The driver drove Colton all the way up to the front door of his estate. All the lights were off and it looked like it had been completely shut down. Colton walked up the steps, wiping a tear from his eye, and went to the door. He didn't have a key to unlock it and hoped that someone would be there to unlock it for him. He knocked a few times and stood there and waited.
How could she be pregnant right now? He wasn't ready and neither was she. He leaned against wall as he waited and someone finally came to the door.
"Hello?" She said poking her head out of the door. He recognized her accent, she must have been from Newcastle, and she had the Geordie accent. But he had never seen her before.
"You must be new," he said grimly standing up straight and looking down at her. She was pretty with thick long dark hair and big brown eyes.
"Umm yes, this is my second week," she said to him. She clearly didn't know who he was.
"Mmhmm," he managed to say as he pushed himself passed her. She pulled with a struggle to shut the big door and attempted to follow him.
"May I ask who you are?" She said finally catching up to him. Most of the furniture had white sheets draped over them so they didn't collect dust.
Colton turned to look at the girl when she asked that question. It quite amused him that she didn’t even know the people she was working for. Coincidentally he was standing in front of a large portrait of himself as well, and she clearly couldn’t see the resemblance.
“Where is Arthur?” he finally asked. The girl looked up at him wondering how he would know how Arthur is. Colton had to finally tell her who he was; it was killing him. “I own the house; I’m Colton Manning.” Her mouth dropped and her hand came up to cover it immediately.
“Oh my gosh. I had no idea; that is so bad. I work for you and I don’t even know who you are,” she said as her face began to turn red.
“It’s okay, don’t worry about it. What is your name?” he asked.
“Abigail.”
“Where is Arthur?” he asked again wondering why he hadn’t opened the door.
“Oh, he is down in his office. He got a phone call a couple of hours ago and hasn’t come out since,” she said. Colton knew why; Arthur and Robert had been good friends for Colton’s entire life. Colton walked past Abigail and began walking towards the hallway that would take him to the staff quarters. Abigail followed hastily behind him and when they arrived in the staff quarters everyone looked up at him not believing he was actually there. Marge had tears in her eyes and her pudgy face was red from crying. She walked up to Colton and hugged him tightly. His body stiffened; he didn’t want anyone’s sympathy.
“I’m so sorry,” she said as tears began to stream down her face again. Colton padded her back; she seemed more upset then him. He pried her off of him and he walked down the hallway towards Arthur’s office door.
“Just like his father; no emotion,” Marge whispered to Abigail hoping Colton didn’t hear it. He did and smiled a little to himself; she was right, neither one of them ever showed any type of emotion. He didn’t knock on the door and just barged in.
Arthur was sitting behind his small desk with his arms crossed across his chest. There was a glass of scotch half full sitting on the desk and Colton walked into the door while shutting the door behind him. Arthur went to stand up but Colton motioned for him to stay in his seat and he sat back down. Colton sat down in the chair across from Arthur and they sat in relative silence. Arthur poured him a glass of scotch and Colton gulped it down quickly.
“How long are you staying?” Arthur asked.
“A day or two,” Colton answered simply as he filled his glass back up. He gulped it down again and spit out what he never thought he would have to say. “Kayla’s pregnant.” Arthur spit some of his scotch back out into his glass and began coughing. It took a few minutes before Arthur could control his coughing before he said anything.
“When did you find out?” he asked surprised. Colton assumed Arthur might be upset because he wasn’t told earlier.
“Just before I came,” he answered.
“Well, uhh, I know this may sound bad, but congratulations,” Arthur said standing up and holding his hand to shake Colton’s.
“Yeah, well, we will see how that goes,” Colton said standing up and shaking Arthur’s hand.
“You will be a great father. Just like your father is,” Arthur said.
“Was,” Colton corrected sadly as he turned around to walk out of the room. “I’ll be in the library.” Colton walked out of the room and walked back up to his room. He took a quick shower and changed clothes and went down to the library. Arthur already had one of the staff members make a fire in the fireplace for him and there was a bottle of scotch and a glass sitting on the table for him. Colton smiled and sat down in his favorite red leather chair right in front of the fire. He stared into it for hours and hours, wondering how he could have lost his father and how much he was going to miss now that Kayla was pregnant.
Kayla was distraught; he had just left her when she needed him most and he didn’t even look like he cared. She fell to her knees in the hospital and Byron came to her aid and picked her up. They drove her back to the house and Byron carried her up to her room and she fell asleep immediately.
Kayla woke up the next morning, hoping and praying that last nights events were a terrible nightmare. When she rolled over to feel Colton beside her, he wasn’t there. She began to worry; what if last night was real? How could she have told him she was pregnant at the hospital only a few minutes after his father died? Would he have just left her there without an explanation? She got out of bed quickly and ran downstairs; he would be in the kitchen. When she walked into the kitchen, Byron, Giovanna and Anna were sitting around the kitchen table.
“Morning,” Byron said to her without looking up from his plate.
“Where is Colton?” she asked hoping they would see he was somewhere else in the house.
“London. And he won’t be coming back until he chooses to come back,” Giovanna said sternly to her. Kayla glared at her; how could she be so nice to her one-minute and then so cruel the next?
“Why is he there?” she asked wondering why he would be so far from his family in their time of need.
“Because he doesn’t want to be here,” Giovanna snapped back at her.
“Well he should be. He needs to be here to help you guys plan the funeral and go over his will and everything. He’s the eldest, it’s his responsibility,” she said angrily back at her. Kayla’s blood was boiling; Giovanna was beginning to really annoy her. Giovanna stood up and the chair fell over because of how quickly she jumped up. She walked over to Kayla and stood so close to her their noses were almost touching. Kayla was terrified, she had no idea what Giovanna was capable of and she never wanted to find out.
“This isn’t your responsibility and Colton will come back when he chooses to come back. Don’t call him and don’t pester him,” she said through gritted teeth. Tears began to seep down Kayla’s cheeks and she attempted to wipe them off her face. “Crying will not help you now. Crying has never helped you before and it won’t help you now.” She backed away from Kayla and began to walk out of the kitchen.
“Who told you that?” Kayla spat back at her as she turned around to see Giovanna’s face.
“My father,” she said simply without turning around. She stomped out of the kitchen and they could hear her loud footsteps all the way down the hallway until she arrived at her room. Kayla let a breathe of relief because she didn’t break anything on her way up, but it was much too soon as Giovanna slammed her door so hard a couple of mirrors had fallen onto the floor and cracked.
“I…I didn’t mean to upset her,” Kayla said bringing her hand up to her mouth in shock.
“It’s okay. It’s not your fault. Everyone has a short temper right now and Giovanna’s is much shorter than usual,” Byron said putting his hands on Kayla’s shoulders and pulling her towards the table. Anna poured her a glass of water and sat beside her rubbing her back. Kayla noticed that Byron was much more loving, kind and caring compared to his brother.
“Why did he just leave?” Kayla asked through her sobs.
“He was overwhelmed with dad’s passing and then your exciting news. He’s just scared of what might come now. Usually he has a hold on everything, but those last few hours he didn’t. And he isn’t used to not having control,” Byron explained. Kayla didn’t understand why he would run away from his responsibilities, but then again that’s what he was used to; running away and having someone else fix everything for him.
Colton spent the entire day and night sitting in the chair. He only got up to use the washroom and only Marge and Arthur were allowed in the room. Arthur brought him the paper and a new bottle of scotch, while Marge brought him three meals a day.
“Are you ever going to go home?” Abigail asked. Colton couldn’t see the door from where he was sitting, but he could tell she just poked her head to see what he was doing.
“Eventually,” he said staring into the blazing fire. No one touched the fire except for Colton and he was the one who continued to put wood on it when it began to diminish. Abigail came further into the room and Colton looked back at her.
“Why are you in here?” he asked.
“I am grabbing your empty dishes,” she said simply. She grabbed the tray and began to walk away, but something was nagging at her and Colton waited for her to ask him. “Why are you here when clearly your family needs you elsewhere?” Colton took a while before answering; he didn’t even know what to say to her.
“Because I can’t bear to be there,” he said slowly.
“I know I am prying and it isn’t my business, but I think you should be with your wife and your siblings. They need you more than that bottle of scotch,” she said moving her eyes to look at the bottle and then looked back at Colton. He laughed for the first time in a long time. He liked Abigail, she wasn’t afraid of him much like the rest of the staff.
“You are right. I should probably get going,” he said pushing himself up off the chair. He was drunk and he had no idea because he was sitting down. Abigail put down her tray and helped him out of the chair. He stood up shakily and she helped him walk to the door. They walked silently to the front door where Arthur was waiting for them. He walked over to them to help Abigail with some of Colton’s weight and they walked to the front door.
“I am going back to settle everything. Just get me to the plane and have a suit ready for me,” he said as he leaned on the front door. Arthur nodded and began barking orders to the footmen who were standing around watching. “Thank you.” He looked at Abigail and smiled at her. She smiled back and helped him out to the car that would take him to the airport and his private plane.
The day seemed to go by incredibly fast at times and at other times incredibly slow. Before Kayla knew it, it was suppertime already. The staff served everything at the table in the kitchen and they all sat in silence around the table. Giovanna came down, but didn’t speak to anyone and ate her food in silence.
“We should go see the lawyer tomorrow and get everything started so when Colton comes back it won’t take too long for things to be completely settled,” Anna suggested to Byron. He nodded in agreement, but didn’t say anything. They all heard the door open and heard someone walking towards the kitchen; Kayla prayed it was Colton; she just wanted to hug him and feel him next to her.
But it wasn’t Colton. It was a woman Kayla had never seen before. But she looked familiar; she had cold stern eyes and dark brown hair like Giovanna, she stood up completely straight and stiff like Colton, and had the same nose as Byron. Byron stood up immediately in a defensive stature. Kayla had never seen him angry before, but his eyes glowed with hatred.
“Niece and nephew, so nice to see you. Although the event is not so great,” she said in a high-pitched voice. Kayla looked back at Giovanna and her bod radiated hatred, from the way her arms were crossed against her chest to the way she was staring at the woman in front of them. If stares could kill, this woman would never survive. “Are you not going to give your aunt a hug?” She held out her arms and waited for them, but neither of them moved. Byron gripped the top of his chair so tightly his knuckles turned white. Anna put a comforting hand on his upper thigh but nothing could take away the fury he was showing.
“Why are you here?” he asked through gritted teeth.
“Why, my baby brother died and I am not allowed to be in his house, with his children,” she said in her shrilly voice. She walked around the kitchen and looked at them, clearly sizing them up. Kayla had never felt so insecure.
“Not ever,” Byron said.
“It seems we are missing one. Where is the eldest?” she asked as she made her way around to where Kayla was sitting.
“He is out,” Byron answered glaring at her. Kayla couldn’t believe the anger that they had for their aunt. She had never even heard of this aunt, so clearly something happened between them.
“You mean he ran off. Something else he had in common with his father,” she said sighing as she leaned on one of the chairs. Giovanna hadn’t moved since her aunt walked in the room and also never took her eyes off of her.
Colton had finally arrived back at his father’s house and it took him a few minutes before he could walk in. But when he finally did, sadness didn’t overtake him, it was anger. He could smell her perfume; it was the only kind she ever wore. Her clothes reeked of it and he could see some of her luggage sitting by the stairs. How dare she come now? He stalked off to the kitchen and she was the first person he saw.
“Aunt Josephine. I specifically remember telling you to never come back here again,” he said to her as he buttoned up his suit and glared at his father’s only sister.