Chapter 95: A Fair Share Of Mistakes

The Living Room, The Rawsone Residence, Denver, Colorado...

Another early morning trip to the toilet saw Julia Rawsone greeting the morning well before she wished to. Colin Winters seemed to be on edge as he paced the living room both worrying about his missing elder son and the well-being of his less than faithful, new daughter-in-law. They had yet to hear back from Detective Gordon who had been seeing another case for the past few weeks. Maureen took over Hadrian's clients once more and had an increase in her caseload as she turned her attention to ensuring their practice survived the ordeal with his declining mental state. Colin stood in the center of the living room listening to the sound of Julia shuffling in the upstairs bathroom, his arms folded across his chest and his mind trying to reconcile the small boy he had left behind and the grown man he'd managed to become in the wake of his absence. For the most part, people had only good things to say about Hadrian, even the family of the woman he married and they seemed to be quite protective of him as well.

Colin sighed as he continued his pacing only to be approached by Julia who had finally come down the stairs.

"You uh...feeling alright?" asked The elder Rawsone.

"As well as can be expected given the circumstances," replied Julia with something of a grim expression on her face.

"That about sums it up," he said softly understanding.

Julia sighed noting at that moment how much Colin resembled her missing husband. Hadrian had been a rather silent teenager, often kept to himself, and never seemed to be interested in the rules that came with being a teenage high school boy. Colin didn't seem the type to like a lot of noise either as he made his way back to the sofa he'd made up for bedding.

"Given what I did, I have no right to ask but I would like to know what my son was like...when you met him," said Colin attempting to make conversation.

Julia sighed realizing that due to her affair and subsequent pregnancy possibly being the child and not her missing husband, there was no room for her to judge Colin Rawsone for abandoning Hadrian when he was a boy as she'd essentially done the same to him in favor of Gary.

She sat beside the older man on the sofa and did her best to recall the man she knew as a boy in high school. She decided to begin by telling the truth, as there was so much about her relationship that Colin had not been privy to, starting with Samantha's conception.

"When I met Hadrian, he was always sitting beneath a tree and scribbling in the sketch pad he always use to carry around," said Julia reflecting fondly on the boy who had come to her aid in more ways than one. "He didn't talk much and never seemed to have an interest in anything that he wasn't drawing."

"You know, Dr. Harris had gotten him into the drawing," said Colin providing further insight as to why Hadrian was so keen on sketching. "He took to it like a duck to water."

Julia didn't doubt that as she'd seen a good deal of his sketches over the years.

"What was his twin brother like?" asked Julia wondering about the late Phalen Rawsone.

Colin sighed as he thought back to how his younger twin son had been.

"Lonnie was sweet, lacked confrontation, looked up to Hadrian quite a bit, and never had a bad word to say about anyone," he replied.

Julia thought it strange.

"He sounds a lot like Hadrian," she said. "It would have been nice to know him."

Colin nodded.

"Yeah," he said in agreement. "It definitely would have been."

Seeing how her subject upset him, Julia went back to speaking of Hadrian's teenage self.

"He saved my life," Julia admitted. "When we were in high school and the life of our eldest daughter."

Colin was seemingly caught off guard by this as Julia steeled herself against the memories and proceeded to tell her newfound father-in-law about his son coming to her aid when they were in high school and about Rhett Davis the bastard that made her life a living hell.

The elder Rawsone was stunned but not surprised that both Lonnie and Hadrian had been of the mind to protect her.

"If I know my son, Lonnie is the one that nearly ended that punk and Hadrian stopped him." said the older man.

"Lonnie?" asked Julia confused. "The alter?"

"Hadrian must have cared for you a great deal if he allowed Lonnie to exact revenge and given the situation I don't blame them one bit," replied Colin. "Samantha is a fine addition to the family and I am proud to call her my granddaughter."

His words nearly mirrored Hadrian's except he referred to Samantha as his daughter.

Tears began to stream down Julia's cheeks as she tried to make sense of her actions against the man she loved and the consequences of her current pregnancy.

"I can't believe I hurt him," she said breaking down. "After everything we've been through I turned to another man...his best friend at that."

Colin sighed and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"You mustn't be too hard on yourself," he said softly. "We all made our fair share of mistakes when it came to Hadrian, but that doesn't mean we love him any less or that he would love us any less."

"He doesn't even know about the affair, let alone the baby," said Julia. "How am I going to look him in the eye and tell him that the baby we've been trying for years might not be his, especially after the one we lost that was his?"

"I suppose we'd have to cross that bridge when we come to it," replied Colin. "Either way, it's something we'll have to deal with as a family."

"And if he decides that he doesn't want to be with me anymore?" asked Julia as more tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Then it will be his decision," replied Colin honestly in his assessment. "We can only hope that he decides to give it another go."

Julia sighed as she wiped away her tears.

"He's gonna hate me," she said feeling the onset of rejection. "He's gonna hate me and he has every right to after what I did to him."

Colin wrapped his arms around her and held her close like a father would his daughter.

"You don't know that," he said softly. "For all, we know he'd be so grateful to be home after all this nonsense with Bortnik, it's likely he won't care."

Julia sighed.

She had hoped she could speak with her husband, get him to understand her folly, and possibly forgive her but there was the matter of Gary being the father of her unborn child and the fact that he would do anything to be a part of the child's life.

The current Mrs. Rawsone found herself unable to get passed the feeling of doom concerning her marriage as Hadrian did have his limits as far as his kind and generous heart had gone. The unruly alter known as "Lonnie Collins" was living proof of that.