| 005 | Ruby |

When I opened my eyes again, I felt cold sweat in my forehead and chills spreading down my body in unending waves, "Mum," my son cried at my side, and I winced when my head pounded hard again, still feeling an ache in my heart. "Mum, please, talk to me."

I held onto his hand, shaking softly, "I'm okay."

"No, you're not," he cried. "Did your take your meds?"

"I'm... okay," I whispered, and when I opened my eyes after a struggle, I found Leah, her husband and their three children surrounding us, worried, guilty painting her beautiful face. "Ugh."

"You have seizures," she exclaimed.

I swallowed, "Don't tell anyone this, please."

"Mum," my son cried, worried.

Swallowing, I held his hand, "I'm okay, love, it was just... too much, I've been working a lot, my body was already tired, it just pent up with what... she said, and... I'm okay."

"I'll call the doctor and,"

I held his hands, "I am okay, Rhett."

He swallowed, shaking softly, "Mum."

"I'm okay, love. It was just a scare, yeah?!"

"Rhett said that you have seizures ever since you gave birth to him," Neville said softly.

Of course, he did, he must have panicked, "My body was... struggling to get strong again after I gave birth to him, because I was very young, but it was not because of that. I went through an accident when Rhett was 8 months old, he was with mum and I went out to buy some books I would need to study for a test, and a drunk driver hit his car on mine. My car was destroyed, I got out of it almost unscathed, but I've been having seizures since the accident. It's not your fault," I told my son who swallowed. "It took me seven years to drive again, I got a bit... traumatized."

"Mum,"

"It was not your fault, Rhett," I told him again and turned to Neville. "I was bound to have them either way, my maternal family has it, it's genetic and the accident simply awakened it on me. It jumped my mum and came from her dad to me instead, I've been managing."

"I'm sorry," Leah said softly, lips trembling.

When I looked at her, all that she suggested came back to me again and I felt my blood draining from my face again. Suddenly, the idea that the men I actually slept with being Rhyot and not Hayes... took some space in my mind, and I couldn't help asking that to myself. Would I really have been able to set them apart?

I mean, sure, the times Hayes actually attracted me were when he bathed before our classes, which happened not that many times, and when he was more subtle. His voice was lowered down when flirting with me, the look in his eyes felt... darker and more attractive, and his voice sounded slightly deeper as if he had grown serious about the flirting. He felt... more mature, introspective, and irresistible on those moments, and I hated when he went back to acting like a stupid boy, but I thought it was just a side of him I wasn't aware of.

Hayes did say I wasn't his type, he did say it had just been harmless flirting, and he did act as if I had been crazy to fall for him. I thought he was just messing with me, playing with me, lying to us both because I told him not to pretend nothing had happened, and he actually did act like absolutely nothing had happened when he had gone back to my private classes without bathing first and being an arsehole per usual. I thought... I thought it was my fault for shushing him in the first place, that he wasn't going to assume we had been together because he was Cole's best friend.

He rejected me in front of everyone... when I confessed to have fallen for him, in front of his brother... who... looked angry when I gave him the middle finger and told him to go to hell. The last time I thought I had met Hayes, he didn't really speak, he just grabbed me into the locker room abruptly and fucked me harder than he had in my first time, with need and anger, the same I was feeling. Was it really Hayes?

Or did Rhyot mess with me this whole time and took Hayes' place in many of my classes, making me think he was his twin? Did... did I fall in love with Rhyot? Is... is... is Rhyot... Rhett's dad?

Fuck, even their names sound similar.

They act similar.

"Fuck," I cried, covering my face with my hands, eyes burning with tears, "fuck," I cursed again, because what the fuck?

"Mum?" Rhett called, worried. "What is it?"

When I looked at him, I realized how much he actually does look like Rhyot instead, and I felt... doomed, "Oh, my God," I cried helplessly.

"Mum?" He cried even more worried. Grabbing my son to my side, I hugged him and he hugged me back. "Are you... are you in pain, mum?"

Psychological and emotional? Yes. "No."

"We'll give you a moment," Neville exclaimed.

But I paused the hugged, "No... no, need. I'm fine, I'm better. I've embarrassed myself too much for the night. I just..." releasing my son, I turned to them, "hope you can keep everything that happened here between us."

They nodded, bringing me relief.

"Are you really alright, auntie Ruby?"

I turned to Lloyd, "Yes, sweetheart, thank you." Forcing myself to stand up, I accepted Rhett's hand, still shaken and with my mind boiling. "I'm sorry for the trouble, you must have been startled when I collapsed, that doesn't happen usually, at least not outside my home."

"Do you go out constantly?" Leah asked.

"Mum?" Rhett mocked, "She barely even see the sunlight, aunt Leah. Mum is pretty much rooted in our house, when she's not there, she's in grandma's, and when not there either, she's researching things for one of her books." Well, if he's talking this much, he must be feeling comfortable around them, that's good.

"Don't be a brat, Rhett," I scoffed as we followed them to the dining table that was beautifully put.

"I remember that you wanted to become a writer," Leah said.

"I wanted it, yes, and I am," I grabbed the presents before we could seat down. "I didn't know what exactly to get you all, but I didn't want to meet my son's best friend's family empty handed, when we'll be around each other from now on, I hope. So, I dropped on Chanel and got you some little things," I handed Leah her two presents, then Neville's, Lloyd's next, and then the twins. "I also got two wines," I handed them to Leah instead of her husband.

"Us too?" The twins beamed brightly.

"Of course, sweethearts," I said softly. "No one can be forgotten."

"Your mum is amazing, mate," Lloyd exclaimed.

"She is, ain't she?" My son said proudly.

"Oh, oh my God," Leah yelled in a high-pitched voice when she saw what I got her. "They are from the newest collection, limited editions, oh my God, oh my God!" She freaked out like a teenager girl. "Look, honey," she beamed, showing it to her husband who just giggled lovingly.

I know I shouldn't, but a part of me felt... jealous.

So, for the minutes that followed, me and my son just watched silently as they freaked out over their presents, as if we had given them diamonds instead, and I swallowed the bitter jealousy that rose up inside of me watching her being lovey dovey with her perfect husband and their lovely children. I never craved for this, because I could never imagine my life with Hayes Crowther, a stupid men-child who rejected me. But... the perspective of me having gotten all wrong makes things... different.

Of course, I will never go after Rhyot Crowther and confront him about this, because I don't intend in letting them know I have son, and definitely not that the son is from the twin who fucked me in the locker room, because I don't want anything to do with their dangerous family, and especially not with Rhyot who's currently the head of the Crowther, and probably in this New England mafia thing. Hah, that would totally explain how much of a troublemaker the jerk was. But I don't want to think about him.

I can't go down this rabbit hole, not this one.

It'll be bad for me, my son, mum, for everyone!