“Mom, can you meet him? These days, he’s
been going to hospitals and asking for your
name, but I was good, and I didn’t tell him
where you are.”
I looked at Alex. I’d been taking care of him,
and I had to soften my heart.
After I got off work, I told Chris that I’d be
home late, and then I went with Alex to his
<
“house.”
It was a small apartment that he had to get
after his house was given as collateral when
the company was having issues.
“You live here after you came back?”
“Jake said that this was your favorite place
and that you liked seeing the view from the
balcony, so he hired someone to build a chair
for you.”
The truth was that I didn’t like to see the
view; I could see me, Chris, and my son’s
house from here.
The house was clean, and it seemed like
someone had hired someone to clean it
regularly.
<
Opening the fridge, there was nothing but
eggs and water.
I furrowed my brow. It seemed like Jake’s son
hadn’t had it too rough.
“What do you eat when you’re here?”
Alex said, sounding wronged: “I order
delivery.”
“Is there a supermarket nearby? I can take
you out to get ingredients.”
Alex seemed to not respond at first. Next, he
turned around and gave me a happy smile.
“Mom, wait for me; I’m going to go change.”
We got back with groceries, and when we
<
opened the door, the lights were on and there
was the sound of someone cutting food.
Jake was back.
Alex grabbed my hand, telling me: “I didn’t tell
him, and I didn’t know that he would be here
so early…”
A dark figure walked over from the living
room, and his eyes were slightly red as he
clutched his knife.
“Karen, you’re back.”
I walked over and put the groceries down on
the table: “You’ve been taking care of him for
fifteen years; you should take care of him
until he’s eighteen.”
Jake was clutching onto the table, looking
helpless: “Then what about you? Aren’t you
going to care about him anymore?”
“He was willing to get rid of his life just so
that you could be with Sarah. And when we
came back, we said that we would stay out of
each other’s lives.”
Jake’s face turned pale: “Then stay for
dinner, and we can talk about the other things
later.”
He looked at me hopefully, and said it in a
ruthless manner.
I squeezed the phone in my hand and said:
“Okay.”
His tight face finally relaxed, and he turned
<
around to prepare dinner.
I turned on my phone and sent a message to
Chris.
A half an hour later, he put the courses on the
table.
He put on gloves and held out a crawfish in a dish: “You used to peel these for me; I can
peel these for you from now on.”
But he didn’t know that I was allergic to
seafood.
As he peeled, he said, “The company is going
well, and Sarah isn’t going to be back. We
aren’t even thirty, and if you like kids, we can
have another one. You can bring him up if you
want, and if you’re tired, we can have
someone else help.”
Alex had been lowering his head, but tears
were streaming down his face, and he didn’t
dare make a noise.
I put the chopsticks down: “Jake, you should
ask for Alex’s opinion. Does he want a little
brother or sister? Next, I don’t want to get
back with you.‘
The crawfish fell into the dish, and he tried to
win me over.
“Alex was adopted, so he doesn’t have the
right to tell me if I should have a kid. I was
tricked by Sarah, so you can’t hold that
against me. I’m doing well now, so stay with
me, and you can be the woman of the house.”
Г
I looked at him; I couldn’t understand it.
Why was he so confident that I would stay
with him?
“You’re twenty–eight, not eight. You’re an adult. Now that you’ve made a decision, you have to pay the price. You told me not to regret it, are you going to go back on your
word?”
