Forrest looked at Reva's sleeping form. She was sound asleep in their new dwelling. A house he had bought for them. He left the room and walked towards the nursery. He then adjusted the thermostat. His children looked at him with their big eyes.
"You know babies, your mother and I used to play this situation game. The one in which I had given her a situation and she had done the same with me. It was quite fun actually. We can play too, maybe you can help daddy decide what he should do in this situation?" The children smile at him.
"Now you are laughing at your father? You two are traitors and here I thought you two would be on my team." He covered them properly. Right after he had taken them to her someone broke into the neonatal ICU. He doesn't know who it was but he had a fair idea that someone was trying to harm them. So, he did the first thing that came into his mind and he take them and Reva out of that place.
Now, he has one thing left to do. He needed to find out how to get out of this particular situation. He was sure that what Ange intend to accomplish with all this she will sooner or later and there is no way he can do anything to prevent the same. He had gotten a call from his lawyer last night. To him, the case seems to be very much hopeless. She clearly has very strong proof that he had cheated on her. Not only that she had something more. Something he hasn't told anyone about at all.
Forrest kissed on top of his children's heads and closed the door. He needed assistance and fast. But he doesn't know who to go to. Suddenly his world begins to crumble all around him. All he wanted was to share his life with the woman that he loves.
But everything he does only makes it worse. He walked inside his home office and slammed the door shut. Then he pushed everything off the desk breaking the laptop and the pen holder with the paperweights. He cannot take this anymore. What he ever did to harm anyone?
He didn't even love Ange. He never love anyone in his life till he met Reva. What made him go back to Ange was his guilt. He always had felt responsible for her state. She being in a coma was entirely his fault. That was what made him feel guilt every time he closed his eyes. Now his past came haunting back to him. Now, he is trapped in a dark place with no hope of escaping him. But he had to pay for his sins. He is now doing it. But he could be dragging Reva and the children with him. He is so afraid to think what would happen if he was gone.
He looked up from his present state and saw pair of brown eyes looking at him. "Honey, why are you up? I thought I had put you to sleep." He asked. She came towards him and pulled him up from the mess he created. "I am beginning to think that you love making me tidy up your office. And make me salvage everything in your laptop again and again." He looked away from her. He had reacted again in his anger and frustration.
"I am sorry, I will clean this up. Forgive me for doing this." Reva shook her head and looked at him. "It is alright." She held his hand and led her out of the room now lay destroyed. She pushed him on the couch and then hugged him tightly. "It is alright Art, whatever happens, you and I will be in this together, ok?" She told him. "I am afraid that I will lose it all. I have gotten you. I cannot lose you. I cannot lose anyone of you." He cried holding her close to him. She kept stroking his hair.
Then she begins to hum to him. Slowly he stopped crying and begin to listen to her melodious voice. "It is alright." She whispered to him. "We will be alright" Forrest pulled away and whispered, "Will we?" She can feel his distress. "Yes, sure we will be. It is you and I against the world and we make such a great team." She tried to lift his mood up.
"There was a reason Reva why I was so afraid of having children of my own. I haven't told you everything about me. I haven't been totally honest with you all this time. Because I was afraid that..." "I will judge you and blame you for something you think you did wrong, isn't it?" She completed the sentence for him.
"Yes, you are absolutely right. But now, I don't care. I cannot keep this to myself. I will tell you. I have to tell you. Please don't judge me until I finished with this." He told her. She took her seat next to him and he held her hand in his. "Ange came into my life when I was in a very destructive state. I had gotten into a fight with my family because I wished to continue my research and they opposed it. They wanted me to join the family business. And I had a strange fondness of deceiving them. I wanted them to know that I was someone they cannot control. So, I joined hands with Chris here."
He looked at her and saw that she was listening attentively. "That is when Ange came to my life. She was attentive, she used to listen to my words. And at a point, I thought I have found someone who can listen to me. I had met her in a bar and one thing led to another and I woke up in her bed. She told me, she was a virgin and I was her first." Reva can tell where it was going and she didn't wish to be right this time.
"That was a time when I was at peak of my trade. I was gaining popularity as a heart specialist. Chris was helping me establishing the heart research institute. He and I were closer than we ever were. That time we are not just best friends but we are brothers in arms helping each other stand. We both were going through some things that we cannot possibly share with anyone. But I did with her. At first, it was all going well. But then I got busy and started to give her less and less time since I have to supervise my research facility day and night." A smile broke on her face. That made him smile too.
"I see you get the joke, my love. But what is it?" Forrest asked. "You still supervise that little pet project of yours, day and night." He laughed at that. "You don't complain much about that. Maybe because you are more workaholic than I can ever be. Anyway so, we started being distant little by little. She would be complaining a lot about me being busy. And then..." He paused. "She told me about her being pregnant. I had slept with her one time. Just one time and we were not in any kind of exclusive relationship. But then after what she had told me, I asked her to become my girlfriend." Forrest told Reva.
"What happened? Forrest, what are you afraid about?" Reva asked softly. "Remember I told you how we met an accident? She was forcing me to get out of the business, take all my shares, and leave Christopher?" Reva remembered very well. "I couldn't leave, we argued. I assured her that her child's future will be safe with me. With us, and she need not worry about anything. But she didn't listen. So, I told her to secure their future my every asset should go to her and her child. I changed my will. And then at that fateful night, we met an accident. I lost my baby boy." He hugged Reva tightly.
"I am a bad father, am I not? Tell me little birdie can I ever be forgiven for what I did?" He asked in a tearful tone. "You are forgiven a long time ago, Forrest. You are one brave soul you know? And now you have been given a chance again to have that love in your life. A wife, two beautiful children. Maybe your little boy wanted to come back to you again and he did." She consoled him. "Our boy, mine and yours and he had brought an angel with him too. Our little girl." She whispered.
"You think so?" Forrest placed his head on her lap. "I know so my Art, I know. You are a good man. And when you have caused no pain to anyone, you will not be on the receiving end of it." Reva whispered to him. He pulled her hand into his.
"Strange thing is I do not remember much about the accident and since I have searched for her after I had recovered from my ailment. But then, it had been months. I wasn't able to get to her. When I got her, she already was in the care of the best doctors she could have." That thing made Reva thought twice about it all. "Did you check her up by yourself ever?" Forrest sat up and looked at Reva.
"Are you suspecting something?" He asked Reva. "No, I am not, I was wondering why you haven't checked her up once. Did you check who were the people treating her before you found her?" Reva asked. "Yes, I did and they were exceptionally qualified people. They know what they are doing. I have checked them out. All of their information checks out. They are really good in their field." His sentence again raised another red flag for Reva. "Who paid for her treatment?" Reva asked wondering if it was him.
"I did of course." "Before you? Who was the one paying? When she might have taken in someone had to pay for the surgery. Someone has to be there for her." Reva wanted to know because it did sound very suspicious for some reason.
"I have asked her. She told me that it was a fund linked to her social security number and if something happen to her or if she needed money, she can always take it out of there. Something about her parents setting it up before they died." It was a little too convenient. No one would have suspected anything wrong but that was what was wrong with this whole thing.
"Another question can I ask it?" He nodded looking at her. "Have you ever checked her up as you did to me because I was pregnant?" She asked. "No, as I said I was busy and I wasn't as involved as I am with you. I tried sometimes. Offered to check her up from time to time. But she has always gotten angry and begin to accuse me of how I wasn't involved enough in their life. How I am just doing a job being with her. She never let me see her after her third month. I mostly spent my days locked up in my office at Woodlands or at my heart research institute. She had a gynecologist she was visiting. I wanted to go with her but she never let me. And then after the fifth time, I stopped."
Then he held Reva's hand. "Does it makes me a bad person? I know I was uninvolved but I wanted to provide the best care I can for my child but then she always argued with me. She always wanted to control me and control my movements. I thought it was because I was the one who was pushing her away constantly." Reva smiled at him. "She was suffocating you isn't it?"
"Kind of, but the thing is when I told my family about Ange, they are happy. But when I take you to them, they accuse me. I don't know why they don't like you, Honey. You are the most likable person I know. Even Ramon likes you and he doesn't like anyone at all. Well maybe except for Chris. He liked him once. They were best of friends. Now they are always on each other's throats. I have no idea what had happened between them." Reva slowly drew circles on the back of his palm.
"If they were best friends, they would again become the same. You need not worry about them. It is alright Art, and you do not have to worry about Ange anymore. Nor do you have to care about the case. I will be there with you for the hearing. I promise you that." Forrest looked at her surprised. "How do you know?" She placed her head on his shoulder.
"I live with you twenty-four-seven, it is my duty to know. I am the other half you cannot hide anything from me, Forrest. When you are in distress I know because my heart knows about you." She whispered.
"I am so in love with you and I will never let anyone come in between me and you Forrest. I am not going to let anything happen to us. I promise you. You had protected me from everything. Now it is my turn to do the same. Now it is my turn to fight your demons and slay them. And I promise I will do it with my special kitchen knife." Forrest laughed at this.
"Remind me never to anger you, my love. Because you are handy with kitchen tools and that can hurt my very sensitive places and you do know which part to hit." He said pulling her closer and kissing her softly. And then his phone rang.
Reva groaned at that "Come on, just when we were having heart to heart your first love had to take you away from me." Forrest shook his head. "My first what?" "Never mind pick up the phone and see who needs you, dear heart specialist," Reva commented. Forrest kissed her again and then his phone rang for the second time. "I have to take it don't I? and then if it is an emergency, you promise you will come with me?" Reva nodded. "Always Art, always."
"Yes? Who is this?" He asked. "Sir, it is the guard, some people are here claiming to be Madam's parents." He looked at Reva. "And with him, someone named Apurva is here." That made him want to throw that man out of the gates but he cannot sadly. "Escort them in please." He told the guard. "What happened?" Reva asked.
"Honey, your parents are here to meet us. And with them, there is a special annoying guest we don't want to see." The door opened and before anyone can understand anything someone came and hit Forrest right in the face.
Word Count: 2516 Words