by Emma Vikes
JC shook his head and took a long drag of his beer. “Nah, I think Maia knew you owned the place and decided to use the fact that you two used to date to her advantage. Granted, you did cheat on her, right? God, she must’ve been desperate after I had her fired from her last place.”
My ears perked up at this. Maia had mentioned to me that the last restaurant she worked in fired her out of the blue and because of petty reasons like how she didn’t work well with everyone else. “What?”
JC shrugged as if the whole thing wasn’t bothersome. “Look, the bitch was the sous chef at that place and she didn’t deserve it. She only got the position because, at that time, she was Maia Hale. She was my wife and everyone knew how good I was. It would’ve been a shame if my wife was a mere station chef, right? The head chef thought Maia should be given a promotion because of who her husband was. But after the divorce, I made it very clear to them. That bitch isn’t a brilliant chef. She’s not even a decent one. She isn’t innovative and she’s afraid to take risks with her cooking. I was only looking out for the restaurant, you know? They didn’t deserve to have an incompetent sous chef, let alone a chef that was a woman. Everyone knows the best chefs are men. Women are merely home-cooks.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. Maybe it was the number of times he called Maia a bitch or how much of an asshole he was. “You really did that to her, knowing that you left her with a child to raise on her own?”
JC didn’t seem to at least care when I brought up his daughter. “The bitch got what she deserved. You know the number of times she left the house and slept over at her friend’s? The number of times that I had to take care of myself when my wife’s supposed to do it for me but she’s not at home. She’s at her friend’s house because she needed a breather because apparently, I suffocated her? Cheating on her wouldn’t have been enough because you already did that to her too. She needed a reality check. Women are meant to be home-cooks and not top-tier chefs. All I did was remind her of that.”
I couldn’t take it anymore. I slammed my glass on the table and then lunged at JC beside me, throwing a punch to his face when we stumbled on the floor. I punched him over and over in anger. “You’re a fucking ass! I can’t believe Maia even married you!”
“What the fuck!” JC cried out, trying to defend himself. He struggled to push me so I would be on my back and tried to throw punches at me too. He only managed to hit me a few times. “What the fuck is your problem?!”
Someone managed to pry us away from each other and I struggled in that person’s grasp, wanting to attack JC again. “You’re a fucking asshole! What the fuck did Maia even see in you, you jerk!”
JC spat on the ground, wiping the blood off his face. “You’re one to call me an asshole when you’re the one who neglected your child for seven years!”
When you’re the one who neglected your child for seven years.
His statement caught me off-guard and I stared at him, stunned. “What did you say? You’re the one neglecting Sage and being a shitty dad!”
JC scoffed and glared at me. “I’m not Sage’s father. Apparently, I’m an asshole decent enough to marry a woman knocked up by someone else and stand as a father for that kid. The marriage fell apart between Maia and me and Sage is no longer my responsibility. She’s supposed to be your responsibility but you’ve neglected her. Newsflash, Ansel Moore, you’re the shitty dad!”
All I could do was stare at JC in disbelief.
Shaun showed up, clearing the space and people who’d gathered around us. He glanced at me briefly and motioned for the person next to me to bring me to the side.
I didn’t even realize the person was Garrett. I was completely dazed and confused at the revelation that I did not even expect.
I thought of Sage, how she looked so much like Maia. Except for her eyes. They weren’t dark like her mother’s but they were light and filled with brightness. The color of her eyes always seemed familiar to me and only now—did it hit me. Her eyes were familiar because I see them every day when I look at myself in the mirror.
Her eyes were the same shade as mine.
I took a sharp intake and then let out a gasp. Something seemed to pierce my heart, its sharp point dragging down slowly, wounding me even more. As the truth settled in, the realization that I hadn’t been by my own child’s side broke my heart. I had wanted to meet JC because I knew that Sage deserved to have a father by her side.
Because I knew what it felt like for your own father to neglect you and yet, I had basically neglected my own, even when I didn’t know about her existence. I was Sage’s father. Maia must’ve been pregnant with her when we broke up and she never told me because I broke her heart.
But still…
I deserved to know the truth so why didn’t she tell me?
22
Ansel
I felt like I was dropped in a freezing lake as the douse of truth woke me up to the real situation. JC had been looking at me, his eyes furiously glaring. It was only then when I registered how he shared no features with Sage and while she looked so much like Maia, she had the same eyes as I did. Her eyes were nowhere near the same shade of furious green as the man in front of me.
“You’re pathetic, Ansel. You come at me accusing me of being a shitty dad when I was decent enough to fill in the spot that you never did.”
“I didn’t—I didn’t know.” It was all I could muster to say as I tried to grasp the truth. “The three of us—we’ve been together recently, but Maia never—it never…” It hadn’t once occurred to me that I could’ve been Sage’s father. I had always assumed it had been the guy she married. It was simply because the thought simply never occurred to me and I didn’t even bother calculating and speculating.
It had to be why I’d felt so drawn to Sage. It wasn’t simply because she was Maia’s daughter but because she was also mine. A natural instinct of a father to be drawn to his own child and yet, it simply never came to me.
“Maia was already pregnant when I met her,” JC said, coolly explaining to me to fill in the blanks. Even when his face was bruised and bloodied because of me, he still explained, “I stood by her side because I really liked her. I even fell in love with Sage too and treated her as mine when Maia and I officially dated after she gave birth. My relationship with Maia fell apart after we got married. I didn’t like the fact that she still wanted to work and still dreamed of being a top chef when she already had a family. She was supposed to take care of me, to act like a wife should. What I hated most was her refusal for us to have a child together, that Sage was enough for the time-being.”
As I listened to him, I knew the man was still the self centered asshole I’d thought he was initially.
JC looked down for a moment and balled his hands into fists as he continued, “She was a chasing after a career and refused to act like a woman should after getting married. She was meant to be a mother to my children and be my wife but she was chasing after her dreams. I couldn’t deal with that. It was not the marriage I imagined.”
His words triggered me, no matter how shocked I was about the truth. “So you chose to file a divorce and ruin her career because she didn’t want to be knocked up by you? Then you turned your back on them?”
JC laughed at me. “You’re one to talk. You weren’t even a father to Sage. I was the one who filled in for you for seven years. Instead of punching me, you should be thanking me.”
“I don’t think I’d be grateful for an asshole like you,” I spat, standing up and pushing him to the side, walking away from the scene.
“You know why Maia never told you?”
I stopped in my tracks at JC’s words.
He went on in a snide voice, “It’s because she always assumed that you would walk away on them one day. It must be why even when you’re already around, she still kept the truth from you. You and I, we both broke her heart. So I don’t think she’d ever give either of us a chance and for the record, I don’t really care.”
A
hand landed on my shoulder and I looked to my side to see Garrett.
His mouth was set into a thin line as he nodded at me and nudged me forward. “It’s not worth it to fight with him even more, Ansel. He’s a douche and you’re not in the right state of mind.”
Shaun waved us over to one side and ushered us into a private room.
A bottle of whiskey sat on the table and I grabbed it, opening the lid then downing the contents while they tried to pry it from me. I could barely understand what the hell was going on. All I knew was that it broke my heart to know that Sage was my daughter and I never knew.
She’d been right in front of me and here I was, meeting with the man I thought was her biological dad, wanting to give her a relationship with a father when it had simply been me… all along. I could’ve given her what I wanted her to have. I was ready to give it to her if JC refused. I still was but the whole thing was so confusing.
“Why didn’t she just tell me?” I whispered as I finally set the bottle down on the table.
Shaun had slipped out of the room.
I didn’t mind. He had guests and he also needed to do some damage control from what just happened between JC and I. The only other person in the room with me was Garrett.
“You two were already broken up,” Garrett said, his voice quiet and somber, “and I think that Maia didn’t want to bother you.”
“Bother me?” I repeated incredulously. “Garrett, you don’t keep something like that a secret. You don’t simply hide the fact that you have a child with someone. You don’t also let him keep believing that the father of your child together is someone else when he’s right in front of you!”
Garrett scratched his head, probably unsure of what he was supposed to say.
Hell, even I didn’t know how I was meant to react. Should I be happy that Sage was actually my daughter and it gave me a better chance to be with Maia for real? Should I be upset that she never told me and let me believe that she was someone else’s kid?
“I need to see her,” I said, abruptly standing up, only to be yanked back down by Garrett. “Garrett, I need to talk to Maia! I know where she lives. I’ve been trying to call her all afternoon to…” But there was already an issue before this one. I had promised Joey, Doug and Alice that I would give Maia some space to think. I didn’t think I would be able to do so right now. All I wanted right now was an answer as to why she never told me when we met again. I could understand why she chose not to tell me eight years ago but I thought things were better with us now.
And after her divorce with JC, when she was trying to land herself a job, when she was struggling to raise Sage in the last few months, why didn’t she just come to me?
“You’re not going to see her right now, Ansel. Not in the state you’re in. You reek of alcohol and you’re too emotional. I don’t want you going to see Maia then do or say something you’re gonna regret when you’re sober and have a clearer mind.”
“You want me to wait?” I asked him in exasperation.
“I want you to be sober,” Garrett replied calmly, “and I’m not gonna leave your side until tomorrow when I’m certain you can face her without any trace of alcohol left in your system. When you’re not being controlled by your emotions and you’ve managed to think things through.”
As much as I wanted to hear the truth from Maia, I knew that Garrett would absolutely not let me. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I don’t want you to make a fool out of yourself, Ansel, and I don’t want you doing something that you’ll regret again. You’ve been searching for her for all these years and your paths crossed with hers again. If you end up doing or saying something wrong, it might cost you what you have now.”
Garrett had a point. With a sigh, I grabbed a glass and poured the remaining contents of the alcohol I had chugged a while ago into it. “Well, if that’s what you’re trying to do then I guess you won’t mind if I drink myself numb because it fucking hurts, Garrett.”
He let me. He let me drink as much as I could until I couldn’t then I passed out from my own drunkenness. The rest was a blur to me but I knew Garrett was the one who took care of me and drove me back to Onyx Shrine. I knew it was him because when I woke up the next day, he was sprawled on my couch, fast asleep.
“Fuck!” I complained, plopping on the small space on the couch and waking up Garrett. “My head hurts like a bitch.”
“Serves you right,” Garrett muttered as he sat up and then headed straight to the kitchen. “Where’s your aspirin?”
I pointed at the medicine cabinet in the kitchen.
He got me two pills and came back with the medicine and water.
I drank it right away and closed my eyes, groaning a little at the pounding headache. “What happened last night? I feel like I’d completely blacked out.”
Garrett sat next to me, staring at me curiously for a moment and when I looked at him expectantly, he nodded his head a bit and clasped his hands together. “Well, let’s see. You got into a brawl with a man who happened to be Maia’s ex-husband. Then, he told you that the kid you thought was his, turned out to be yours. You wanted to go to Maia but I stopped you and you drank yourself numb.” Garrett tried to make it sound so nonchalant but he did look concerned, he’d stayed to make sure I was okay.
But the thing was, I wasn’t okay. As soon as I registered what he said, the pain came back. More striking this time, gripping at my heart, and overwhelming me all over again like it did last night. “Sage is my daughter,” I said quietly, almost in a whisper. My eyes filled with unshed tears as the image of the bright and positive little girl I’d spent so much time with flashed in my mind. It hurt to know that in the years she had been in this world, I did not know of her existence. I’d been robbed of the time I could’ve been with my daughter. “I can’t believe she didn’t tell me.”
“You never wanted a kid.”
Garrett’s words made me look at him and surprise. “What?”
He sighed and then began to explain, “You always made it clear that you didn’t like kids, Ansel. Maybe after you broke her heart, Maia thought that you wouldn’t want anything to do with the kid. I don’t think you can blame her from keeping it from you.”
I swallowed, balling my hands into my fists. “Still, Garrett. She could’ve told me now. She could’ve gone to me when she was at her lowest and told me that we had a daughter. Or maybe the first time when I met Sage, she should’ve told me. She shouldn’t have let me believe she was someone else’s kid. I deserved to know the truth.”
Before Garrett could respond to what I said though, an urgent knock echoed throughout the house and then we could hear someone punching in the passcode.
Joey came in looking a tense and upset as he made his way to me. He was carrying a tablet in his hand and he quickly handed it to me.
For a moment, I thought it would be the review from the food critic. Maybe we still did poorly even if Doug had stepped in and cooked for him. But what I was staring at wasn’t a review but a resignation letter. As I read through the content of the letter, my heart dropped when I saw who had signed it.
Maia Quincy.
“What the hell?” I looked up at Joey, hoping he had an explanation for the sudden resignation letter that Maia had submitted.
He only shook his head. “Alice and Doug have been trying to get a hold of her. Taylor told me she was with her yesterday and she didn’t expect that Maia would submit a resignation letter. If it’s because of what happened with the food critic yesterday, we all think her course of action is too drastic. The review isn’t even up and yet, she had handed in a resignation.”
I ran my hand over my face. “This must be because of something else. I need to…I need to see her right now.”
Neither men in the room with me stopped me as I rushed back into my room to change and brush my teeth. I didn’t have time for a shower because I felt like I needed to see Maia as soon as possible. Checking the time on my watch, I mentally cursed myse
lf for waking up too late. It was already nearly noon and Maia might not be in her apartment.
I tried to keep my composure as I drove but my mind was running wild. I was already overwhelmed with the truth I found out last night. Right now, my mind was blown too, because Maia had submitted a resignation. If she was choosing to walk away from the hotel, it could possibly mean she was choosing to walk away from me too.
When I finally reached their apartment, I rang their doorbell over and over then knocked on the door but no one was answering. I slammed the palm of my hand against the door, yelling for Maia’s name.
“Hey!” someone called out of the apartment beside theirs, glaring at me. “Stop banging on the door. No one’s there!”
“The woman with her daughter, the one living here. Where are they?”
“I don’t know but she came back a while ago and came out carrying luggage.”
She’s moving? What the hell? I thanked the guy and rushed back to my car, inputting the address of Joanne’s bakery after I found it in my GPS. Then I drove there. She was already open and I rushed in, uncaring of the complaints of the people in line there.
“What the hell, Ansel? There’s a line!” Joanne scolded me and
I could hear the annoyance in her tone, but I couldn’t care. “Where’s Maia?”
She stared at me as if I grew another head. “Why are you looking for her from me? I’m not Maia’s keeper, Ansel. If she should be somewhere, shouldn’t she be at your hotel kitchen, working?”
I scoffed, thinking Joanne had to be was feigning not knowing. “She sent a resignation letter last night. She’s not at their apartment. Where the hell is she, Joanne?”
Confusion appeared in Joanne’s eyes as she stared at me, her eyebrows furrowed together. “What? What do you mean s-she resigned? Where is she?”
“I wouldn’t be here asking you if I knew,” I said, finally acknowledging that Joanne had no idea. I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration, wondering where the hell Maia was. I was sleep-deprived, confused and frustrated at the situation. All I wanted was to see Maia again and get the truth out of her.
