Chater Forty–Five
Chapter Forty–Five
Kyle’s POV
I was mad. No, that was putting it lightly; I was seething.
The words Ava said to me still roared in my ears, as clear as the moment they left her lips. “Every time you show up, Zareon and I suffer. Please, for once in your life, do the right thing… and stay away.” She didn’t just say it, she begged me. With eyes glassy and voice breaking. It was a dagger straight to the chest.
I’m just trying to protect him because he doesn’t deserve the pain that would come with your love, Kyle.”
Those words had torn fiercely at my heart like a jagged bottle. They had burned more than I expected. Not only because she had said them so painfully. But because she was so damn right. My love for Zareon would come with pain, just like it did for her, yet I was greedy.
My fists clenched on my lap, nails digging into my palm. I sat in the back of the car, staring blankly out the window while the city lights flickered past.
The image of the terrified look on Ava’s face when she saw the speck of blood on her palm wouldn’t leave me. Although the cut wasn’t fatal as she made it seem, however, the look on her face had yanked at me. I hadn’t
even thought. My feet moved, my hands reacted, and I went straight to Zareon, forgetting there was another
son of mine wailing behind me, too. My focus was on Zareon, and the moment he stretched out his arms to
me, God. I couldn’t describe the feeling that surged through my heart.
But nothing compared to what I saw afterwards. The CCTV footage.
I had requested it while we were in the hospital, pacing like a lunatic outside the examination room as Ava
hovered over our boy like her life depended on it while he slept off. When the staff sent me the footage, I
watched it in silence.
The moment I saw what had happened, every vein in my body went cold.
Lillian didn’t push Zareon. She didn’t even touch him. But what she did was worse.
She had screamed at him to let go of the toy, and when he didn’t immediately obey, probably confused, she
yanked Neo out of his grasp so forcefully, like she was snatching him from a rabid dog. The force of it
caused Zareon to stumble back, crashing into the climbing ladder behind him. It wasn’t a hard surface per se,
but the angle, the edge and the speed of his fall must have caused the gash.
The boy hadn’t even cried immediately. He’d gone still, confused. Then came the scream.
Lillian didn’t even check him. Not once. Instead, she grabbed Neo and held him to her chest, and then, when
Ava and I arrived, she gave us some weak, half–baked story about separating them and finding a bite mark
which was true.
Still…
My fists clenched around the edge of the seat as the driver sped through the road, breathing in through my
nose, trying to calm the fury still burning in my chest.
That wasn’t how a sane, calm adult separated kids during a quarrel. That wasn’t how someone acted around a child, especially one they didn’t even know, except they did and acted out of malice.
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Or maybe she did
My stomach tightened at that had no way of knowing how so that was except the fact that anyone with eyes could tell that boy was mine. Zerson was a salar son of me in nearly every way Except for his hair But the rest… the nose, the eyes, the subbon din, that was all me. The only reason Lillian wouldn’t have connected the dots was if she were blind or if she had deliberately avoided locking
But instead of apologising or saying something calming to Lillian had done none of that She couldn’t even keep her damn mouth shut or her pride in check for five minutes
I ran a trembling hand down my face.
If Ava hadn’t dashed out with Zareon, if she hadn’t been so scared, if the doctor hadn’t said he was fine. I didn’t know what I would’ve done to Lillian. I really didn’t.
My phone vibrated again. It was her
I didn’t answer. Not because I didn’t want to. But because if I heard her voice right now, I might say someti
I couldn’t take back.
The car slowed as we pulled into the driveway. The lights of the house were still on. Of course she was waiting. However, when I stepped into the house, it was quiet. Too quiet
I expected Lillian to be waiting for me in the living room, either pacing or seething like a ravenous snake. But
it was empty,
Good, I wasn’t sure I could take her presence right now.
I made my way upstairs, my steps quiet but heavy. I stopped outside Ned’s door. My hand paused on the
doorknob.
Neo didn’t deserve any of what had happened today or before. Whatever mess I’d made, he was just a child too. My son. Just like Zareon.
I gently pushed the door open and stepped into the quiet room. The light from the hallway spilled into the room, shooting a soft glow over his small frame curled under his white fluffy blanket
He looked peaceful and innocent.
I walked over to him and kneeled beside the bed, slowly pulling the blanket down enough to see his small hand, the one Zareon had bitten. I had seen it in the footage. Zareon hadn’t wanted to give up the toy. Neo didn’t either. Typical toddler fight, void of malice. Except now, the consequences of that little innocent fight had resulted in a red, slightly swollen mark on Neo’s arm.
My chest squeezed with guilt.
I had ignored him entirely earlier when I should’ve reached for both of them. I should’ve been better.
But how could I? How could I divide my heart when they are both my son, my blood?
Was I already failing as a father? I didn’t know how to give both my sons the love they deserved without feeling like I was betraying the other. I didn’t know how to fix this when it felt like every step I took forward
came with ten steps backwards.
Yes, I was definitely failing.
With a sigh, I gently tucked Neo’s arm back under the blanket and leaned forward to kiss his forehead. He
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stirred slightly, but didn’t wake.
“I’m sorry, buddy,” I whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
With that, I turned and quietly stepped out of Neo’s room, only to freeze when I saw her.
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Lillian stood at the end of the hallway, leaning against the wall like she’d been waiting for me. Her arms were crossed, her face tight with anger.
I sighed and tried to walk past her toward my room.
“I figured it out,” she snapped, blocking my way. “I figured everything out.”
I stared at her, saying nothing.
“It’s not just her, is it?” she hissed, and I raised a brow. “It’s not Ava you’ve been obsessed with this whole time. It’s that boy.”
I still didn’t speak. My silence only made her angrier.
“You aren’t trying to deny it.” She shouted, “You didn’t even try to hide it today! You rushed to him like some protective daddy, like I’m nothing, like Neo doesn’t matter to you!”
I scoffed, my voice low and sharp.. “Really? You want to talk about today? Okay fine,” I said, turning to face her squarely. “Let’s talk about how you screamed at a child and yanked another so hard he fell and hit his
head.”
Her face twisted. “Oh please,” she scoffed, “He was being aggressive….”
“Aggressive? He’s barely walking!” I snapped, my voice booming. “I saw the footage, Lillian. I requested it. I watched everything. You weren’t being a parent. You were being cruel. That boy was just a kid, like Neo, and he didn’t deserve that.”
“You’re blaming me for being a parent now? For defending my son?”
Damn!
“Defending? Against who? A one–year–old? Can you even hear yourself speak?” I demanded, growing more irritated with each passing second I spent talking to her. “In case you need your brain juggled, I’m blaming you because you acted out of malice. You didn’t separate them like someone concerned for both children. You screamed at a one–year–old, then yanked Neo with so much force that the other child fell back and hit his head! A parent would never act in such a cruel way.”
“Oh,” She scoffed. “Because he’s your precious son, right? That’s the only reason you made a public scene and couldn’t even pretend to care for Neo?”
Oh God! Does this woman have a working brain in that head of hers?
“Don’t you get it?” I yelled into her face. “That boy could’ve had a concussion from the fall. He could’ve… God, do you even realise what you did?”
Her mouth opened, but I wasn’t done.
“He’s a child, Lillian,” I growled, stepping closer. “He’s a baby. And you treated him like a rabid dog.”
“All this because his yours?” She shouted.
“Does that matter?” I barked in disbelief. “Would you have treated any other child like that?”
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She stayed quiet; her expression remaining stubborn,
Then, like a switch flipped, her voice dropped, soft like a wounded dog. “But you’re okay with Neo getting hurt, aren’t you? Because you don’t love his mother.
Oh God!
“I know you don’t love me,” she whispered, suddenly sounding pitiful. “You never have. I knew it from the start. I knew this marriage wasn’t tied out of love. I knew I would always be second to her. But Neo, Neo didn’t ask to be born only to be treated this way.”
I shook my head. “Stop it.”
“No,” she said, voice breaking. “If you claim not to remember that night, I do. And we both made him. You… you initiated it. So don’t stand there acting holier–than–thou, blaming me for everything. Don’t make my son feel like he’s just some mistake born from your amnesia!”
“Don’t twist this into something it’s not.” My voice was shaking now, not from guilt, but from the gravity of her manipulation.
“Oh, now I’m twisting things?” She blinked rapidly, laughing bitterly through the tears that had miraculously formed in her eyes. “I’m twisting things when all your actions today proved exactly what I’ve known all along? I’ve done everything, Kyle. I’ve been the good wife. I’ve waited. I’ve raised your son, our son. And still, the first chance you get, you run to that woman and her child and treat them like they are the only one who matters.” Her words should affect me. Hell, it does, but I know this game. This wasn’t her first time to gaslight me into guilt, but that ends tonight. Not after what I saw in the video.
“You don’t get to play the victim card, Lillian. Especially, not after what I saw.”
She took a breath, wanting to keep arguing, but I didn’t stop.
“Yes, Neo is my son. I would never deny him. I love him. But don’t you dare try to turn this into a war between my children. Don’t you ever put me in a position where I have to choose between protecting and loving one over the other because they are both my blood. However,…” I said, taking some steps towards her while she took equal steps back until her back hit the wall.
“That night… Explain to me why it’s still a blur. Why I can remember the day before, even after drowning in bottle after bottle of alcohol, but not that night? Not the one night that changed everything.”
She stayed quiet, her mascara–smudged eyes trained on me. “That’s on you, not me. So why ask me?” With a nod and no other word exchanged, I turned and entered my room, locking the door behind me. Inside, I sat on the edge of the bed and buried my face in my hands. My chest ached, and my emotions conflicted.
I was a total mess.
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