Compelled

19. A disaster

I swallowed the lump in my throat at the possibility. Was my dad here? Did he plan on showing up and ruining this day for all of us?

Chloe shook the bell signalling the start of the toddler race which got me out of my head and into cheering Sofi on to the end. It was proving impossible to cheer for her without feeling the uneasiness from Liana's words but nevertheless, Sofi smiled and crawled as fast as she could.

Chiefs son, Mason was not far behind her and neither was Rosie. The rest of them were still figuring out what was happening. "Come on, Sofi." My hands were reaching out to her but she halted deciding to play with the grass again.

Mason was in line with her and would soon be ahead. Rosie was nearing the two and Raina's kid wasn't too far off now. I cheered more but Sofi just giggled before kneeling almost like a meerkat. My eyes widened followed by gasps and laughter when she stood up and unsteadily crossed the short remainder of the path.

I closed my mouth and caught her just as she fell into my arms. She just took her first steps on her first birthday. I kissed her face multiple times and she squealed.

Mason was second, Rosie third and Raina's toddler was fourth. I felt it only fair that Mason be first, Rosie second and Raina's child be third since Sofi didn't actually win fair and square.

I voice my thought out and everyone agreed lightly. Liana handed out the gifts and soon everyone was relaxing back into their chairs and getting something to drink after the activity.

Liana was still tensed from where I stood so I neared her stiff figure. "I'm pretty sure I'm missing something." She scoffed then looked at me with narrowed eyes. Thankfully, there was no one too close to us who would be able to hear out conversation.

I switched Sofi from one hip to the other since my right hand was starting to cramp up. Liana was freaking me out and when I attempted to ask her again about the problem, my gaze caught sight of it.

All the blood had left my face and my chest felt as if someone had placed numerous rocks on it, constricting my breathing. My hold instinctively tightened on Sofia.

Violet was staring with wide eyes at the child in my arms. By the astonished and surprised look on her face, it was quiet clear that she had puzzled the pieces together and had the resemblance to prove it.

His gaze narrowed at me when they left Sofia. They were like swirling pools of fury and confusion all wrapped up in one. Despite the anger ebbing his face, he looked just as handsome as he did back then.

Violet whispered something to him and his jaw tightened while he let out a curt nod. When she looked at me again, her eyes filled with disappointment and hurt which made me want to shrink but the murderous glare coming from the man across the room made me want the ground to split open and consume me entirely.

Why on earth did it have to be like this? Here. Today.

Just when I thought things couldn't get anymore worse, Violet motioned for Claire to come to them. No no no. Claire couldn't find out. Not like this anyway but it was too late. I watched as her face transitioned from confusion to shock at whatever her mother was telling her to which she nodded almost I'm agreement. It wasn't long before she, too, looked at me with the hurt of being betrayed.

None of these compared to the unmissable hard gaze that seemed to be unwavering and got darker with anger by the minute. Justin Pearson was so furious with me right now that I doubted he'd ever been this angry before and how lucky of me to be on the receiving end of such deep anger. 

The mixture of hostility, fury and disbelief that was radiating from the three never wavered for even a second but simply seemed to increase in intensity with each agonizing second.

From the moment I spotted him, the dread and hollow feeling in my chest blocked out everything and everyone else that was there besides him, Violet and Claire. So when my mother tapped on my shoulder firmly, probably having understood the situation and my flabbergasted expression, and I didn't react, she smiled nervously at everyone who was frowning, starting to turn their attention to where my gaze was fixed.

"If we could all gather around the table then little Sofia can cut her birthday cake." Sofia, oblivious to what was happening, clapped her hands and I was so thankful for my mother right now as everyone slowly made their way to the table that was set along the corner. When they were out of earshot, my mother held my shoulders and gave me a slight shake.

The movement and her placement in front of me now forced me to look at her. "Keep it together, Scarlett. Now isn't the time to be off set." I nodded knowing she was right. "Come on. The faster the cake is cut then the sooner the guests would leave and then you can deal with this." She said throwing a smile at said guests behind my back as they looked at us with suspicion, no doubt.

She nudged me towards the table. My free arm went to cover Sofi, who patiently set her head on my shoulder. I took in a breath and decided, though as difficult as it would be, to ignore the happenings of the last ten minutes and focus on the main thing here.

It was her first birthday and I would celebrate it wholeheartedly despite the hindrances that presented themselves. With that, a smile crept onto my face which soon turned into a full blown grin when Sofi spotted the butterfly shaped cake. Her head lifted from my shoulder and she started to clap excitedly.

Everyone laughed including me as I got behind the table and settled on the chair with her on my lap. Holding her hand over the knife handle, everyone started singing, as we carefully cut the cake. We were still singing after the cake was cut and Sofi giggled and clapped for the remainder of it.

"Hip hip." Chloe yelled and we all shouted. "Hooray." At the end of it, Sofi joined in with the hooray but pronounced it as 'Oo aay.'

My mother assisted me with cutting the rest of the cake for the guests and Liana stepped forward to take Sofi from me to allow me to have a free hand but the little one wiggled until her feet was planted on the grass as she wobbly took a few steps on a her own before falling and getting back up again.

With a proud smile on my lips, I made sure everyone was fine and went to find my interns since the chief was no longer spotted around. Still very aware of my fan base staring daggers at me, I crossed the yard to go into the house in search and to make sure my interns didn't get their butts kicked.

The house was silent but soon voices erupted from the entrance. There stood my interns. The two of them who were supposedly sick being admonished by the chief and the other two innocently standing beside them with serious faces.

Ethan let out a cough and Miranda wiped her nose with a tissue to support her act. "Is there a problem here, Chief?" He frowned at the nonchalance in my voice and so did the Ethan and Miranda.

The chief turned to allow me into the circle. "These two claimed to be sick and out of working order but here they are." He said throwing a glance at the two who shot me a "help me" look when the chief wasn't looking.

I shrugged squeezing my eyes. "I'm so sorry." The chief stepped back with a frown. "I needed the extra help so I insisted they help me. They're kissing up to me at work all the time so they might as well do so even when they're sick." My voice turned arrogant to make it seem that I was just making it difficult for them.

The two in trouble sighed with relief but I shot them a glare to be quiet until he had left. "Very well, then. Carry on." He said with a smile to me and glare to them and walked back out.

"What on earth? You knew he was going to be here." Ethan said with exaggeration. "Why didn't you give us a heads up." I scoffed in disbelief and shot him a glare.

It couldn't always be easy and they needed to understand that. "It was my way of punishing you two for lying and trust me, my way is better than his way." They understood then agreed on that before they said a thank you for saving their a*s.

They were also heading back outside but they stopped a few paces away. "By the way, who is that hottie outside? The one with the brown hair." From the corner of my eye I saw Chloes' eyes widen at Scott's question.

"It's so weird." Said Ethan, with fascination. "Your kid looks so much like that-" I frowned and shut my eyes in frustration. Great. Just what I needed right now. To be question by my interns about this.

"Oh. My. God." Chloe uttered in shock with a smirk. "He's your baby daddy." The other three, shocked as they were, smirked almost as if catching their teacher doing the nasty.

Ethan made a sound that signalled he, too, had pieced something together. "That explains why he was undressing you with his eyes when you were cutting the-" my eyes widened at his words and my face heated up.

"Oh righty, then." I said putting a stop to his sentence that lacked proprietary.

I squared my shoulders figuring this demanded some sort of authority which I could use to my advantage to shut them up. "You guys have no right to make assumptions especially since this matter is a personal one." That got all of them to hush since I never really got upset with them.

The four of them nodded with a heavy breath and not wanting to be here any longer, I stormed back out to the yard.

It took almost a full hour before everyone had left and when I closed the door behind the last guest, a mandatory sigh of relief escaped me.

But the relief was short lived.

Behind me stood three pairs of scrutinizing eyes and two of concern and worry from Liana and Mom. My palms were sweaty from the uncertainty of what was going to happen next. My gaze ignored all else and searched for my child only to realize that she was wobbly making her way towards the back of the dominating presence in the room who seemed much too furious with me to focus on Sofi right now.

My legs instinctively took a step forward when she stumbled, her little hands holding onto the back of his pants for support.

The attention was well away from me now and all focussed on Sofi and I had no complaint about that.

Justin turned to look at Sofi who was now back onto her feet. She looked at him expressionless for a moment with wide brown eyes. I couldn't see his expression since his back was to me but I spotted the side if his cheeks as they pulled up in, what I assumed was, a smile since she shyly smiled back. 

We all stood mesmerized at their interaction and my mother had a small smile of fascination across her lips.

My gaze flickered back to Sofi and spotted her lifting her arms to be picked up. My heart started hammering against my chest as my protective instincts told me to interrupt but I knew it wasn't fair and I should let them be. So I did.

When he picked her up, Claire and Violet moved closer to them. Claire was smiling tenderly at the two. She saw Sofi not as a friends child now, but her own niece and the love that she reflected towards her was tenfold more. Her mother was half to tears as she greeted Sofi who just smiled with interest at the new faces, much to my surprise.

She usually squealed when she saw people she didn't know or haven't seen more than once. Yet here she was smiling shyly at Justin.

"Just breath, sweety." I snapped out of my fixated gaze at my mother's voice next to me. I was so engrossed that I didn't even see he move. "It isn't like you've never expected this to happened someday." She said with a shrug before rubbing my shoulder gently. "Well, maybe not exactly like this but you know." The humor in her voice made me scoff and she winked at me before disappearing into the corridor.

I was still silent as was Liana who now looked at me to see if I hadn't died yet but Sofi's loud yawn got both our attentions and I couldn't help the giggle the escaped my lips.

The cold, hard glare flickered to me before narrowing and the tense air seemed almost palatable. Liana swallowed audibly noticing the glare that I had received. I just wanted this confrontation to be over and for him to go back to his carelessly free life.