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"And she just scored another goal for her team! Charlie Leandro just won the world cup by this last goal; she really carried this team Mikey!"
"That's right John, she became the worlds most wanted footballer by every scout around-i think she was offered a twenty-three million contract!"
I watch as Charlie falls to the ground with her teammates jumping all over her, a smile crosses my face as the crowd goes absolutely crazy.
Charlie was the only girl on the team, and she carried the team being their new captain. I knew she could do it; I knew she could be the best. I know something good when I see it, and when I first saw Charlie doing my challenges five years ago- she made sure not to give up.
And now she was the highest paid, ranking and known footballer in the-world.
"Mr De'Luca, did you want to meet Charlie Leandro?" One of the guys working asks me, I settle down my vodka and shake my head.
"No."
"Are you sure? We don't mind giving you access to the pitch even-"
"I said. No." He nods his head and steps away; I stand up and make my way to the front of the boxed glass.
My heart slowly lends itself just by watching her...I missed Charlie.
I've always missed her.
The night she left me- I couldn't get out of bed for a year.
She runs towards someone, and before I know it- she jumps into his arms.
And there it goes- my heart breaking.
I knew she was engaged.
Even though I was sure I would have seen this, I still wanted to express my support. He starts to back off when a kid suddenly enters the frame. My face relaxes into shock as my brows rise. The child appeared to be between the ages of four and five as the glass in my hand broke.
"Anthony."
"Yes sir."
"I change my mind, let's meet this, Leandro." I growl between my teeth; Anthony nods his head and I turn around to follow him.
I couldn't believe it.
Did she have the child without my knowledge?
I understand she's engaged.
But- keeping the child after telling me she's aborted it. I fix my suit, making sure I looked in order as I follow Anthony down the halls, we reach the changing room as Anthony calls out for Leandro.
"Leandro, we have an important guest for you to meet."
"One second!" She calls out.
I suddenly felt nervous.
The moment that door opens, her eyes instantly locked with mine. And she froze, "this is Aidan De'Luca, world class retired footballer-"
"Anthony. Give us a moment." Leandro whispers, almost choking on her words.
Anthony glances at me and I nod my head, he leaves us alone in front of the changing room.
"What are you doing here?" The first words she has said to me in five years.
"Charlie."
"Aidan. What are you doing here?" She asks me again, almost in sadness.
"I always come to your games, to support you." Her gaze softens, she shakes her head in disbelief and looks around the halls before pushing me into the changing rooms. "Damn so soon? I thought you were engaged?" I tried to joke.
"Aidan, you have to leave."
"Why?" I ask.
"Because Aidan! You have to leave before-"
"Charlie bear, Amara wants to see you."
"Charlie bear?" I scoff out.
The changing room door opens, and we turn around to see a little girl running in- my eyes catch onto her and within an instant, I knew she was my child.
Her light green eyes, dark black hair-if anything she was a photocopy of me.
"Charlie, who is this?"
"He's no one, just an ex-footballer wanting to meet me." I crouch down, the little girl glances at me and everything that was shattered in my heart- mended.
She grabs onto my nose, "Amara let go of him." Charlie whispers pulling her away.
"Charlie-"
I turn around to face the man she was engaged to; his eyes widen once he sees me. "Aidan De'Luca! I am a great fan! I have your pictures all of my living room! You are the greatest player alive! After my Charlie bear."
I look back at Charlie, her eyes were watering as she looks away. I was hurting her all over again, wasn't I? "Thank you- but I should leave now." I couldn't hurt her anymore- so if that meant...leaving my child and my woman. I would do that.
"Have dinner with us! Please, god it would be a great honour for us to make it for you!"
"Fish and chips!" Amara jumps happily.
"Only if Charlie is okay with it."
"Aaron seriously?"
"Charlie bear please."
"Charlie bear please." Amara copies him, she then moves on to me and grabs my blazer suit.
My girls.
"Okay. Fine. Six o'clock. Tomorrow." Aaron jumps in excitement. "I'll send you the address." She has the same number.
So, do I.
Ⅶ ⅱ Ⅶ
Nervous didn't even explain how i felt if anything-i felt almost sick. I make sure that I looked put together and appropriate, pushing my curls that stuck out back whilst fixing my collar which suddenly felt tight around my neck.
I reach the front door; my knuckles make contact with the door as I held two flowers in my hands. "Amara! Stop eating that pencil!" Charlie yells, I hear Amara's squeals of excitement as her tiny footsteps slam onto the floor.
Charlie opens the door; she had a can of baby food in her hand with a small spoon in the other. She has a towel thrown over her shoulder, her hair stuck out in all places. "You're an hour early." She whispers.
"Didn't want to be late."
"Well, Aaron isn't here- so you can wait in the living room." She mumbles opening the door wider for me. Her eyes travel down to the flowers in my hands, a smile grazes her lips. "No one's given my flowers in so long."
That fucking shit.
I'll kill him.
"One for you and one for her." I whisper, looking down at Amara, she claps her hands and grabs her flower.
"Say thank you Amara."
"Thank you, Amara!" Her toothless grin is set out.
"No eating the flowers Amara!" An evil laugh comes from her, Charlie takes her flower and lets me in. I slide off my blazer and she offers to take it, so I hand it to her, if I was not mistaken-she walked away with it against her nose.
"You have the same eyes as me, stop copying me!" Amara makes her ground.
"You stop copying me." I point at her; she chuckles and grabs my finger.
Charlie looks at us both, erasing the sadness from her eyes as she does so. She sits on the couch with me across from her as soon as we enter the living room. Amara sat next to her so that Charlie could feed her.
"How have you been?" Amara leaves the living room; Charlie sighs and rubs her forehead.
"Tired, god, no one has asked me that in so long-I am so exhausted, with work and then dropping off Amara to day care and then having to leave training to pick her up because she's bitten someone and then putting her to sleep is the absolute worst! She would jump out of her bed and come downstairs to raid the fridge." I sit up, my elbows leaning on my thighs.
"What does Aaron do?"
She pauses on her words.
"She isn't his child, he cannot really do anything..." she whispers, putting the baby food onto the table in front of her.
"Is she mine?" She looks at me, and I get up and sit down next to her. I haven't seen her this close to me in a long time as she turns to face me.
"You already know the answer Aidan..."
Amara is my little girl.
"You told me you were getting an abortion?"
"I was-but-I heard her heartbeat, and I just couldn't." Tears fall down her eyes, and she suddenly begins crying. "I wanted to tell you Aidan, I wanted to tell you that I was keeping her, but I broke your heart-I didn't think you'd ever want to see me again. I-I did the same thing you did and punished you for it-"
As I gently prompt her against my chest, my finger brushes against the side of her face, and she closes her eyes. She cries, crying out of exhaustion and distress as her hands grab hold of my arms. She sniffles and pulls away; as her eyes meet mine, I graze her cheek once more.
"Have you spoken to Jake?" She shakes her head, no.
"I can't forgive Jake, Aidan-he calls me every day and tries to send me messages but i ignore them...I think of my dad, and my mum-and myself."
A ringing phone distracts us, and she pulls herself away. She grabs her phone, glancing down at the message. "Aaron is unable to come...I am so sorry Aidan; you made this entire trip for nothing-"
"It's fine, I'm just going to go to the toilet."
"Down the hall on your right." She tells me, I nod my head and make my way down to the bathroom.
About five minutes later, I leave and get ready to go, but when I entered the living room to say goodbye, Charlie was sound asleep on the couch. I turn to leave when I see Amara using a green felt-tip to make drawings on the walls.
I was about to wake her up, but she seemed so peaceful. She had one hand on the baby spoon and the other leaning beneath her head while snoring like she hadn't slept in weeks.
Amara walks up to me, and we both look at Charlie, "mummy is dead."
"No, she's very much alive." I walk towards her and grab a blanket from the other couch. I throw it over her body, take of the towel from her shoulder and removing the spoon from her hand, I direct Amara out of the living room-Charlies snores can be heard from out here.
"You like my mummy?" Amara speaks.
"I love your mummy." Amara walks with me to the kitchen.
"I want some food, I'm hungry now." I turn behind me to see Amara lazily following me from behind. I look around the kitchen, and it was an absolute mess-baby food all over the cupboards-the sink filled with plates.
Why does that fucking bastard not help her?
I grab the baby jar in the corner of the counter and look into the draws for a baby spoon.
This whole place is absolutely unorganised.
I open a draw filled with utensils, I grab a baby spoon and turn around to see Amara eating something from the ground. This baby really does eat everything. Just like her mother. "Amara, come on let's eat." I notice a baby seat and go off to pick Amara up, but just as I was about to pick her up-she begins running.
She runs behind the dining chair and peaks out, her black curly hair all messy and the food stains on her clothes from earlier said that this one is nothing but a menace.
"Amara, let's sit and eat." I beg her.
"You can't catch me." She sings a song filled with laughter; I go off to grab her, but she runs the other way.
"Amara, please, let's eat."
"No!" She yells out, what the fuck? She said she was hungry.
"Okay then, I was going to give you some chocolates but-"
"Yes!" She opens her mouth wide; I raise a brow and notice that she was waiting for me to feed her. I unscrew the lid, tuck the spoon in and shove it in her mouth. She chews the vegetable that was already mushed. "I want to sit."
"Okay." I lift her up by the back of her shirt since her hands were dirty and put her in the baby chair. She laughs the entire way and tries to touch me. "Me!" She says when I try to feed her, I hand her the food and she begins eating out of the jar, why was I secretly scared of this girl?
She's a mini me.
As she begins to eat, I go behind her and notice her hair in an absolute mess. I look around and see a toy hairbrush-better than nothing. I pick up and begin to untangle her hair with my fingers first, "why is your hair so messy?"
"Why is your hair so messy?" She copies me.
I untangle her hair and begin to brush through her curls, I grab a glass of water and use it to gain her curly hair back. I tie it up into a small bun and push the remaining baby hairs out of her face, she looks back and begins to fidget.
Once Amara was finished, she chased around and got tired enough for me to put her to sleep. I put my daughter to sleep the first time, and for some reason it felt nice. She sucks onto her thumb, and I pull the blankets up on her body.
It has been an hour and a half now.
I take advantage of the opportunity and start cleaning the kitchen, washing, and drying the dishes. I vacuum the floors, clean the living room without trying to wake Charlie up, and wipe the stains from the cabinets.
Amara's toys were all over the place, so I stuffed them into the toy box and set it in a corner. I make sure to fluff the pillows and remove additional dishes from the table.
I enter the living room, everything spotless clean.
I walk over to Charlie and wipe the baby food from her cheeks, I kiss the top of her head- "I love you Charlie,"
After I'm done, I walk over to the door while putting my blazer on and grabbing my blazer off the hook. My heart is breaking as I grasp the handle and realise that I won't ever see them again. This hurt me more than I want it too, but Charlie deserves to move on and move on from the memories of me.
Like I said before, our story never had an ending that ended with us.
The rain splatters against my blazer, "Aidan..." her soft voice whispers.
I turn around and she comes down the steps, her arms crossed over from the cold. Her eyes looking around the place before meeting my eyes. Oh Charlie, no matter how many city lights I pass-none of them glow like your eyes.
"I have waited for you to find me for five years Aidan, and you finally come just when I was about to move on from you."
"Charlie-" She walks into the rain, with her slippers on-a long white cardigan.
Her hair begins to dampen, her eyes still glowed.
"And do you know what annoys me the most? The fact that I love you and miss you every day of my life. When I look at Amara, all I see is your eyes-the eyes I fell in love with." She walks towards me, and now we are inches apart. She rests her hands on my chest, before leading up to my face and then the back of my neck. "Make me un-love you Aidan."
"Why would I do that Charles?" I whisper pressing my forehead against hers, only us in this rainy moment. "When I love you still to this day."
"You still love me?"
"I never stopped Charlie."
Within seconds, moments-I feel her lips press onto mine.
And it takes me back-to all those times I imagined her lips on mine. All those empty years without her in my grasp. My hands grab the back of her neck and I deepen our kiss, we separate for a moment. "You're engaged to Aaron."
"He's my ex-brother-in-law stupid."
"So, you're not engaged?"
"Not since two years ago."
The best five words I've heard all my life.
Now that I have you in my arms, I will never let go of you Charlie- I will fight heavens and earth for you to just look at me. For you to talk to me, for you to love me. I will never let anything get in the way of us, never again.
I want this chapter to end with me and you.
I want us to end it together.
I want to close this book knowing that I have you in my arms, in my space.
Me and you.
I love you, Charlie.
"Amara really does eat everything?"
"You'd be shocked, she's just like you."
THE END!
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