Do You Believe In Magic

Chapter 11

Three days before Josie's birthday party, Kai came home to find that Bonnie was out with Josie. He saw a message on the answering machine and played it, only to find it was a hang up.

He checked the caller ID for the number and dialed it out of curiosity, only to find out it was the desk number to a hotel. He hung up instantly, as the only possible answer ripped through him. He stopped himself from calling back and confirming it. All he could do was wait for another call.

An hour later, the phone rang again. Kai checked the ID and it was the same number. He took a deep breath and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"Kai? Oh God, Kai, is that you?"

Kai's insides tightened with disgust and anxiety. "Yes Vicki, it's me. What do you want?"

"Kai, please, don't hang up on me. I...I need to see you. It's important. I know after what I did..."

"...not what you did, Vicki...but how you did it!"

"I...I...I...know," Vicki stammered on the other end. "You have no idea what I've been going through since I left."

"Guess what, Vicki," Kai said without remorse. "I can say the same thing to you. You just didn't up and leave your boyfriend – you left your daughter! How you, or any mother for that matter, can do that is beyond comprehension. My only answer to that was that you have absolutely no heart or conscious."

Kai heard her crying on the other end. "Kai, please I know. Please, I...I need to see you. To talk to you. I didn't know what I was doing. I was scared. I know it was heinous, what I did, but I was scared. I thought, at the time, I thought I made a big mistake. Now I realize the mistake I made was leaving you both. You have no idea how it's been tearing me up inside. I've been wanting to call you since I left, but I didn't think you'd want anything to do with me. But, as the months went by, I couldn't take it anymore and risked rejection by flying here and contacting you. Please Kai, we...we have to talk. I want my daughter back in my life. I...I want you, too. I...I still love you."

So many emotions coursed through Kai at the moment, that he didn't know which one to act upon first. However, what he'd been going through the last several months, it was easy to know where his heart and head stood. And he couldn't risk screwing up either again, no matter how much she begged.

"Vicki, I'm...I'm sorry. I can't take you back. No...wait...I don't wanna take you back. Who's to say that you won't do this again? What you did was absolutely unforgivable."

"But Kai, don't you still love me?"

"No Vicki. I don't. How could I? What you did only proved to me the true person you are on the inside. What an act you put on to make me think otherwise! I'm relieved that I didn't press marriage with you or I would've had an even more od a shattered mess to deal with. Now I know why you always evaded the issue, you never planned on hanging around long enough. You wanted out since Josie was born. It wasn't what you thought. This lifestyle that you knew about before we started seeing each other wasn't what you thought and now was infused with the reality of a child and you definitely weren't ready for that. Well, guess what? I was! But I just don't want children, Vicki. I want a woman I can love and trust and someone who'll do the same in return. Someone who'll be there to enjoy the good times and won't bail as soon as it gets rough. That someone isn't you!"

Kai felt like there was a mountain lifted off his shoulders after he said that. Everything that had been plaguing his heart and mind since Vicki left all came out. There was silence on the other end for a few moments before Vicki spoke.

"There's someone else, isn't there?"

It didn't take Kai long to recognize the change in her tone from regretful desperation to sarcastic jealousy. It made him wonder if her tearful speech was an act as well to get back what she lost.

"As a matter of fact, Vicki, there is someone else. Someone I'm beginning to care very much about and someone who absolutely loves and cares about Josie."

Vicki's tone, again, took on a wicked tone. "You can't do this to me, Kai. Josie's my daughter. I have rights as a mother to see her."

"Should've thought about that before you took off on her, leaving me alone to raise her. I don't trust you, Vicki, and I certainly wouldn't trust you around her. What do you want me to do, allow you in her life, only for you to leave again? You made your choice, now you have to live with it."

"Look Kai," she hissed. "You don't want me, fine! Screw around with your new little playmate, I don't care. But Josie's biologically mine and, mark my words, I will see her again!"

"Good luck," Kai said before slamming the phone down.

Just as he did, he looked up to see Bonnie walk in with Josie. He then wondered how much she heard, especially the part about him caring about someone else.

"Kai, are you alright? I came in the door and heard you slam the phone down."

Kai looked up from where he leaned against the counter. "Well, our prediction came true. That was Vicki. She wants back in my life and Josie's. Can you believe it?"

Bonnie held Josie tighter as her stomach fluttered. "Are you gonna talk to her about..."

"No, no talking! No nothing. I told her that I didn't want her back nor did I want her anywhere near Josie. She said she has a right as Josie's mother, but, as far as I'm concerned, she gave up that right when she took off with nothing but a note left behind. And to think I was considering marrying her! It was all an act to have what she wanted. And now she thinks her crying for her daughter's gonna just make me hand her over. No way! No fucking way!"

Bonnie cringed at his outburst and language as she held her hand over Josie's ears. Kai saw it and was immediately contrite.

"I'm...I'm sorry. I didn't mean...Bonnie, please...let me take her. I just wanna be alone with her."

"Of course," she said as she watched Josie lean into his daddy's outstretched arms.

As they walked out of the kitchen, Bonnie stared after them, thinking about what Kai just told her. Somehow she knew that Kai's warning to Vicki was gonna fall on deaf ears.

A mother doesn't give up her child that easily.