Chapter Twenty-one: Aiden

"Ava? Are you ready?" I called from downstairs, waiting impatiently for her to come out of the room. She descended the stairs in a hurry, stopping suddenly when she realised that she had forgotten something.

"I left my purse upstairs, sorry I'll be back in a jiffy!"

My shoulder slumped as I sighed an advanced to the car. I was already inside when she joined me, taking deep breaths as she toppled onto the passenger seat.

She used the visor mirror to adjust her hair and do some small touches on her makeup. Today was important because we're going to be seeing the doctor and the results from our tests would be ready.

I took a deep breath and started the engine. She seemed to notice my nervousness and she reached out and wrapped her fingers around my wrist. "Everything's going to be okay," she said with the confidence smile.

How she managed to always make me feel at ease was something that I myself didn't understand. We drove to the hospital with nothing but the music from the radio filling the silence in the car.

The doctor was holding a file in his hands and going through it as though it was the first time he'd seen it. "Alright, everything seems fine. Mr Tan here has what we call Oligospermia, the amount of sperm cells per metre of the samples we collected are extremely low. This is why it's been increasingly difficult the both of you to be able to conceive a child."

Ava leaned forward. "So what do we do? How can we fix it?"

"Given the current condition, I would say that the solution here would be an IVF with ICSI."

"What's that?"

He pushed his glasses backwards with his index finger, making sure that the frame was lying just on the bridge of his nose.

"Well we will collect sperm samples from you and artificially fertilise them with your wife's eggs outside of her body and then we would allow the fertilisation to occur and then transplant the fertilised eggs into your wife so that she can carry the pregnancy to full term without any complication.'

Ava smiled and shared a look with me. "That's awesome, we can finally have children of our own."

I nodded, squeezing her hands. "I must warn you, there is no guarantee that it would work on your first try."

"We understand doctor," I said.

He wrote us some prescriptions of drugs that we were supposed to be taking and then scheduled the date we would come to the hospital for sample collections as well as the other procedures.

We rounded up our meeting with him and then the doctor and I shook hands. "Thank you doctor Ortega," I said with a smile. "You don't know how much this means to me."

For a split second, his expression faltered and a slight unmistakable sadness slipped out. I observed him for a few more seconds but I couldn't see it again, the sadness.

As we made our way out of his office I couldn't help but turn to Ava. "Was it just me or did the doctor a look a bit… I don't know…"

"Stressed? He's a doctor he's been working all day of course he'll be stressed."

"Yeah… stressed…" I mumbled.

Our hospital visit was scheduled for the morning so we still had the rest of the day. I was supposed to drop Ava off at her office and then head to work.

"Honey, is there anything you're thinking about?" she asked as I pulled up in the parking lot of her building.

"No, nothing at all. You have a great day at work okay?" I kissed her.

She got down from the car and headed straight into her building and I on the other hand, drove to work. I didn't even reach my office before Tiffany joined me in the hallway.

"Good morning sir, I have updates on the project."

"Can it wait? I just arrived."

"Okay, I'm sorry."

"Please give me some coffee," I said to her before turning. I unlocked my door and then stepped into my office, plopping down on my seat.

Shortly after she returned with a steaming cup of coffee. "Thank you," I said in a low voice, collecting the coffee from her.

I needed some caffeine to jump start my day. "Okay, let me have the reports."

She slid some documents towards me and then began talking. "They're done with the demolition and the area is currently being cleared, it will soon be time to move on to construction."

"Hm. That nice."

She went on and on, briefing me on matters concerning the company but at some point I blurred out her voice still thinking about the doctor's visit earlier.

"Sir? Sir?!"

I blinked and turned to face her. "Yes I'm with you."

"I'm done giving the reports," she said.

I tried to hide my surprise. I must have zoned out and missed out on almost everything she said, but I didn't want her to have to repeat herself I would just go through the documents myself.

"Okay, if that's all you can leave."

She curtsied a little and then spun around. She was nearing the door when I called out.

"Tiffany."

She froze on the spot and then turned. "Yes sir?"

"Do you know anyone who has ever… um, done an IVF?"

Her face instantly twisted in confusion and I regretted asking the question. "You know what, never mind sorry for the question," I quickly added.

"No it's fine, my aunt did it, why?" She replied.

"I just wanted to know what the success rate is like, what's that her first time?"

Tiffany through her weight back and forth on her feet. "No, she was successful on her third attempt. Are you planning on doing one?"

I wasn't even sure if this was the kind of thing I should be discussing with my secretary. "You can leave now, thank you."

Sensing my refusal to divulge anymore information, Tiffany turned around and left my office quietly. I rested my back against the seat.

After work, I headed straight home. When I open the door to the house, the only thing that greeted me was the echo of the creaking door hinges. Then eventually, it maid popped into my line of vision.

She greeted me and then offered to collect my briefcase. As I walked down the empty hallway, there was a yearning in my heart. I began to imagine what you would feel like to have little children running up to me right here in this very passage.

I'd have to bend down to pick them up and then give them kisses on their cheeks. I imagined what he would feel like to hold my child in my hand and carry them to the room walking past their baby pictures which would be hung on the walls.

This was one of the biggest dreams Olivia and I had. Now she was realizing hers with another man.

I went to the balcony and pulled myself some whisky, drinking and staring out into the nightscape. As I was about to take another gulp of whisky, someone stopped me, gently snatching the cup away.

"Hey! I wasn't done with that," I complained.

Ava held it in her hands, swirling it lightly. "That's enough, you don't usually come here to drink unless you have a problem. So talk to me."

She said the cup down with a clink and sat opposite me.

"It's not really much of a problem, I was just thinking…"

"About what?" She enquired.

"About what it would feel like to be a father, how different this house would be if we had kids."

She inched nearer to me, holding my hands. "Honey, everything is going to work out, we will soon become parents."

I reached out and held her face, leaning forward as I pressed my lips against hers. She got up from her seat and decided to sit on my lap.

"You're not even that heavy," I said smiling.

"I will be when I'm pregnant for you."

We laughed at her light hearted joke. "Anyway, the reason why I was looking for you was because I wanted to tell you that I'm organising a charity gala."

For the past 4 years, Ava has been organising and what charity colours and the only got better and bigger each year. "That's wonderful honey, what's the theme this year."

"I don't know yet, but I'm working on it. I'm thinking something that has to do with children."

A warm smile spread on my face. "That's an amazing idea."

The shuffling of feet met my ears. "Sir, ma'am, there's there's a lady outside and she said she wants to see you. She says she's a detective," the maid said.

"Let her in."

Ava got down from my lap and I stood up. "Detective? Do you think it's Kate? What could she be doing here?"

"She did say they were still investigating, let's go find out what she wants."

Ava and I descended from the stair case to find late standing in out sitting room with a police man beside her.

"Sorry to bother you Mr Tan but I need to ask you some questions down at the station," Kate said.