We were prom king and queen. We were the definition of high school sweethearts.”
Eva interrupted me as she brought us all a cup of coffee.
“You still like your coffee with cream and two sugars?” she asked as she placed my cup in front of me. I nodded that I did.
“How about you sweetheart?” she asked of Natalia.
“I’ll take mine the same way, thank you.”
“So anyway,” I continued. “Our relationship continued into college. We actually accepted offers to go to different schools with me going to Columbia University while she chose to go to the University of Rochester. It was rough to be apart, but it seemed to be much harder for her. During our first year of college, she decided that she didn’t want to be away from me so she put in a transfer request. She ended up at Columbia when we started our second year of school.”
“This sounds like a sweet story,” Natalia said.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself sweetheart,” Eva replied with a laugh.
“Things were great for a long time. We were back together and spent all of our time together, just like we had in high school. We even rented a small apartment so we didn’t have to live in separate rooms on campus. During the last semester of college, right before we were set to graduate, she moved out of the apartment and dropped out of school.”
I looked up at Natalia to make sure I wasn’t boring her with my story. She was listening intently and seemed to be hanging on my every word. When she noticed me looking at her, she pursed her lips into a small smile, letting me know it was okay to go on.
“It turned out that she had gotten pregnant and didn’t bother to tell me. I would find out later that she went to stay with a friend of hers until she figured out what she was going to do. In the end, she made the decision to have an abortion. That plan was put on hold, however, when the clinic told her she was too far along and wouldn’t do the procedure. Apparently she tried a couple of other places and they told her the same thing. By this time, I had graduated and was already working on forming what my company had become today. Needless to say, I was surprised when she showed up at my door. I was even more surprised to see that her belly had grown.”
“I can’t even imagine that,” Natalia said. “How did she explain that one to you?”
“She didn’t bother trying to explain too much. She basically told me that she was pregnant and there was no way she was going to keep the baby. She told me about being denied for the abortions but said she had found a place in Oregon that would terminate her pregnancy. She demanded that I pay for her to get there as well as the procedure. I didn’t know what to do. I don’t believe in abortion, but I loved this girl and didn’t want to be responsible for ruining her life. I mean, she had already dropped out of college because I knocked her up, I didn’t want to make things any worse on her, you know?”
“I understand. So then what happened?”
“Well, I agreed to pay for the procedure. I took care of setting everything up so that she wouldn’t have to. I called the clinic in Oregon and scheduled the appointment. I booked airline tickets for both of us so that she wouldn’t have to go by herself. I even booked a hotel room she would be able to comfortably recover for a couple days before having to come back to New York. I was conflicted. I struggled between doing what I felt was right for her and doing what was right in general. In the end, I decided that I couldn’t go through with it. That was my baby as well and I wasn’t going to have any part in killing him.
“Good for you. That had to be a hard decision to make.”
“Not as hard as having to deal with her after I told her it wasn’t happening. She went crazy. She flew off the deep end and started calling me every name in the book. She told me that I ruined her life and she was going to make me pay. Eventually, I was able to calm her down. She said she was sorry and that she was just ashamed that she was pregnant before getting married. I offered to marry her, but she refused. She said it wouldn’t matter because she was already pregnant. Although she didn’t want to get married, she did ask if she could stay with me until we could figure out what to do. Of course, I agreed.”
As I continued to tell the story, I couldn’t help but get a little catch in my throat. I’m not a guy who wears his heart on his sleeve. I try to show as little emotion as possible, but that’s almost impossible to do when it comes to this part of my past. Natalia could sense it as well and reached over, placing her hand on top of mine. It always amazes me how the smallest thing like the touch of a hand can bring a person so much comfort.
“When it came time for her to have the baby, she disappeared again. I called hospital after hospital and none of them had her registered. Eventually, I got a phone call from a hospital in Pennsylvania telling me that I had to come and sign the birth certificate. At the time, I had no idea what she was doing in Pennsylvania but I would later find out that she had met a man on the Internet and fell madly in love with him. Anyway, she wanted nothing to do with the baby and basically told me that I could either take care of him myself or we could put him up for adoption. I didn’t have the time nor the means to properly care for a baby, especially by myself, but I knew giving him up for adoption wasn’t an option either. So I did the one thing she didn’t want me to do. I called her parents, told them what was going on and asked them for help.”
“Oh my God. What did they say? Were they willing to help?”
“Well,” I said as I looked across the table. “I believe you’ve already met Frank and Eva Ryan. They are Andy’s grandparents.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Natalia
The story that Kaiden was telling me sounded like something I would watch on one of my soap operas or something. He had me on the edge of my seat waiting to see what was going to happen next. I could also see that telling the story was extremely hard for him. It was nice to see that there was a soft, caring man underneath the rough exterior that he allows everyone else to see. I felt like I was getting to see something in him that very few people would ever see in their lifetime.
“So this is your daughter we’re talking about?” I asked Frank and Eva.
“Yes, we are Andy’s biological grandparents. We make sure he is well taken care of for Kaiden.”
“But you didn’t know your daughter was pregnant? How did you not know
?”
“She stopped coming around altogether. It was really strange because she always came home to see us anytime she had the chance but while she was pregnant, we didn’t see her at all. Needless to say, it came as quite a shock to get Kaiden’s phone call letting us know that we were grandparents,” Frank said.
All I could do was look at him in disbelief. I couldn’t imagine finding out I was a grandparent before I even knew my daughter was pregnant. I would have felt like I got cheated out of the whole pregnancy experience. I shook my head as I turned my attention back to Kaiden.
“I decided to take the baby. I knew there was no way I was ready to take care of the baby on my own. I wasn’t prepared to take that on. I asked Frank and Eva if they would be willing to help me out with Andy. I figured that my ex was going through postpartum depression or something and would come around once she started missing her son. Unfortunately, that never happened. Eventually, she came back to New York but she was a different person. She didn’t want anything to do with the baby and hasn’t even tried to see him to this day. She went about her life as if nothing had ever happened. She acted like the child never existed. In fact, she spent most of her time parading this foreign guy around town. She had started dating him and decided she wanted to show him off as a way to mock me or try to make me jealous. I’m not really sure what her end goal was, but it didn’t work.”
“No offense,” I said to Frank and Eva, “but she sounds like a horrible person.”
“None taken,” Eva replied.
“What was her name?” I asked, not really sure why I wanted to know.
“Her name is Anna.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Kaiden
As soon as I uttered the name Anna, I looked up to see what kind of reaction Natalia would give. Once she heard the name, her jaw dropped and her eyes widened. She knew exactly who I was talking about. Looking over at Frank and Eva, I could see that they noticed her expression as well.
“Eva, Frank and I have been taking care of Andy ever since he was born,” I continued. “I get out here every chance that I get. There are many days when people think I’m at business meetings or doing other things for work when, in reality, I am here spending time with my son.”
“Why not tell everyone the truth? You seem to be a great father,” Natalia asked.
“I try to be the best father I can be. I really do. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as simply telling everyone that I have a son that I am solely responsible for. The three of us sat down when we brought Andy home and decided the best thing for everyone involved would be to not tell anyone about him, at least not until it’s the right time.”
“I don’t understand. You don’t appear to be ashamed of him. Why not let everyone know about him? Is it because you’re afraid you’ll lose your edge as a businessman?”
“No, it’s nothing like that at all. I’m very proud of my son and I’d love nothing more than to show him off to everyone. Unfortunately, it would lead to a huge scandal and I need to make sure my son is protected from that. He’s too young to understand any of it.”
“I see. I still don’t get it, but he’s your son so that’s your decision. What do your parents think about you being a father? Do they ever come out here and spend time with him?”
“Are you kidding me? My parents are near the top of the list of people I have no intention of telling any time soon. I mean, you met them tonight. You’ve seen what kind of person my mother is. My father is the same way behind closed doors. He likes to put up a front when he’s around other people, but the two of them are exactly the same. They’ve been strict my entire life and they’d never let me hear the end of it. I’ve always said that if I had children, I’d have to think long and hard about either of them being allowed in their lives. They are psychopaths and sociopaths, but they put up a good front.”
What Natalia didn’t know was that Frank and Eva didn’t know about a lot of things their daughter had done to me. As far as they knew, she had the baby, showed her new boyfriend off for a while and then disappeared into obscurity somewhere. That part of the story was true for a while but had changed over the past year. I knew that they struggled daily with the fact that their daughter suddenly decided that she didn’t want anything to do with her family. The last thing I wanted to do was make their lives harder by telling them how evil their daughter had become. With Natalia there, however, I knew that it was about to come out. She had no clue what they knew and what they didn’t. To her, she assumed they knew the whole story.
“So this Anna. Is she the same Anna involved with the blackmailing stuff? The guy that you caught in that alley said he was hired by a woman named Anna.”
Frank and Eva looked at me with concern on their faces.
“Blackmailing?” Eva asked. “Kaiden, what is she talking about?”
Natalia looked down at the ground, putting together the fact that she probably shouldn’t have said anything. I didn’t blame her for asking the question. I probably would have done the same thing. I was just happy she didn’t mention the sex club. That would have brought on a whole host of questions that I didn’t have any desire to answer. Still, since she had brought up the blackmailing situation, I felt the only fair thing to do was to be honest and tell everyone what had been going on.
“The truth of the matter is that Anna has never completely disappeared from my life. She’s been trying to get money out of me for a long time now. At first, I would give it to her and then she’d disappear for a while. When she needed money again, she would appear out of nowhere. Eventually, I told her enough was enough. If she had stuck around and had custody of our son, I would have no problem giving her money to help support him. Since she basically abandoned him, however, I told her that I was no longer going to be treated as a bank by her.”
“We had no idea, Kaiden,” Frank told me, appearing ashamed of the things his daughter had done.
“I know you didn’t Frank. Please don’t think I blame you for anything. You guys have been amazing to me and my son. Anyway, when I told her I would no longer be giving her money, she was pissed. She called me over and over for a few weeks yelling and screaming into the phone constantly. If I didn’t answer, I would get a bunch of long, angry messages on my voice mail. She made threats, telling me she was going to ruin me. Her threats escalated day by day as she promised that she wouldn’t rest until I was penniless and living on the street. Then, as quickly as the calls began, it was all over. She stopped calling and I didn’t hear from her again. I figured she realized she wasn’t going to get what she wanted and went away. I had forgotten all about it until what happened earlier this week.”
“What happened? What did she do?” Eva questioned.
“I don’t want to go into too much detail because it’s pretty embarrassing. Let’s just say that I was doing some things that some of the people I do business with probably wouldn’t like. It’s nothing illegal or anything like, but it may bring into question my moral aptitude, which both of you know is ridiculous. Anna had someone following me and snapping pictures any chance they could. The photos, of course, could be painted in a number of different ways when I wasn’t actually doing anything wrong. The other day, I got an envelope full of pictures delivered to my front door. I was stunned to see them as they are very private in nature. There was a note along with them promising me that my public image would be destroyed if I didn’t give in to their demands, but it didn’t actually say what the demands were. The note was also not signed so I didn’t have any clue where it had come from at the time.”
“Is there a chance it may not be Anna then?” Frank inquired, a slight bit of hope coming through in his voice.
“Unfortunately, no. Natalia and I went to where the photographs were taken and we were able to track down the person taking the photos. We actually caught him in the act of taking more pictures while we were there. When the man saw that he was busted, he took off running and I had to give chase. He almost got away, but I was able
to chase him down outside the building. He didn’t want to give me any information, but he knew he wasn’t getting away without telling me. He finally told me he didn’t know the woman personally and all he knew about her was the fact that her name was Anna.”
“I’m so sorry Kaiden,” Eva said as she began to cry. “I don’t know where we went wrong with her. We tried to raise her right. We attempted to give her all the tools she needed to be successful in life. We used to be so close. She used to come visit all the time and now we never hear from her. I don’t know what happened. I’m so embarrassed that she’s doing all of this to you.”
“You don’t have to apologize to me, Eva. You’re not responsible for any of this. She’s a big girl who is capable of making her own decisions. It’s not your fault that the decisions she’s choosing to make are poor. I’m going to get all of this sorted out. I just have to figure out where she is so I can confront her. Once I find her, I promise you both that I will put a stop to this behavior once and for all.”