43

"It was accidental... everything."

I doubted she'd believe me, but she turned around and faced me. Her pale eyes piercing into my soul. She said nothing.

"It's coincidental that you are Nathan's mum...I didn't know before that press conference... but you knew, didn't you? That I was the man he had been meeting."

It came as a confrontation, but I guessed she was too weak to stand up.

"I didn't know it would come to all this... I never planned to disclose my identity." Her confession came as weak and lethargic. Was she okay?

"Are you fine? Do you need anything?" I didn't know whether she was on medication or not.

"Could you just stay away?"

It wasn't her first time of saying this to me, yet I was disappointed.

"That's okay. Take care of yourself."

***

Layla

His footsteps receded outside the door, and then he was gone. I hoped he was gone for good. It was the best he could do for both me and Nathan.

We shouldn't have him in our lives. Now, I thought the rest of the work remained on me and the methods I wanted to employ to get Nathan to completely forget about him.

Henry was a better father figure than anyone else would ever be, so I should find a way to tune his heart towards the former. Leo, I knew, was no good. He was a past I dreaded to accept in my present.

The sensation I felt whenever I was around told it all. I didn't think I could trust myself with him around.

Now, I had to conjure up something that I would feed Nathan with. You could call it anything for all I cared, but I was determined to take his little toddler mind of Leonardo Cooper.

Thankfully, he didn't ask of him upon waking up from his midday nap, and it was as if he temporarily had memory loss. I could only pray he never remembered him, but he did, like it was bound to happen, the next morning.

"Will Leo come to play with me?" His childish voice asked.

"Nathan, Leo is out of the country currently, all right? He can't visit you for now." I didn't know if I sounded convincing to my four-year-old toddler.

He blinked and abruptly sat on the bed, cutting short his preparation for school halfway. I knew what I had said made him react in such a way, but I was helpless too. My search for his father might have come to an end, I knew, I meant meeting Leo and Tony on that night had signified a dead end to me. And sincerely, I was caught in between the heat of everything.

"What is the matter with you?" I approached him.

"Mummy?" He began. I knew something was coming. "Why don't you like Leo?" He asked inquisitively, tears glistening in his eyes.

How was I supposed to tell him that it wasn't that I didn't like his beloved Leo...not like, I meant... how could I be comfortable around my ex-boyfriend?

"He is a good man, mummy, only if you get to know him."

"But uncle Henry is a good man too," I blurted out.

"I know, but I love Leo more," He said, and my heart dropped.

What did Leo bewitch my boy with?

"He is not a bad person, mummy, why don't you like him?" He asked stubbornly.

"No, no...it isn't what you think. Mummy is just being careful." I responded.

"Careful?" He thought about the word for a second. "Why do you have to be careful?" He queried.

"I have to be careful because Leo is not someone close to us." I quickly came up with that.

He nodded, but I'm sure he wasn't convinced enough.

"So I have to be careful of Miss Honey and my other friends too?" He arched his brows.

"Ah, sure!" I agreed. "Let's get you ready for school now, shall we?"

"Hmm." He tugged at his sleeves.