by Ashley Blake
“Okay, I won’t argue with you about it, thank you. How did you even know that something was wrong, how did you end up at my place?”
“After you sped away I followed you and I got there right as your neighbor was breaking down your door. Brian tried to run but we held him until the cops came. I called your parents as soon as I knew you were in the ambulance and then I came to the hospital to wait until you woke up. I had to know that you were okay. I don’t know what I would have done if I had lost you.” He started to choke up and looked away as he composed himself.
“How did you get my parents phone number?”
“They are your ‘in case of emergency’ contact at work so I had my assistant pull your information.”
“Thank you for calling my parents, but you don’t have to be here, you don’t have to worry about me.” I looked at him with cold eyes. “I am not your responsibility, that little boy is.”
His eyes were sad and he looked defeated as he took a deep breath.
“Can I please tell you about that?”
“I don’t want to hear it Sebastian, you had plenty of time to tell me that you had a son. Can you just go, please? My head is killing me so I don’t feel like talking.”
“Elena, you have to let me explain, please!”
I had never seen him look desperate and I don’t know if it was because my head was killing me and I just wanted to rest or if I really wanted to hear what he had to say, but I gave in.
“Okay, fine. But it will have to wait until I am out of the hospital. The doctor said I need to rest and avoid stress.”
A look of relief fell over his face. “Okay, thank you. I’ll call you in a couple of days just to see how you’re doing.”
The meds were really kicking in again and I just wanted to be alone so I agreed with him. After he left I lay in my hospital bed thinking about what had happened to me in the past couple of days. Seeing Sophia at Sebastian’s house holding that little boy’s hand, and hearing him call Sebastian ‘daddy’ was like a knife to my heart. Anything I thought I might be able to have with Sebastian was completely over. He had plenty of opportunities to tell me that he had a kid with Sophia but he didn’t do it. I even asked him about her, about his relationship with her and he failed to mention the most important thing of all, his child. Was he ashamed of him? The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.
I was torn because I had such strong feelings for him, he was so sweet to me, he was gorgeous and the sex…there were no words. Why didn’t he tell me about his son? I didn’t know how we were going to get past that. I drifted off to sleep again feeling both sad and confused.
I went home a couple of days later on Tuesday and my mom doted on me trying to do everything for me even though I kept telling her that she didn’t have to. My dad was only able to stay with us for a day and then he had to go back home. I slept a lot the first few days I was home and then Friday afternoon, when I was feeling much better, my mom and I were having tea and chatting on my couch.
My mom looked at me with a devilish grin and I knew the Sebastian inquisition was coming. “So honey, tell me about Sebastian.”
She was now grinning from ear to ear and I rolled my eyes at her and shook my head trying hard not to crackup at the expression on her face.
“Mom, don’t look at me like that!”
We both started laughing and then the phone rang, interrupting our moment.
“Elena.” Sebastian’s smooth voice made my belly flip, I couldn’t help it, I was happy to hear from him even though my head was telling me I shouldn’t care.
“Hi Sebastian.” I tried to sound nonchalant but I doubt I was able to disguise the lilt in my voice.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Yes, I’m finally feeling a lot better today. The pounding headache is gone.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Do you need anything, is your mom still with you?”
“No, I’m fine, and yes, she’s still here.”
My mom looked at me and mouthed for me to tell him thank you for her.
“Mom wants me to tell you thank you for all of your help and for getting the lawyer.”
“Tell her that I am just happy that she is there with you and that you are okay.”
She gave me a mischievous smile and I waved my hand at her as I tried not to giggle.
“When does your mom go back home?”
“She’s leaving Sunday since I am feeling better. I told her I would be fine and she needs to get back to work.” My mom gave me the sad face when I said that because she didn’t want to leave me so soon. But I knew that she had to get back to work and I didn’t want her to have to work late every night for the next week to make up the hours she missed from work being there with me.
“I should be back in the office on Monday.”
“Elena, please don’t worry about work, the important thing is for you to get better, I want you to come back when you are feeling 100 percent. Also, I would like to pay for your mother’s plane ticket back to Pensacola, and please just say yes; I know how much a last minute ticket costs. I just want to help.”
I started to protest but then I bit my tongue because it would help her a ton if she didn’t have to shell out that money for a ticket.
“Okay, I won’t fight you on that. Thank you Sebastian.”
“No problem at all. Can I speak to your mother for a minute so that I can get her information to buy the ticket?”
I held the phone away from my mouth and quickly told my mom that he offered to buy her ticket. She looked really surprised and I could also see that she was grateful as she realized that she would not have to spend that money.
I handed my mom the phone, they talked for a few minutes, got everything squared away and she gave the phone back to me.
“I will have my assistant set everything up for her, I’ll have a car pick her up and all she will have to do is show up at the airport.”
It was a really nice gesture and I was grateful that he was being so generous. I hated to admit it but it softened me a bit toward him. How could I stay mad at him when he was being so nice to my mom?
“Thank you Sebastian, I want you to know that we both really appreciate your generosity.”
“It’s my pleasure. Elena, can I come see you on Sunday after your mom leaves? I really want to explain everything to you.” There was a subtle desperation in his voice and I could tell that whatever he had to say was important so I gave in.
“Sure, why don’t you come by around 1:30?”
“Okay, I’ll see you Sunday. If you need anything, anything at all before then, please let me know.”
“Okay, I will.”
As soon as I hung up the phone my mom was staring at me waiting for me to fill her in on Sebastian.
"Honey, you have to tell me what has been going on with him. He was so worried about you, you should have seen the way he was pacing back and forth in the hospital room before you woke up, and now he’s offering to pay for my flight home. Elena, this man really cares about you but I can sense that you are upset with him, what happened?”
"Things were really starting to develop with us, I mean things were going great, and then he had to go to Paris for a few days. When he came back, I decided to surprise him at his house and when I got there, it’s a long story but another woman came out of his house and was holding the hand of a little boy who looked like he’s about three years old. It turns out that little boy is Sebastian’s son who he never told me about. So I feel like he was hiding it from me and I don’t understand why.”
“Oh. Hmmm, well maybe you should just hear what he has to say, I’m sure there’s a good explanation for why he didn’t tell you before. Who was the woman?”
"Her name is Sophia and she is the PR exec in the Paris office who Sebastian dated a few years ago and apparently, he left out the part about him having a child with her.”
“Is there anything going on between the two of them now?”
"No, he says thin
gs were over with them a long time ago but when we were in Brazil I could tell that she still has feelings for him.”
“Be careful there Elena, she’s the mother of his child and it will be really easy for her to make him feel like they should be together. You need to be sure that he is really over her and there are no feelings there. I don’t want to see you get hurt.”
"I know, that's why I agreed to hear what he has to say. I will keep you posted on what happens but I don't want to dwell on this during the rest of your time here. I just want to spend quality time with you, mom.”
She patted the back of my hand. “Okay honey.”
Chapter Thirteen – Answers
Sunday afternoon, after my mom and I had our tearful goodbye, I took my time getting ready because I wanted to look pretty for Sebastian. Even though I had no idea what was going to happen between us, I still had feelings for him and wanted to look nice. He showed up right on time and I double-checked my makeup in the mirror before I opened the door.
He looked as gorgeous as ever as he stood in my doorway, taking my breath away.
“Hi.” It was a simple word but the way he said it made the butterflies flutter like crazy in my belly.
“Hi Sebastian, come on in.”
We both got comfortable on the couch and I looked at him and lightly touched his knee. "Thank you again for buying my mom's ticket, you didn’t have to send her back first class but I’m sure she really enjoyed it. That was very generous of you.”
“It was no problem at all Elena, I was happy to do it. I take it she made it back safely?”
“Yes, she did.”
Good.” He looked down at the floor, wringing his hands and I could see that he was nervous and then he raised cautious eyes to mine. “I want to tell you about Sophia and my son.”
My heart was beating out of my chest, but I didn’t know why because this was what I had been waiting for.
“Okay.” I clasped my hands together trying to calm the pounding in my chest.
“The reason Sophia and I broke up is because she slept with Spencer while we were dating which you already know. I found out that they had been sleeping together for nearly the entire time we were together and that was the end for us. A month after we broke up she told me she was pregnant but didn’t know if the baby was mine or Spencer’s so we ended doing a paternity test and it turned out that Jaden is my son.”
To say I was shocked was understatement. So many thoughts flooded my mind and I didn’t know where to begin with my questions so I started with the easiest one first.
“Jaden. You broke the first name starting with an “S” thing.”
He looked a little confused and then gave a half-hearted smile as what I meant by that dawned on him. “Yes, I did.”
“I don’t even know what to say about that Sebastian, that story is awful. The only good thing that came out of it is Jaden. Speaking of Jaden, why didn’t you tell me about him, why did I have to find out about him the way I did?”
He let out a long sigh, releasing tension from his body and looked at me with sad eyes. “I’m really sorry that you found out that way Elena, I didn’t want that to happen. I was going to tell you everything last Saturday when we went out to dinner but you surprised me a day early. Sophia and I have been involved in a brutal custody battle, I want Jaden here with me and she wants to keep Jaden in Paris with her, and my lawyers said it would be best to appear as if I was single until after everything was settled. I go there every other weekend to see him and during the trip last week he was more upset than normal and did not want me to leave, so I told him he could come home with me. Sophia wouldn’t let me take him by myself, since technically my weekend was over, so that’s why she was there also. I could tell by the look on your face that you thought so much more was going on, but I promise you there is nothing going on between Sophia and me besides raising our son and trying to keep his life as normal as possible.”
“How old is he?”
“He just turned three last month.”
It was all so much to take in. I knew when I saw that little boy and he yelled ‘daddy’ to Sebastian that he was his son, but it didn’t really become real until just that moment when he told me everything. Bitter custody battle? Conniving ex-girlfriend? Three-year-old son? It was a lot and I wasn’t sure that I could handle it or that I even wanted to get involved with him now that I knew that he had all of this extra stuff. I could feel myself shutting off from him, my feelings becoming numb as I thought about everything he had just told me.
"Elena, I know this is a lot to take in but you have to believe me that I was going to tell you all about this on Saturday. I didn't want to tell you sooner than that because, to be honest, I didn't want to scare you away. I know it may seem like Sophia is trying to paint a picture that we are a family, but it is not true. We have a trial date set in a couple of months and we should hopefully have some resolution with our custody case.”
“Was Sophia staying at your house when I saw her last week? Because she looked pretty at home holding your son’s hand on your front stairs.”
“Yes, but she was staying in a guest room because Jaden did not want her to leave.”
Jaden didn’t want her to leave. So what was going to happen when daddy got a new girlfriend? Would Jaden always get his way? None of this was sitting well with me. I ran my fingers through my hair in frustration and then looked at him.
"Sebastian, this all seems just a little bit too complicated for me right now, and it would probably be best if you sorted out your personal stuff before you tried to build a relationship with someone.”
He had kind of a panicked look on his face as he reached out and grabbed my hand, his eyes searching mine.
"Please don't say that Elena, I really want things to work out with us and plans are already in motion to get this custody case settled once and for all.”
"It sounds to me like your son wants to have his mommy and daddy under the same roof, and both of you are giving him what he wants which is what you should do. He is, after all, your child. I just think there is going to be a huge problem when he realizes that the two of you will not be together and then you’ll have a whole other layer of issues to deal with to help him get through it. I just don’t know that dating right now is the best thing for you or me. Let me ask you something, do you stay with Sophia in her house when you go to Paris for your visits every other weekend?”
“Yes, but I stay on a separate floor and I have very little interaction with her. I tried to stay in a hotel and Jaden had a fit. He couldn’t sleep so I decided the best thing was for him to feel safe and secure, so I stayed in his house so that he could be in his room.”
"I had a feeling you would say something like that. You see, that's what I'm talking about, he has control right now and neither of you can really have your own life yet.”
"It won't be like this forever Elena, I promise you. As soon as we get custody sorted out we will be making different arrangements and Jaden will just have to learn to live with it. As he gets older, it will be easier for him to understand why we are not together.”
"Yeah, as he gets older, but right now it seems to be a big problem for him and your first priority should be making sure that he is okay.”
“It is and he will be okay. Sophia and I have never been together full-time around him so when we went to see a therapist they explained that it’s a phase he is going through. I didn’t understand why all of a sudden he wanted both of us together, I thought maybe he saw something to make him think that something would happen to one of us. But the therapist assured us that this is temporary and we should continue to make Jaden feel secure and loved. That is what we are doing. I don’t want you to think that there is not room in my life for you, because there is.”
I hesitated and then look at him slowly shaking my head. "I don't know Sebastian, your life seems to be pretty complicated right now and it seems to me that you need to figure some things out before we can move on.”
He looked at me, studying me for a couple of minutes not saying anything, and then he caught me off guard.
“Do you want to be with me? Because I want to be with you Elena. I have known that since I first saw you. I have never met someone who is more perfect for me in every way than you are. You make me happy, you make me smile, I think about you constantly and I want to be with you every minute of every day. I don’t want you to think that I don’t have room in my life for you, that’s just not true.”
I didn’t know how to answer that because on one hand, of course I wanted to be with him, but on the other hand he had just dropped a pretty big bomb on me and I didn’t quite know how to deal with it. If we ended up together that would mean I would become a stepmother and I wasn’t sure that I was ready for that kind of responsibility. I had huge plans for my life and having kids was something I wanted to do later, after I opened my hotel.
