Becoming Mrs Prescott

What A Pleasant Surprise

Mia’s POV

I made my way carefully through the pressing crowd, clinging tightly to the cones of ice cream, with my heart slamming hard against my chest. Every fiber of my existence was sensitive and on high alert, driven by the raw fear of losing Chloe in this endless sea of people.

‘How could I be this careless?’

My mind raced with thoughts of what could have possibly happened, each of the thoughts more terrifying than the last. I finally broke free from the crowd into an open space in the park, my eyes darting frantically, searching for the familiar face of my little angel.

And then I saw her.

Chloe stood a short distance away, facing me, with a man in a suit squatting in front of her, his back turned to my direction. The sight made me freeze to a spot, and for a moment, I couldn't move, couldn't breathe. Confusion, mixed with the relief of seeing Chloe safe flooded my senses.

Who is he? What is he doing with her?

My thoughts tumbled over each other as I tried to make sense of the scene unfolding right in front of me. I stood wondering what Chloe was doing with a stranger despite my countless advice and warnings to her never to speak with anyone she didn't know and anyone who wasn't me or her grandma.

The more I looked at the man instead of dashing towards him and taking my child away, the more unease crept into my chest. Something about him felt off, I couldn't quite place what exactly it was, but that was the feeling that lounged on in my soul. Before I could waste any more time allowing my thoughts to consume me, a surge of protectiveness which I guess was a motherly instinct that was supposed to hit me from the beginning finally surged through me.

“Chloe!” I broke out with a scream that attracted the attention of the people's attention around me.

Chloe’s head snapped up immediately at the sound of my voice, her wide, bulging eyes locking with mine. For what seemed like a split second, the noise of the park faded into the background as everything narrowed down to just my daughter and me. Then, her face lit up with a bright smile, and she broke into a run towards me, her little legs carrying her as fast as she could.

“Mummy!” Chloe called excitedly as she flung herself into my already open arms.

I held her close to myself, my hands trembling as I hugged her tightly, “Oh Chloe, you would believe how scared I was, what happened? Where did you go?”

Chloe pulled back a little, looking up at me with innocent eyes, “Mummy, I wanted to run around a little while you were getting the ice cream, but I fell and bruised my knees.”

She raised her gown slightly above her knees for me to see the small bruises that formed on them. My heart twisted with the guilt of being a careless mother who couldn't protect her daughter after just a few minutes of stepping outside. I handed her the ice cream cones, desperately trying to calm down the storms of emotion inside me.

“Let me take a look at that, sweetheart.” I dropped to my knees in front of her, inspecting the bruises with a frown on my face. They weren't that bad, at least not to the extent my mother would start scolding me for, but the thought that she got hurt under my watch made my chest ache.

Chloe, who had always been a strong little champ, was unbothered. “It’s okay mummy,” She chirped, her mouth already full of ice cream, “That nice man over there helped me up and wiped my knees while telling me everything would be okay.”

She turned and excitedly pointed to the man who had helped her, the one who was now back to his feet, watching us quietly. My gaze followed the direction of Chloe's outstretched hand to what she wanted to show me, and when my eyes landed on the man, my jaw dropped open.

It was Nathan Prescott.

It was as if all the air had been sucked out of my lungs, and I felt a wave of dizziness wash over me. My mouth went dry as I stared at him, unable to believe what I was seeing. Nathan Prescott, my ex-boss, a man that I hadn't seen in five solid years now, was standing just a foot away from where I was, looking every bit as confident and as commanding as I had always known him.

He hadn't changed much. If anything, he looked even more striking than before, his looking commanding attention as always even in the simple gray suit he was cladded in. He was no longer the Nathan I used to be, the Nathan whose mere presence sent a shiver down my spine. He was more than that now, his presence now made my knees weak. Nathan was one person I thought I’d never see again, the one person I wasn't sure I could face.

My heart started slamming hard against my chest again, this time, the sound of it defeating me as I struggled to steady my breath. What was the almighty Nathan Prescott doing here? Why at this time as me? Questions that I couldn't find an answer to flooded my head. I was too overwhelmed, too shocked to think clearly. All I could do was stare at him like a moron, my mind racing with what I thought I had buried and loved on from long ago.

And then, as if he couldn't sense my turmoil and see that his presence alone had put me in an uncomfortable position, Nathan began walking toward us. His slow, deliberate steps sent a jolt of anxiety through me. He moved with the same self-assuredness that had always set him apart, his eyes fixed on mine as he closed up the distance between us.

I tried to get a grip of myself, tried to calm the wild beating of my heart against my rib cage, but my effort was fruitless. Seeing him again, in a way I never expected, in a place I least expected, after all these years and everything that has happened, was just too much for me to bear. My breath started coming on with shallow gasp as he got closer, the realization of the situation hitting me over and over again. I wasn't ready for this, I wasn't ready for him.

Before I knew it, Nathan was standing right in front of us, his gaze darted from Chloe to me and back again. There was a flicker of surprise in his eyes, but it was quickly replaced by something else, something I couldn't quite read.

“What a pleasant surprise,” Nathan said in his ever-smooth and authoritative tone that wasn't rude but at the same time sounded that way.

The words hung in the air, the words heavy with unspoken meaning. I didn't want to just stare at him like the naive secretary I was years back, I wanted to say something, anything, but the word wouldn't just come out even with my mouth still hanging open. I slowly got back on my feet, trapped between the past and the present, unable to move forward or back. All I could just do was stare at him, trying to make sense of the whirlwind of emotions the day had brought to me.