CHAPTER ONE: THE OFFICE THAT ENDED US
1148 Words
Nadia POV
Let me tell you about the worst Tuesday of my life.
I was twenty-one years and eight weeks pregnant. Sitting in an expensive chair that I would probably not be able to afford in the penthouse of a building I had no business being in.
In front of me was the woman who had a calm look but was emitting danger.
Her name - Diana Voss.
She was wearing white. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.
“You're young,” she said. “Ethan has a company and a name to protect. Surely you will understand.”
I understood that she had called me here under the pretense of getting to know me better, and sat me down with a cup of tea that I hadn't touched and was now looking at me like I was a problem that she had already solved.
“I love him.” I said.
She gave a one-sided smile.
“I'm sure you think you do, sweetheart.”
I pressed my hands against my knees so she wouldn't see them shaking.
She slid a folder across the table. Inside was a blank check: next to it was a document. A pen was already on top of the document.
She had made preparations for this before I walked it, and it felt as if she had known how this was going to end.
“What is this?” I asked although I didn't think that she was going to answer me.
“An opportunity,” she replied. I hid the shocked expression on my face as I looked at her with a calm expression on my face.
“For you and the baby.” She added as she silently tapped her hands on the table.
“And if I say no?” I asked further
There was silence in the room for a while.
“Then you'll find out how difficult I can make things for both of you,” she said in a cold voice.
I figured out that Diana had dug out some information about me.
My mother had been dead for three years: I had no family left. I had an apartment I could barely afford alone, let alone with a baby. I had no one, no backup plan, no one to call.
She had done her research.
I picked up the pen and signed: I was quite surprised that my hand did not tremble a bit.
“You'll be gone by the end of the week.” She said as she was already standing up. “No calls, no letters. If Ethan finds out about this conversation this arrangement would be of no effect.”
And that was it.
I did not see him before I travelled out of the country. I packed my bags and left him with a note that did not reveal anything because saying anything will put me inside trouble.
He called me several times the first day after I had left the country: by the third day, he had stopped calling.
I told myself that it didn't really matter as it was going to take years before he understood the reason for my actions. I got information that Diana had told him that I took the money and ran and he believed her.
Well I couldn't blame him because the evidence was right there, the girl who ran overnight with a check in her bag.
He never knew about the baby.
He never knew about the threat.
He only knew there was an ending with no explanation and I let him keep the story because the reason would be Diana thinking that I had not yet learned my lesson the first time.
The night that Liam was born, a nurse assisted me into a wheelchair and asked in a gentle tone if there was anybody that I could call.
“No,” I replied. “There was nobody.”
She nodded and didn't push the conversation further.
I lay on the operation table and counted in order to stop the pain.
The pain finally stopped as I had delivered but I had no strength to see my baby as I slept off.
The months after were pretty hard as I could only sleep for two hours. I learnt that the cry for food and the one for sleep were two different things.
Some night I sat on the kitchen floor with my back against the fridge as Liam would sleep peacefully on my chest after his cries.
I thought of calling Ethan, several times but I could only get as far as his name on my screen.
Remembering Diana's cold voice, I would shiver a bit before dropping my phone.
I never called.
The first time Liam was placed in my hands, I noticed that he had a distinctive feature.
Ethan's face: it was the same eyebrows and same mouth.
I cried for an hour and the nurses thought that it was the hormones, funny enough, I let them think that it was.
******
Three years later
Liam climbed on top of the kitchen counter while I was cooking and looked at me with a serious look on his face and asked, “Mum, where did my dad go?”
I placed the knife down.
“He doesn't know about you yet,” I told him.
He kept quiet for a while. “Does he know now?”
“Not yet, baby.”
“Oh.” He picked a bit of onion off the counter and ate it.
“Okay.”
And then he went back to his cartoon.
Just like that.
I stood at the counter for a while after he left and was staring at the wall, thinking about the day that question was going to come back harder and I wasn't going to be able to answer that at least not yet.
I had no idea that the day was closer than I thought.
A different table. A different document. The same fire that I thought I had walked out of.
If I had known honestly, I didn't think that it would have changed much.
Priya called that night.
“I found someone,” she said “An investor who wants to invest a lot of money. He wants to meet tomorrow morning.”
“Who is it?” I asked
I heard her shuffle some papers.
“Voss,” she replied. “Ethan Voss”
My heart raced at a faster pace as I placed my hands on my chest trying to calm my racing heart.
“Ethan??” I pondered.
“Nadia?” Priya said. “You're still there??”
“I'm here,” I said in a low tone, as different thoughts raced through my mind as going back would reveal a whole lot of secrets.
Secrets that I was too desperate to hide.
- Writer
