Raymond wasn't in a much better mood the next day as he'd hoped. If anything, all the events of the previous day seemed to have finally caught up with him as he started the day with a raging headache that felt like a whole battalion marching in his head.
Still, he found himself getting ready and going to work. Left to him, he would rather have spent the whole day locked away in his office, buried in work but of course his brother had other plans. Even though he had been expecting it, he still wasn't prepared when his secretary announced that Alex was there to see him.
Reluctantly, he asked that his brother be let in and one look at him had Alex shaking his head disapprovingly.
"I asked you to rest today," Alex chided. His gaze roamed his brother's frame perched in his seat and bent slightly over his desk. He tsked as he settled on the seat opposite Raymond. "You don't want me telling you what you look like right now."
Raymond chuckled, leaning back and rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Whatever it is, I feel even worse."
Alex hummed, tilting his head slightly as if trying to figure something out. "So, are you going to tell me what happened to you?"
"Straight to the point, yeah?" But seeing as it was Alex, he would have been an idiot expecting anything less. "Will you let me off if I say no?"
"No," Alex replied, grinning when Raymond groaned. "Don't you remember? You were the one who suggested we always talked to each other about things like this. You can't go back on your own words now."
Raymond scoffed. He'd never have thought at the time saying that would one day come back to bite him in the butt.
"So . . . ?" Alex prompted, both brows raising in question. He wasn't giving up without a proper explanation.
Raymond huffed out a breath, giving in. "Fine. I met up with Rose yesterday."
He paused, waiting for his brother's reaction. A part of him expected Alex to maybe lash out at him for not listening, but all he got was an encouraging nod to continue.
He proceeded to narrate the whole story to Alex, leaving nothing out. When he was done, Alex was wearing a thoughtful and confused expression.
"So, are you going to say anything?" He demanded of his brother, growing a tad defensive. He'd not spilled out his guts just to be met with silence.
"Calm your tits. I'm thinking," Alex teased.
Raymond chuckled, feeling himself slowly relaxing. Talking about it actually made him feel a little bit better.
"She lied to you," Alex finally declared, an unusual confidence present in his words.
"What?" Raymond asked, confused. "What are you talking about?"
Alex sighed. "You might not like to hear this, but it was all for your good, alright?"
Raymond's eyes narrowed as he grew considerably suspicious. "What did you do?"
Alex snorted. "Whatever you're thinking is not it, okay? You kept seeing Rose even after all that happened between you both. I found that really worrisome so I have kind of been keeping an eye on your girl for a while now."
"Keeping an eye on her, how?" Raymond demanded, his suspicions increasing.
Alex shrugged in response but offered no other explanation.
He felt annoyance growing but quickly stemmed it. Getting angry with Alex was surely going to get him even farther from answers. "And? What does that have to do with the boy?"
"She dropped him off at an orphanage two months ago," Alex explained.
"What??"
"Yes, and for all I know, he has been there since then so that story about the accident, she cooked that up."
Raymond fell back even harder against his seat, his hand flying up to massage his temple that seemed on the verge of bursting with how his headache seemed to have intensified.
"I can't believe this," he murmured.
Alex just stared at him.
"Why would she even do that? To her child, no less?" Raymond wondered aloud.
"She probably got tired of taking care of him. He had become a burden to her and she felt she had to get rid of him," Alex replied with a shrug. "There's so many reasons, but then haven't we already established she never really needs any reasons to do the things she does?"
Raymond shook his head disbelievingly and muttered, "Unbelievable."
"It's actually not that unbelievable. You're the only one who has refused to see her for who she is," Alex stated and the accusation in the words were too obvious to be ignored.
"Don't start lecturing me now. I have enough going through my head already," Raymond pleaded. "So, about Jason -- "
Alex cut in before he could go too far, "No, don't even think about it. This is all for the best. It's about time you sever the bond between you and Rose permanently."
"Look, Alex -- "
"I know," Alex assured. "I know how much you care for the boy and how attached you are to him but there are times you just have to make what you might consider a selfish decision, for everyone's ultimate good."
"Jason is only a child. His own mother abandoned him. I can't just do the same," Raymond argued.
Alex let out a breath, frustrated, but he'd come prepared. "I knew you were going to be like this when you found out about it and that is why I took it upon myself to secure his adoption process."
"What adoption process?"
"When I found out, I told Sophia about it and it turned out there was this couple she knows from church who have been having issues with having children and are considering adoption. She's been talking to them and they might be interested in adopting your boy."
Raymond's mind reeled, taking it all in. "Really? I-I'm not sure what to say or think right now. This is all a bit too much."
Alex smiled, a little sympathetic. "I know. Do you remember that time I was sick and you asked me to relax and trust you to take care of me, everything included?"
Raymond scoffed, his mind going back to the time. "You mean that time you were so adamant about being able to take care of yourself?"
An unexpected small laugh escaped Alex. "I still ended up doing what you wanted anyway."
"Because you had no choice," Raymond insisted.
"Yes, well . . . Point is, it's my turn now to ask you to sit back and watch me take care of this for you."
"Alex . . . "
"I promise I'll ensure the boy is in good hands. If you won't trust me, at least trust Sophia."
Raymond's eyes softened and a genuine smile finally graced his lips. "That's not necessary. I do trust you."
"Good. This is your chance of getting Rose off your back for good. Now that she believes you think the boy is dead, she won't come back, and it's better that way."
"Yes," Raymond agreed, contemplating it. "I guess you're right."
• ~ •
Although he had promised his brother he was going to hands off finally, Raymond realized it was going to be harder than he'd thought. In a way, he had been responsible for the boy since his birth and it was really unsettling deciding to let go when he couldn't even guarantee the boy's future.
At the same time, if there was ever going to be a chance of Jason growing up in any semblance of normal in form of a nice, trustworthy family, he wasn't going to deny the boy the chances of getting that, and he knew Alex and Sophie would definitely ensure that happened.
The ringing of the doorbell interrupted his thoughts. Sighing softly, he pushed himself off the couch he'd been reclining on and went to open the door, somehow expecting Efe to be on the other side of the door.
The person there however, wasn't Efe. It was Valerie.
"Valerie?" He asked dumbly, more than a little surprised to see her.
"Hi, Raymond," she greeted, a coy smile gracing her lips.
"Hi," he returned even as a confused frown marred his face. "What are you doing here?"
"Aren't you going to at least invite me in first?" She demanded teasingly.
"I'm so sorry." He stepped aside and waited for her to step in before shutting the door behind them. He walked back to the couch and motioned for her to sit which she did.
"So, what would you like? Juice? Water? Wine? Anything?" He offered.
"I'm fine," she laughed, waving his offer off.
"Really? Nothing at all?"
Val shook her head. "At least not yet. Sit, please."
He nodded and did so, sitting beside her on the couch while leaving a reasonable bit of space between them.
"You must be surprised to see me," Val stated.
Raymond chuckled, nodding. "Honestly, yes. For one, I didn't think you'd even have my address much less you showing up here."
"Yeah," she chuckled awkwardly. "About your address, Hope gave it to me."
"Hope did?" Raymond asked, even though he'd heard clearly. Hope. The same Hope he'd rudely sent out of his car the day before. The same Hope that had been ignoring his calls all day. Val nodded then Raymond nodded. "I see."
"So, I wont lie. I don't really have a reason for being here," Val confessed. "That's except coming to check on you. I mean, you must have gotten such a scare yesterday and you didn't seem yourself leaving the hospital. I guess I wanted to come see you, make sure you're really fine."
Raymond was touched. A small smile bloomed on his face, grateful for her concern. "Thank you, Val. I'm fine. I guess I was just a little shaken up yesterday, but I'm fine now."
She nodded but didn't reply in words, mostly because she had suddenly gotten tongue tied as she stared at the beautiful dimpled smile on his face. Her heart thumped heavily as she came to realize for the gazillionth time that she really really did like him.
Raymond's smile slowly faded as he became aware of the way she was staring at him. She was being so open that he could almost see the stars shooting out of her eyes. It made it increasingly harder for him to pretend to be oblivious her feelings, especially when he wasn't even sure what the clenching in his gut was to be attributed to.
He looked away from her, clearing his throat to digress the mood. Val seemed to recover herself as she also turned to face the TV, totally lost to whatever was going on in it. An uncomfortable silence lingered between them with both of them lost on how to break the awkward spell that had suddenly formed between them.
Val snapped her eyes closed, trying to gather the courage to ask the one question that always plagued her whenever Raymond was around.
"Do you like me?" She finally blurted, eyes transfixed religiously on the TV screen.
Raymond's gaze snapped back to her, extremely surprised. He was grateful he wasn't eating or drinking anything because that was the moment he would have spit whatever it was out.
"What?"
Val heaved out a breath before turning back to face him. "I asked if you like me."
Raymond was at a loss of what to say. If she'd asked him a couple weeks ago, the answer would have been a definite yes, but now. . . he wasn't so sure. He knew he felt something when she was around him, but it wasn't clear what it was to him anymore.
Val felt a bit disappointed as she watched him verbally struggle to give her an answer. "Sometimes I think you do, but sometimes I think you do not. You confuse me a lot," she confessed.
Raymond could only stare at her. He was tempted to ask if she liked him as well just to avoid the question, but that would be him digging his own grave. What would he do if she said yes?
Val sighed once more before turning back to the screen. "Tell me about Rose."
He was left speechless once more at the abrupt and rather unexpected change in conversation.
"I've always been curious about her," Val admitted. "It seemed like she has a lot to do with your current emotional state."
Raymond wasn't entirely comfortable with it, but at least that he could talk about. Grateful for the reprieve, he started, "I met her roughly three years ago at a friend's party. We got talking and she seemed like the perfect woman. She grew up an orphan and supposedly pushed through school all by herself doing menial jobs. She seemed so decent despite her background and rough patches and I found myself slowly falling for her. Soon enough, we started dating. Things got serious and I wanted her to meet my family but for reasons I couldn't figure, she was reluctant and gave all sorts of excuses.
"She ended up meeting them during Angel's twelfth birthday party. Only, she came with another man and she had a totally different name and identity. A whole lot of us were shocked, but . . . " Raymond chuckled and shrugged, thinking back on it. "Anyway, the relationship ended, but then she appeared a few months later, heavily pregnant and she insisted the baby was for either Daniel, that's the other guy, or I."
"Wow," Val breathed.
"Yeah. We had no choice but to stick with her until she had the baby. It was a really crazy time, especially for Daniel who was already in another relationship at the time. She later had the baby and it turned out neither of us was the father."
"Wow!" Val laughed.
"Yeah. That was the moment Daniel decided he was done for good, but I, like an idiot just couldn't leave her be like that. I mean, she had no job, nothing. The baby was doomed to suffer if I didn't do something. So I decided to put it upon myself to help her take care of the child, at least until she could get herself together. It wasn't until later I found out she'd even lied about school and she had no education, no skills. She literally had nothing but then she got so comfortable and entitled with me taking care of them that she soon forgot it was only supposed to be temporary. I blame myself for letting it get out of hand like that though."
Val shook her head vehemently. "You were only trying to help. Honestly, despite everything she'd done, you had to have had a heart made of pure gold to have even put up with her like that."
Raymond chuckled. "Indeed. Everyone else thought I was being an idiot."
Val laughed. "Yeah, well, maybe. A little bit."
He snorted playfully. "Just a little? That's really generous of you."
Val laughed heartily, although unsure of what she found so funny.
"I'm glad you find my idiocy so entertaining."
Val shook her head as she struggled to quell her laugher. She shifted her gaze back to him to find him staring at her with raised brows and a ghost of a smile. Subconsciously, or maybe it was intended, she took his right hand in hers and squeezed it lightly. "I think you're a wonderful person, Raymond. I don't know if you hear that enough."
Raymond wasn't sure why he suddenly found it hard to reply. He cleared his throat and all he could still manage was an embarrassed throaty chuckle.
Val wasn't fully aware of her actions, but before she could second guess and talk herself out of it, she shifted closer to him, his eyes following her movement as she did so. She transfered the hand that was holding his to his face, cupping and caressing it lightly.
His eyes widened a little in realization of what was about to happen, but he couldn't find it in him to pull away. That was all the prompt Val needed as she leaned forward to kiss him, and for a moment, Raymond lost the ability to think completely.
• ~ • ~ •
So it's official. My subconscious is lowkey shipping these two😤.
Sorry for the late update, loves. Don't be mean like me though.
Vote, comment, share❤.