Open it himself? Then he changed his tone a bit. This guy is definitely dangerous.
“Is everything okay in here,” Matilda says as she enters the room.
I hold my finger up to my lips signaling her to be silent. I see the fear in her eyes and it’s completely justified. I’m scared too.
I mouth the word “police” to her.
She slowly back steps out of the room.
I stay in place making sure not to move. The police can get here in thirty minutes or less. Hopefully I can stay still that long because this guy looks way beyond rough.
CHAPTER 21
Doctor Church
I squat down on the stoop.
Does this guy think I’m playing games, because I’m not.
I can see his sorry ass just inside the house. I’m trying to be as friendly as possible, but I’m also a man. A man on a mission to get his woman back and I know I’m so damn close right now.
I swear I can smell her scent in the air. It’s like I’m a wolf on the hunt, but I truly recognize her scent. She’s been here before and I’d bet anything she’s in there now.
If this guy’s trying to move in on her he’s going to have to deal with me.
I don’t care if she found another “guy” or even gotten married. Guys are a dime a dozen. Real men are a lot harder to find. And someone like me? Please. No competition.
I’ll give the man respect if that’s what he did. He got lucky and he even got to have some time with her, but daddy’s here now. I’m going to bend him over my knee and beat him with my belt for making me wait.
Nothing more than treating him like the little bitch he is…in there hiding behind the door from me.
It’s taking everything I’ve got right now not to stick my fist through that window and then reaching around and opening the door my damn self. If I take off my shirt and wrap it around my hand it won’t even bleed.
But then they’ll send the cops for sure and I’ll be left explaining a breaking and entering charge in a foreign country where I don’t even speak the language.
Suddenly I hear a bunch of yelling in French coming from behind. I turn and see a complete SWAT team with their weapons drawn.
What the…
“On the ground,” they say in English this time. I guess my features give me away.
“I’m just here to talk, guys.”
“On the ground!”
“You’re only delaying the inevitable,” I say. “You think you can stop me? You think you can make me quit?”
Suddenly I feel a stinging in my thigh.
“You fucking pussy!” I yell.
I kneel and get on the ground. That piece of shit shot me with one of those rubber bullets. What in the hell is wrong with him?
And I know what’s coming next. I shake my head.
Three guys in all black storm in and aggressively handcuff me. I know I could take all three of them at once, but I also know they’ve got dashboard cams on that SWAT team truck that looks like a Brinks truck that is now shining its high beams right in my face.
Once these “tough guys” finish they get me up and to my feet.
I hear the front door open behind me.
“Let’s take a look at this vagrant loser,” a man’s voice says.
I turn to get a look at this pussy who called the cops. I look him straight in the eyes and watch as his gaze drops to the ground. He can’t even hold eye contact. What a bitch.
I want to spit on his lawn just to let him know I’m not done here, but I don’t. It’s disgusting and primal but it dates back to a man marking his territory…claiming what’s his. And I’ll be back to get what’s mine. He can count on it. I know she’s in there somewhere, or he knows where she is. I’ll get the info out of him if I have to hold him upside down by his feet and shake it out of him. I tried to just show up and ask and play nice, but apparently he couldn’t handle a man showing up at his door.
I feel a man’s hand on top of my head and the door to the truck open.
“Up and in you go,” a man says.
I take a step up with a man grabbing ahold of each of my arms. They’ve got me cuffed and they’re still scared?
I would laugh, but the more that I think about it the smarter they are because now that they’ve put their weapons down and feel all safe and have already congratulated each other and shook hands I know they’re not ready for what I can still do to them…even with the cuffs on.
But not tonight. I can’t risk it and get deported…not when I’m this close.
I step up with my other foot and now I’m inside the truck.
A man grabs the handle and pulls it close, but just before he gets the door shut I see what I came all this way to see.
“Dr. Church!”
CHAPTER 22
Matilda
I push Pierre out of the way and run toward the truck.
“Let him go!” I scream.
“Ma’am. This is a dangerous man. He tried to break into your home.”
“He’s not dangerous. I know him.”
“That makes him all the more dangerous. Most women are killed, raped, and have crimes committed against them by men they know.”
“The only crime is locking him up. Let him out.”
“We can’t. We’re taking him in.”
“I’m not pressing charges.”
“But—“
“And neither is he,” I say pointing at Pierre.
“But you called?”
“I don’t care what happened before. And I wasn’t the one who called. Let. Him. Out!”
The one man looks at the other and they both shrug. They say something to each other in French.
“We need you to sign—”
“Give it to me. Now!” I say.
The one man gets inside the cab and comes out with a clipboard with a peace of paper on it.
I’ve practically signed it before he’s even handed me the pen.
The man by the car door looks back at the man with the clipboard. The man with the clipboard’s eyebrows raise and he shrugs…then he nods.
The other man grabs the door handle and slides it open.
Dr. Church jumps out, both feet landing on the ground together at the same time.
He turns and looks at me. I’ve waited for that look for almost an entire year. A year of my life without him.
I knew he would come. I knew he would find me…find us.
I run to him and throw my arms around him, but he’s still cuffed.
I laugh as I cry tears of joy.
“Somebody give me a hand here,” he says rubbing his wrists together so the cold steel makes noise.
One of the men walks toward him and Dr. Church looks back down at me.
“I knew I’d find you and this time I’m never letting you go.”
CHAPTER 23
Doctor Church
The second my hands are freed I wrap them around her tighter than I ever have before.
“I’m never going to lose you again,” I say.
“Matilda, who is this?” the douchebag who was inside the house asks.
“It’s…this is the man who gave me…”
“Wait! Him?” the man says. “This piece of street trash is Andrew’s father?”
My eyes dart from Matilda to the man and back to Matilda.
“Andrew’s father?”
“Ian, I’m…I’ve…there’s something I need to tell you.”
I freeze up. What’s happening? A few seconds ago I was cuffed and headed to the slammer and now some guy I’ve never met is talking about something in regards to my women who I haven’t seen in almost a year? I try and put the puzzle pieces together, but it’s all coming too fast. Riding a motorcycle on the freeway at one hundred and fifty miles per hour is nothing compared to this.
“Come inside,” she says, taking my hand.
I take a step forward.
“He’s not coming in this house,” the man says.
“I think
we got off on the wrong fit, sir,” I say as the SWAT team packs up their gear behind me but is still watching this situation unfold with a heightened level of interest.
“We didn’t get off on anything nor are we going to. There is no relationship here. Not with her or with me. None of us as a matter of fact. You’re not welcomed here. You deadbeat dad.”
“Matilda. What’s going on here.”
“I’m sorry. Just wait here for one second please.”
She runs to the man and grabs him by the wrist and leads him back inside.
Am I on an episode of the Twilight Zone right now?
I hear yelling but nothing breaking. I’m trying to respect whatever they have here, but I don’t want this to get out of hand. It’s my responsibility, duty, and commitment to protect my girl, but I’m trying to let them iron it out first. My patience is wearing very, very thin.
Suddenly Matilda comes out of the house with something bundled up in her arms.
“Ian, I’m sorry you have to find out like this…especially this way.”
“Find out what exactly?”
She turns her body sideways and pulls back part of the blanket.
“This is your son. Andrew.”
My entire body and mind go completely still. I just stare at the little boy there in her arms.
Not the little boy. My little boy.
My offspring. My first son. Our son.
The one we created together so perfectly. In a day full of exhausting highs and lows this is the most amazing final turn of the roller coaster that is life. I’ve experienced a world of emotions in the last ten minutes, and this one takes the cake.
“My son? This is my son?” I say.
I believe her, but it still hasn’t sunk in.
“I’m a dad.”
“You’re his father,” she says. She’s smiling but it’s a nervous smile…one with trepidation.
“May I?” I say silently.
She carefully hands Andrew over to me. I cradle him in my forearm and look down at him seeing my eyes and my nose, but his chin is definitely hers.
“He looks…perfect. Just like us.”
“Just like us,” she says. “Because we made him.”
I never thought I’d ever experience a moment like this and until her I never wanted to. Now I wonder what I waited all these years for.
“I wish I would have found you earlier,” I say. “So we could have already had a few of these beautiful babies by now.”
“That’s not entirely true,” she says.
My eyes move from Andrew to hers, not understanding the meaning of her words. “Not true?”
“You didn’t find me. I found you,” she says as she winks.
“But when I found you I found the meaning of life and I found love.”
“You…love me?”
“I always loved you. It’s why I kept searching until I finally found you.”
“And why I showed up at your clinic only to find a…hedge fund.”
“A hedge fund?” We both laugh. “None of that matters. Only the future. What we have now, which is everything, and where we take it, which is forward.”
“There is no future,” the man says.
“Shut up, Pierre!” she says.
“Who’s he? You met someone?”
I see that he’s older, somewhere around my age but I know it can’t be.
“He’s my stepfather. He helped me out when I got pregnant.”
“And you registered for Médecins Sans Frontières from this address?”
“Yes, I was here working as a nanny briefly and when I was almost finished I registered for Médecins Sans Frontières. Wait…how did you…?”
“I never stopped looking. I really never stopped. I turned over every rock…every stone…every boulder no matter how big. To me they were just pebbles and I was ready to move them all until they cleared a path to you…and Andrew.”
“He’s not staying here tonight!” Pierre says.
“It doesn’t matter,” she says to me. “He’ll get over it.”
“Want me to buy the house next door?”
“Ian!”
“One knock on the door and I’ll make them an offer they can’t refuse.”
“I’d slap you on the arm, but you’re holding out first born.”
“Our first of many.”
“You promise?” she asks.
I make sure my grip on Andrew is perfect and with my other hand I reach up to her face, brushing my fingertips along those perfect, high cheekbones of yours.
“I promise just like I promise to love you forever,” I say.
“And I love you,” she says.
“You mean us,” I say.
“Yes,” she says, pausing to wipe away a tear of joy. I wipe away the second for her. “I mean us.”
I drop my hand from her face and wrap it around her. All three of us hug in the night on the outskirts of Paris.
I’m still not sure how I got here but I sure am glad I did. And more importantly than the journey I took to get here is the journey we will take forward.
Hand in hand as we bring more beautiful babies into this world.
Together. Forever.
EPILOGUE
Doctor Church
“Will you be extending your stay with us, sir?”
“Yes, we will,” I say to the receptionist.
We’re lying in bed cuddling. All three of us together. I’ve got the phone to my ear and I feel Matilda squeeze me tight when she hears the news.
“Excellent. For how long, sir?”
“Indefinitely.”
“Indefinitely?”
“We’re not going anywhere. We need to explore the city for awhile and get caught back up. Can you book us in for…let’s say the rest of the season?”
“The rest of the season, sir?”
“Yes.”
“By my count that is…another two and a half months.”
“Perfect. I’ll circle back with you in a couple months to let you know if we’ll be staying for another season.”
“Yes, sir!” he says. “Enjoy your stay.”
“We will. Thank you.”
“He almost sounds like he works on commission,” Matilda says as I hang up the phone.
“Could you imagine? The penthouse suite at the Shangri-La Hotel, Paris booked for an entire season. But I’m guessing it’s happened before.”
“But by a couple with a baby?”
“I’m guessing that’s a first,” I say.
“Everything with you is a first.”
“I feel the same. Looking at the world through your eyes makes me feel alive again. I see the world totally different. A lot of it has to do with you.”
“A lot?”
“A lot.”
“Not all of it?” she says offering a pouty bottom lower lip.
“I’d say half.”
“Half! That doesn’t sound romantic.”
“Only because the other half is because I’m looking at the world through Andrew’s eyes now…and as a father.”
“Very funny,” she says.
“Did I get you?” I give her a pinch in the side.
“Hey!” Her body pulls away playfully and Andrew giggles. “Yeah, you got me. Very funny.” She can’t help but laugh though.
“So, what do we do today? Take Andrew up to the top of Eiffel Tower maybe?”
“Ian he’s a baby!”
“What a better time to get him acclimated to excitement and adventure. Plus they have an elevator.”
“First the Eiffel Tower, tomorrow the back of a motorcycle,” she jokes. “He truly will be a bad boy.”
“World’s youngest bad boy…Andrew Church. And by the way. I love the name you chose for him.”
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