RYLAN
"Make these changes and bring them back to me. And don't forget to reschedule the meeting with Mr. Rivera." I handed my new assistant the file before leaning back in my seat. For some reason I was having a pretty bad headache.
"Yes, Mr. Parker." He closed the door behind him only for me to hear his voice not seconds later.
"Mr. Parker."
"Yes?" I kept my eyes closed while rubbing my forehead with my fingers.
"Someone's here to meet you." Not what I needed right now!
"Name?"
"Liliana Scott." I stilled in my seat as soon as I heard the name. Liliana. The single name brought back so many memories.
"Send her up." He nodded and left before the door opened again, allowing me the sight of her. After six fucking years, she was standing in my office. I didn’t know what emotion to feel. It was all a hurricane.
"Liliana." I almost gritted the name out.
"Rylan. Uhh... how are you?" She took two small steps inside. I was honestly in no mood to share pleasantries with her. I stared blankly at her, showing my clear disinterest. She obviously got the hint by the way the forced smile on her face disappeared.
"Can we talk?" I gestured to her to take a seat.
"I guess we are talking." She gulped down before nodding.
"Yeah, right!" The awkward clearing of the throat was accompanied by nervous fidgeting of fingers and I was growing confused with each passing second. Why was she here? Why this act of being nervous all of a sudden?
"I—I am sorry—for everything that happened all those years back." I just stared at her with a stoic face while she expectantly looked for me to say something.
"I'm really sorry." I scoffed at her words.
"I bet you are!" She sighed audibly as I swiveled in my seat to the side.
"Rylan, look I—" I cut her off mid sentence.
"Why are you here, honestly?" I asked with a pointed gaze. She bit her lower lip and closed her eyes for a split second as if debating her answer.
"I want to meet our daughter."
………………………..
"Hey!" I opened my eyes to Elena's voice. She was standing at the partly opened door to my study. Coming back from the office, I headed straight for the office. I needed to clear my mind before anything.
"Hey! Come here." As she came right in front of me, I held her wrist and pulled her down on my lap. She put her arms around my neck, her fingers weaving through my hair.
"Everything all right?" She asked most probably picking up on my distress. In fact the only thing running around in mind was the conversation with Lily in the office earlier today.
"I'm just having a really bad headache." I knew I would have to speak up and I had to do it now. I was just stalling the talk for a few more moments because even after multiple attempts I had failed to decide on how to start.
"Do you know what you need right now?" I raised a brow as she gently brushed back my hair with her fingers.
"A good sleep. Come on." She climbed down my lap and grabbed my hand in her smaller ones, gently tugging at it. Complying to her, I stood up and walked with her to our bedroom.
"I need to talk to you." I blurted out those words when she was about to step into the bathroom.
"I'll be back." I nodded at her before getting into the bed. In years, I haven't felt this nervous like I was feeling at the moment. I was leaning against the headboard when she came in.
"So what is it that you want to tell me?" She sat in front of me, looking expectantly.
"You wanted to know about Ava's mother." I saw her brows gently dipping.
"And now you are ready to talk about that?" I breathed out in response.
"I have to, sooner or later." I knew that she was searching my face to find out what was the reason I wanted to open up now. Finally she gave a nod.
"I uhh—I met Liliana Scott in college. She was a junior to me but we had mutual friends. Over the years, we became really good friends." She again nodded, waiting for me to continue.
"She was fun, intelligent, she was kind to everyone and…" I trailed off, a little hesitant about my next words.
"We fell in love." I looked up at her face which held a blank expression. She was trying not to give away anything of what she was feeling but the small gulp did a part of it. I took a moment before continuing.
"Everything was pretty great and I knew that she was the one for me until one day it was all over." She was quiet, only nodding her head gently, showing that she was listening and honestly it was nice.
"She stopped coming to college, didn't pick up my calls. She had kept our relationship a secret and I was forbidden to go to her house. After almost a week, she came to our house with her father. I learnt that I had gotten her pregnant." I looked into her eyes which were intently fixed on mine.
"You know, I was young at that time, in college but I wanted the child with her. I was ready to start a family with her and the baby—" She put her hand on mine as I cut myself off.
"What happened then?" I bit down on my lip and looked away.
"I—I'm ready to take responsibility for the child." I said, my voice, just as firm as the decision. Dad gave me a nod showing his support and so did everyone there. Mr. Scott stared at me with a passive look while Liliana's gaze was fixed on her hand.
"That's why we are here. You will be taking full responsibility for the child." He sounded more than harsh. Confused by his words, I looked at my family who had similar expressions. Shifting my gaze towards Liliana, I saw her squirming uncomfortably in her place.
"I don't understand." Mr. Scott intertwined his hands and leaned forward.
"Once the child is born, you'll get full custody of it. My daughter wants no part of it." I blinked once, twice, multiple times, not quite understanding what he meant.
"What? No that can't be—Lily?" She was avoiding meeting my eyes at any cost.
"Lily, can we talk?" I shoot up from my seat, totally restless.
"She doesn't want to go anywhere with you." Mr. Scott said, aggressively. Speaking about honest feelings, I wanted to bang his head against the wall. We had been nothing but polite to him since he had stepped in while he was being a classic bitch.
"She can speak for herself!" His eyes twitched at my response. He probably wasn't expecting me to raise my voice.
"We should let them talk." My Dad interrupted. Mr. Scott pressed his lips in a thin line before giving a reluctant nod. Lily timidly stood up and followed me to my room.
"Lily, what's wrong?" I asked once we were away from everyone.
"Nothing's wrong, except for this pregnancy." She folded her arms against her chest and looked away.
"Are you upset?" I asked before sighing.
"It's stupid of me to ask that, of course you're upset. You know we can get through this, together. I'll be with you, I promise." She clicked her tongue in annoyance and shook her head.
"You're not understanding, Rylan!" I was taken aback when she suddenly snapped. She breathed in, before speaking calmly.
"After childbirth, I don't want to be a part of the child's life." I blankly stared at her, totally unable to accept the fact that she was the one saying it.
"You don't mean that!" I shouted, irritation masking my features.
"Of course I do!" She shouted back, frustration evident on her face. I shook my head and let out a bitter chuckle.
"That doesn't even make any sense. Why will you keep the child then? Why not abort it?" She rubbed her temple exasperatedly at my question.
"There are some complications with the pregnancy. Just know that I need to get through this." She sounded like she couldn't wait to get away from the baby and was not at all looking forward to any of it. That was when I felt something inside me, something different from the restlessness. It was the feeling of realization, the situation sinking in, the pain of a growing hollow in my heart.
"So you—you want to break-up." I forced those words out of my mouth. She closed her eyes for a second before looking back at me.
"Yes." I was clenching and unclenching my jaw, trying to keep my emotions in. I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked away.
"Look Rylan, you were my best friend but I realized that we can't be more than that." I vigorously shook my head.
"After six months of dating, you realized that we can't be more than good friends." I walked closer to her and held her arms.
"That's not true." I said, looking into her eyes hoping to find some hope, something but failed.
"It is. I—I tried but I can't do this anymore. You're not the one for me." My hands fell to my side and I took a step back, hurt.
"I feel suffocated and I want out of this." I swallowed hard, feeling the anguish, the pain increasing with each passing moment.
"So that's it? Will we be just "friends"?" My voice was shaky from the turmoil of emotions inside of me.
"No. After the baby is born, I won't see you again. You know that after this, we can't go back to being friends.We're done." Just when I thought she couldn't have hurt me more, I received the final blow. Of course I knew we couldn't be anything normal after this but I wasn't ready to accept it. I wasn't even able to wrap my head around how things turned out to be like this. I looked up one last time into her eyes which icily stared back as I bit the insides of my cheeks.
"Rylan." I felt Elena scoot closer to me.
"I know it must have hurt a lot—" I sighed, instantly finding some comfort in the warmth of her hand against my face.
"But that's in the past, right? We don't need to discuss this." She offered a small smile most probably thinking that it would comfort me but her words were far from the reality. I pressed my lips together causing her to frown.
"What's wrong?" I grabbed her hand that was resting on my cheek and held it in mine.
"Liliana, she came to the office today."