BRING THE CEO DOWN!

8- A CHILDHOOD HOME

8. A CHILDHOOD HOME

Ara's POV

I called Quincy that morning, telling him that I was on the way to his house. Quincy, in his typical fashion, was angry that I didn't call him the minute I landed.

"How are we going to even start this mission if you can't keep me aware of goings and comings? What if Fabian saw you and the kid? That would have been a disaster." The fact that Quincy kept referring to my baby as the kid kept grating on my nerves. I had to try to keep myself calm so I didn't scream at him over the phone. That will not be a great start to this partnership.

"Aren't you supposed to be the one calling me? And my child has a name. His name is William. I sent you my flight ticket; I told you when I was coming. You didn't care to ask to pick me up. Now you are blaming me?" I had no idea how I managed to survive being a child with Quincy. He must have driven me mad when we were growing up together. But I was immune to it then. Now that I knew life without Quincy, I didn't want to go back to my old ways. I needed to, for revenge. It was for a good cause.

"Just calm down. We need to see each other to make plans," Quincy said, as though I was the one who started the fight, the unreasonable one, like he wasn't the one that was so annoying and getting on my nerves.

"I agree. I will be at the house in the next few minutes," I said. Quincy was quiet at the other end of the call, almost like he had something to say but couldn't bring himself to say it.

"What's the problem?" I asked him.

"No, nothing; you can come," he said.

I just had breakfast with my hosts, and William seemed to be comfortable in the house. He was talking to Tricia, telling her all about his school back in Australia and all his friends. It was hard for me to listen because I felt so bad for removing him from his friends at such a young age. It was better that he was young when it was done, though, than if he were older.

When I called Quincy, I was already ready to leave. I figured that, as with everything, the earlier the better. I was thinking that I would have to take William with me. Maybe Tricia would have had to drop me off, just so that no one around saw me with my baby.

It was hard to stomach that; I had to remind myself over and over again that I wasn't ashamed of my son.

As Liam was comfortable with Tricia, though, it was best to leave them together.

They would have to be together much longer to have a great relationship together. Tricia would have to be his mother for the next few months, maybe. I hoped it didn't take as long. I would have to start work immediately just so I didn't spend as much time without my son.

"I have to go see Quincy. I will be back in an hour," I said to Tricia, who looked up from where she was coloring with my son. I didn't want to look at Liam too much, because it felt like if I did, I would change my mind. I was doing for Liam too, as much as I was doing it for myself.

"Oh," Tricia said. I could see the unspoken question in her eyes. Did I want to take Liam with me? I shook my head at her. No, I didn't. It wouldn't be the best thing to do. Quincy has never shown interest in meeting his nephew, and I didn't want to introduce my son to his uncle. Quincy would never win best uncle in the world anyway.

"William, Mommy wants to go out a bit; I will be back soon, okay?" I told my son. Liam looked up from his coloring book at me and nodded. He was okay with it. My son was pretty chill with people. It was something that I liked about him. The plane ride was an exception for him. Even then, I felt a bit hurt that he didn't cry and run for me. Why would he though? It wasn't like I was running away and leaving him for an extended period of time. I would do that soon enough, though, very soon. It will be harder then than now.

"How will you go?" Tricia asked.

"I will just take a cab, and I will be back in no time," I said. Tricia nodded at that and then stood up.

"Let me walk you to the door."

"Just, stay safe, okay?" I nodded at my friend and hugged her. It felt like I was saying goodbye for a much longer time.

"I will, thank you."

In the next few minutes, I was ready and on my way to the home that I spent most of my life in.

The can ride was slow and uneventful, and I wasn't very anxious to see Quincy. I was anxious to meet Tricia, and I am grateful that is over and done with. I am also very anxious to meet with Fabian, Quincy, though it was different. He infuriated me and made me angry many, many times, but he was my big brother at the end. I shouldn't have been anxious to see Tricia, just happy, but the whole revenge thing ruined that for me. I was thinking about what she would say. I was worried she would be disappointed in me. I didn't have to worry about that with Quincy.

I grew up in the good part of town. It was easy for me to call it that because I saw where Tricia grew up. It was clean; there were nice sport cars everywhere, but that was just on the outside. Like every other child who grew up on this part of New York, I knew the clean-cut look was only a facade. A lot was happening in the shadows. I didn't know everything about it because my father did try his best to shield me from it, but it was there. Teenagers in high schools usually had more money than normal people who worked their entire lives, and so it meant that money was spent badly, wasted, for nothing at all. The outside always looked good though; it always looked shiny and pretty, and then you would step in and see how terribly ugly it all was.

For some reason, that was what came to mind as my taxi stopped in front of the house where I grew up. The clean-cut look was gone. It was easy to trust what was pretty on the outside even if you knew it would be ugly on the inside. Now what did you do to something that was ugly on the outside?

The house was my mother's pride and joy. I don't remember my mother very well since she died when I was just five, but I remember even when she was sick, she would go hand and foot to weed the gardens; she would climb ladders to clean the house. After my mother died, my father made it his pride and joy. The death of Aliana Erikson broke Oliver Erikson. I could always tell that my father loved my mother. He was always talking about her. When I was younger, he told me my mother spent so much time designing the house. She worked with the architects, builders, and interior decorators. It was almost like it was all she was doing. She was always interested in the house. When the house was finally complete, she was so happy. They had Quincy not long after, and she took care of the house so much. After she died, my father did the same. He didn't even delegate the duties to others; he did it himself. He would take time off work just to weed the gardens or to oversee a painting job. All in all, he loved it. My father died just before I got married to Fabian, and I left the country not long after that. I haven't stepped foot in the house for the past four years. I should have come earlier than this. Guilt hit me hard as I looked at my childhood home. The grass was overgrown, the flowers that my parents put in so much care in grooming looked like they had mutated; the paint was peeling. The house looked haunted really.

I tried to calm myself down as I looked at the house, walking into the building where I spent time with family. Of course it looked so bad. Quincy was in charge of it.

"I should have just stayed," I muttered to myself as I walked into the house.

"It wouldn't have gotten so bad if I did." I couldn't even say I was shocked. Well, I didn't expect the house to look so bad, but thinking about it, it was Quincy. Quincy was a slob; he didn't put in any care to our parents home because he didn't really care about things like that. It was not okay that he did something so terrible, but at this point, there is nothing I can do, I just have to take it as it is.

I walked to the front door and knocked. I was getting prepared to give Quincy the longest speech he had heard in a long time, to scold him, to shout him. He shouldn't have let the house get so bad. The door opened, and I saw the biggest change of all.