THE SON BETWEEN US

I FAILED HER QUIETLY

Jasmine?

It's been five good years since I threw her out of my house and asked her never to return and since then I haven't set my eyes on her. What is she doing here?

“Good morning, Ethan.”

“I don't need that, what the hell are you doing in my house?”

“Don't worry, I will just go.”

“Did you miss the address of the actual place you were heading to?”

She didn't reply.

Immediately she turned and left shamelessly, she has always been weird.

What does she really want?

I know for a fact that she is definitely up to something, but whatever it is, it is never going to work. She is not just a slut, she is also a chronic thief.

Her parents really thought they had brought up a child in a good manner but unknown to them that she is just another wasted sperm.

I went inside the bedroom, Sienna was still sleeping and snoring, disturbing the peace of the house.

I went straight to the bathroom, freshened up and prepared for work. I left for work without any ranting because she was sleeping, that's the only time I have a rest of mind, when she's asleep.

By the time I got to the office, my head was already pounding.

I shut the door behind me, dropped my briefcase on the desk and sank into my chair, the glass walls reflected a man I barely recognized with dark circles under my eyes, my jaw clenched like I was constantly bracing for impact.

I hadn’t even powered on my laptop when Sienna’s voice crept back in.

‘You are so weak! You can’t defend the people you love.’

My fingers curled slowly into fists. I leaned my back and stared at the ceiling and just like that, Ava’s face replaced everything.

Not the Ava from yesterday, not even the cold and distant woman who walked past me like I was air but the Ava from before, the quiet and soft-spoken Ava.

She was always careful with her words like she was afraid of taking up too much space in my life.

She never raised her voice even when I am wrong, never demanded and never fought me the way she should have.

And that was exactly why I failed her, I had mistaken all her submission for weakness, I had mistaken her patience for permanence.

Ava had bent herself around my moods, my schedule and my ego. She always adjusted when I was harsh and stayed silent when I dismissed her.

Even when I brought the first slut, Jasmine, to our home, she was shocked and disappointed though but she didn't make a noise. Instead she saved me from being robbed by that criminal.

Even after everything that happened in Jasmine’s time, I still went ahead and brought Sienna and eliminated her completely but she didn't argue or even exchange words with Sienna, the way Sienna herself would have done.

She was so submissive, even when I have never been faithful to her. Sienna seduced my best friend without an atom of shame. But Ava… Ava would never do such, not even as a pay back to unfair treatment to her.

Hell!! I allowed her to go through hell.

I exhaled sharply and rubbed my hand over my face. I never defended her, not once.

When my friends made jokes about her, I laughed along, I didn't stop them, instead I told more things about her that made them so mock her.

When women crossed boundaries, I acted blind but when she tried to talk, I shut her down and called it “peace.”

I always told her that she was lucky to have me and without me she can't survive but that was a huge lie. I was just so selfish, cold and unnecessarily mean to her.

I took everything she gave and still found ways to make her feel like she was not good enough.

And when she finally broke down, when she finally stopped trying, I signed the divorce papers without looking back because walking away seemed easier than admitting I had destroyed something pure.

My chest tightened and then Leo’s face flashed through my mind, those eyes, that laugh and that instinctive way Ava shielded him from me.

He was living proof of everything I had been so blind to see.

Ava had never been weak, she had just been enduring, hoping that one day, I will change but right now she is gone and she is with my son.

I slammed my hand against the desk, the sound echoing sharply in the office, few heads outside turned but I didn’t care.

Sienna thought Ava was throwing herself at me? That horrible irony almost made me laugh.

Ava didn’t need me anymore, she had built a life, a spine, a solid future, all without my name attached to it and the cruelest part?

She had done it while carrying my child, alone, as a single mother.

Fuck!!!

That thought made something ugly twist in my gut.

I had been there, alive, rich, powerful but still absent when it mattered most.

My phone buzzed. It was Sienna.

I stared at the screen until it went silent, she kept on calling and when it got to the point where I couldn't take the buzzing anymore, I placed the phone on DND.

Sienna wasn’t the storm in my life, she was just the consequence of my bad choices but Ava was my loss and Leo… Leo was the reckoning.

I leaned forward and put my elbows on my knees, staring at the city through the glass walls of my office.

I don’t deserve forgiveness, I don’t deserve a place in Ava’s life and I wasn’t going to pretend a

nymore.

I had failed as a husband, I had failed as a man but right now, I refused… I refused to fail as a father.

No matter how long it takes me, no matter how hard Ava fought me. This time, I wouldn’t walk away.