"My heart is broken
My scars are open
I wanna stay but
What would you say if you were me?"
~-~-~
As I got out of the shower and dressed, there was a knock on the door. Chelsea was about to open it but I grabbed her arm, "Don't open the door till you know who it is."
"It's Cindy, Chelsea, are you in there?" We heard the doctor outside.
I opened the door hesitantly, "Oh my god, I heard about the burglary when I got home today. Are you guys alright?" Her voice was laced with concern.
"We are-"
"What happened to your face?" She was quick to notice the cut.
Neither of us replied and the doc immediately glared at me.
"The thief did it..." Chelsea mumbled.
"Did you apply anything?"
"Not really, it's fine though-"
"It could get infected, Chelsea. Come to my room," The doc told her.
I laid down in bed, watching Lucy sleep as I ran my fingers over the golden strands of her hair. She opened her eyes and tried to grab my finger. Chelsea returned soon and had a bandaid on her face. I figured that she only lied to the doctor because she was too ashamed to tell her the truth. She'd never change.
"Dr.Carter said that we should take Lucy for walks. Can we go, Leo?" She sat by the edge of the bed.
"You stay home. I'll take her," I replied, "Get her dressed."
If my wife thought that I had forgiven her for Trent, she was very wrong.
Chelsea didn't argue this time and she did as told. As I was about to head out with Lucy, my little girl began crying and tried to reach for her mother. She didn't stop until Chelsea held her.
Lucy knew exactly what she was doing by refusing to leave her mother's arms. "Fine, we'll go together," I muttered and her face lit up beautifully.
Besides, if I left her alone, some guy might try robbing me again.
***
As we went down the sidewalk, Lucy began making a variety of new sounds. It felt like she was trying to talk to us about the foreign things she saw. Chelsea tickled her nose while chuckling.
"We should get her a pacifier," she told me and I nodded.
A few blocks away, we reached the same baby store where I had bought Lucy's clothes. Chelsea walked to the section with pacifiers while something else caught my attention.
A cradle.
It was extremely necessary as letting Lucy sleep between us was dangerous, even sex was hard. But the cost was way higher than what I had expected. I couldn't afford it yet.
Only if my bank account wasn't frozen...
I'd buy the entire shop for Lucy.
After we bought the pacifier, Chelsea insisted on walking longer. Lucy was back in my arms again and she was starting to feel sleepy.
"Let's go there!" My wife exclaimed in delight on spotting a bookstore.
Sometimes, she could get excited over the silliest of things.
I walked around with Lucy and she became wide awake on seeing the bright-colored picture books. "You like them?" Chelsea chuckled while showing her one of the books.
"Can we get this, Leo?"
"Okay," I sighed.
As Chelsea continued digging around multiple books on babies, I found something interesting on a different shelf. It was a book on carpentry and the cover page had a wooden cradle.
If I couldn't buy it, I'd make it.
I took that book and walked over to where Chelsea was. She immediately hid something behind her.
"What's that?"
"Nothing." She shrugged.
"It must be smut," I replied and she frowned, "It's definitely not smut, Leo."
"Then why are you hiding it?"
"It's nothing..."she repeated. I couldn't snatch the book from her because Lucy was in my arms.
"Chelsea," I glared. Something wasn't right here.
"I'm telling you that- Ah!" She threw back her head and gasped when I brushed my hand between her legs. Just as I predicted, she dropped the magazine in her hand.
It was a business magazine and the cover page had a very familiar building.
"What the-!"
"Hold Lucy."
I took the book and flipped through the pages. There was an article on Xander Corp. "I thought you'd get mad..." She mumbled.
I hadn't seen my company in a long time and to be honest, I wanted to rip the magazine into pieces on seeing Reed's face. He was standing in front of my building with a shitty grin.
The article wasn't too detailed, it just said that Reed was confirmed to be the new CEO of Xander Corp. and that he would soon change its name. The son of a bitch claimed that it was a selfish idea to name the company after your own and that he was brainstorming better ideas.
I built that damn place. I had every right to name it after me. It was the same logic with Lucy Xander.
"Leo, wait!" Chelsea tried stopping me as I stormed towards the store manager.
"Do you have old copies of this magazine?"
He stared at me like I was crazy, "Let me check in the back. How old though?"
"Three months." I mumbled, clenching my fist. It was hard to believe that it had been that long already. The manager nodded and went behind a door.
"What are you going to do?" Chelsea asked me.
"I want to know the whole damn story that Reed made up."
The manager soon appeared with a stack of magazines and I bought all of them along with the carpentry and picture book. When we reached back home, I sat down to read all the articles about Xander Corp. A few of them had my picture from interviews but Reed's face was mainly plastered everywhere.
There were even recent pictures of Mr.Choi but he had a weak smile.
Somebody was definitely handling him like a puppet.
I had to get to the bottom of things.
[~ Chelsea's POV ~]
I rubbed my palms with baby oil and gently rubbed it over Lucy's chest. She gave me her cutest toothless smile when I massaged her tiny shoulders. It was insanely beautiful and I couldn't help kissing her nose.
"Does my sugar plum like this?" I smiled.
She kept cooing as I rubbed circles around her marshmallow-like cheeks, "You are so soft that I could just eat you!"
I squished her tiny fingers with oil, "Lucy's got tiny bean-like fingers and they are so cute! My little sugar-coated-!"
"She's not food, Chelsea."
I didn't notice that Leo was watching me till he made that dumb comment. He was propped on his elbow, facing us on the bed. As usual, he stuck out his muscles with pride as he relaxed in his shirtless glory.
Leo looked so damn hot that I figured it would be better to focus on Lucy.
"I know that she's not food. I'm trying to communicate."
"Communicate?" He arched an eyebrow.
"It's something you'll never understand," I rolled my eyes at him.
"Of course." He nodded in sarcasm.
It was pretty fascinating to see him react in more ways than just yelling and glaring.
Lucy raised her hand and tried to touch his nose. He smiled and kissed her tiny palm multiple times till he kissed her head. He really had changed for her.
Right then, Leo's phone rang and he answered it, "Yeah, Jim?"
By now I knew that Jim was one of the guys he worked with but Leo never talked anything about him or anyone else. He never talked about anything at all. "The planks that the other guy rejected, yeah those." I heard him say.
"Do you have something to cut... Hmm... I guess that could work... I'll tell you later, just keep it in the gym. I'll get it tomorrow." He hung up and turned his attention to Lucy.
"What was that about?"
"Nothing that concerns you," he replied coldly.
Leo was still mad at me and he had every right to do so, but I still couldn't believe that he had touched me in the bookshop yesterday. He certainly knew his way around me and it annoyed me.
[~ Leonardo's POV ~]
I returned late on Monday and Chelsea told me that she had been very worried. I ignored her and carried the pieces of wood inside along with the drill Jim lent me. Chelsea had no idea of what I was up to but she didn't ask any questions. Lucy was with her on the bed, and to our relief, she hadn't cried much after buying the pacifier.
My wife flipped through the business magazines while I read through the book and worked in silence.
"What are you even trying to make?" She asked me after a few hours but I didn't reply.
"Leo," she groaned, "Sleep with me-"
"Stop distracting me, Chelsea." I glared at her.
"I distracted you!" She laughed like she had achieved something huge, "I distracted your grumpy daddy." My wife smirked Lucy.
"Will we make love if I keep distracting you?"
"Are you drunk?" I sensed too much boldness in her tonight.
"Your beer tasted awful. It's nothing like the scotch you used to drink."
"That explains it," I muttered and kept working.
"Leo?" she kept staring at me desperately.
"Leo!" Chelsea repeated my name over and over again, it was becoming extremely annoying.
When she realized that I was going to keep ignoring her, she huffed and picked up a magazine. "Look, Lucy! It's a picture a picture of your dad when he was rich." She said it loud enough and glanced at me, making sure that I heard.
It felt like her motive was to earn another scar. I glared at her hard enough and she returned a seductive smile. Now, she was trying to make me fuck her as punishment. When I turned a blind eye to everything she did, I heard her sigh in defeat.
"Daddy looks so handsome in a suit, right?" She whispered to Lucy but I heard that. "He looks like a green-eyed and young James Bond-"
"Who?" I looked up.
"I thought you couldn't hear me." She scoffed and turned off the lights. It was getting pretty late anyway so I decided to work on the cradle later. Next to Lucy, the bed felt like a better place all of a sudden.
"Who were you talking about?" I asked Chelsea, who still had her back turned.
"A hot dude," she mumbled.
"You thirst over everyone." I muttered and closed my eyes while wrapping an arm around Lucy.
Chelsea immediately turned to face me, "I don't thirst over everyone, Leo. I've confessed to you like a million times-"
"And you wouldn't have hesitated to do it with Trent," I looked at her.
"I didn't love him. I thought I did but no I didn't. Just because I trauma dumped him, doesn't mean I loved him."
"But you slept with him-"
"He wasn't half as good as you!" She snapped.
"You said he 'cared' about you, Chelsea. He'll be sad to know what you think of his dick," I replied with enough sarcasm.
She cupped my face and kissed me roughly while making sure that she wasn't squishing Lucy.
"I fucking love you and I'll love you alone. For the rest of my life. For as long as I breathe. You're the shittiest person I've ever met but I won't stop loving you. I'll love you so hard that you'll realize it soon and love me back. I'll wait for it as long as possible-"
"Make your drunk ass sleep for god's sake..." I sighed in frustration.
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Lyrics: If You Were Me by VOILÀ
Last Edited - 21/01/24