Chapter 17:

I was weaving a sweater for Ethan on the next day afternoon, sitting by the corner of my bed. And that's when the clock stroke 12. I laid the sweater on the bed before sauntering my way towards the room door. I now have to ask Alejandro to pick Ethan from school.

After Alejandro had made a note of clues, Phillipe started to move out. But, he halted his steps suddenly, and turned with a stone face.

"Forgot anything brother?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Informing you that you are grounded," he said stringently leaving no space for reasoning. He banged the door shut leaving the room in deafening silence. How could he ground me? I was no kid any more.

"Alejandro!" I called out for my guard in the empty hallway. I did not have any choice rather than to seek help from him. He declared me grounded, but till when? Till the coronation perhaps? But..but...what about my freedom?

"Yes mam." He produced himself in front of me in mere seconds, followed by a strained Ivanna. Omg! Did my trainer arrive? Princessa lessons...here we go.

"Ethan will be done with his school n half hour. Will you pick him up please?"

"Sure, I will." With that, he disappeared into the pool of hallways.

"Trainer arrived huh?" I asked Ivanna with a look of 'can-my-life-get-any-better?'

"No, she didn't," she breathed out, instantly calming my pulse. But why did she appear so strained. Locking the door behind us, I possessed my loving bed. Resuming with the sweater, I urged her to speak out, "Why are you with that face?"

"Like my cat just died?" I nodded.

"Because your brother's giving everyone a hard time. There." Her finger pointed the neatly matted wooden floor underneath my feet. Oh, downstairs? But why so? Perhaps, he got up on the wrong side of bed today.

"Why so?"

"Trace your kidnappers." She shrugged in a way to portray nonchalance, but her tone did not go undetected by me. There was a tiny detail bothering her balance. Shaking her stability of focusing. What was that?

"Why are you so tensed? Did that idiot bombard you with questions?"

"No-no." Her denial was so fast that I couldn't help but suspect her actions. Was she hiding something?

"Then?"  I raised my eyebrow daring her to defy me.

She fumbled for a second, and said, "I don't like your brother stressing out like that."

My breath hitched when she said those words. That was pretty straight forward. I could easily unravel the message she tried to convey me with her statement. But, was that just as a friend or something more was cooking behind my back? The only way to dig deeper was by asking the person gulping in front of me.

"Would you like to say something Ivanna?"

"Uh-uh.." She was trying to collect right words for the sentence. Blood rushed to her cheeks forming her pale skin into a light shade of crimson. So, something was actually cooking I see. Why didn't I identify that by now? Oh, leave it to my non-existent skills of observing. I gave her some time to provide inputs for her sentence resuming to turn purple wool into a beautiful clothing for little Ethan.

"I-I somewhat.....might have..a ..liking towards your brother." I smiled. I wouldn't bother something like that. I glanced up to see her eyes squeezed tight with her fists balled by her sides. She doesn't have anything to panic about. "Just open your eyes duh. Why are you so tensed anyway?"

"So...are you okay with us?" Her tone was laced with surprise. Why would I be not happy with this in the first place? It was their decision to form. Who was I to have a word in their relation.

"You just think a lot Ivanna. I am okay with it. Did you say him yet?" She pursed her lips into thin line giving me a clear message.

"Oh...yet to say I guess," I commented when there was no response from her. My hands and eyes were concentrated on weaving yet my brain was eager to register a sound from her. Having no indication of Ivanna's words, I just raised my eyes to take a good look of her. Her eyebrows were furrowed in concentration as I raised my gaze. Her fingers played with each other, and her gaze was stuck on nothing in particular. She was thinking something.

I startled her when I had shaken her shoulder a bit to attract her attention. "What are you thinking about?"

"Nothing." She scurried out of the room in a hurry. Weird. Thank goodness that she did not trip at least.

"Mam, your trainer's gonna arrive in an hour." Alejandro appeared in my room after Ivanna left shortly.

"You did not pick up Ethan?" My voice raised a little at the thought of him defying my words. Friend or not, an order is an order..

"Oh no....There was an early release today at school. So Sir Sein volunteered to bring him." Oh...Sorry Alejandro. I should've known that you of all people would never defy an order.

"Thank you for the information. By the way, where's my son?"

As if on cue, I heard that sound. "Momma!" Ethan sprinted to my side followed by an usually casual Sein. He was wearing a blue button down full sleeve t shirt with its full sleeves rolled up till elbow. Woah, was he trying to impress someone? That shirt screamed awesomeness.

"Who got you that shirt? Its awesome."

"Oh this? Your brother gifted my last saturday when he returned from his trip." He sprawled his legs on the couch, leaning against the armrest.

"Oh okay....so Ethan, how was your school today?" I asked.

"It was so gooooood, momma. I make some clay toys. Wait..Teacher give me one, I make for you." I hoisted him and his bag, and placed them on the bed. He fumbled with the bag zip for a moment and delved inside it producing a clay item developed in a shape of container, but with less volume. It could hold good thin paper stripes or something like that. A height less than pencil with a base equal to that of a cup, ummm...what can this be?  A pen stand? Yes. It was poorly constructed but still a good grade for a four-year-old.

"It is a pen stand, right?"

"Right!" he said and then turned towards Sein, "See, I said momma will know it. You lose. Ethan win! You give me chocolate now!" He giggled and dashed towards Sein jumping up in an attempt to sit on couch.

Sein lifted Ethan tenderly, adjusting Ethan on his lap and asked, "So young man, which chocolate would you like?"

The sweater suddenly landed on floor when he said, "The one which Antonio brings and also one daddy give me."

"Mommy, what happen?" The voice came from Ethan, filled with concern for me.

"Daddy gave you a chocolate?" He nodded.

"When?"

"Yesterday, when you no there, he and an aunty take me out."

Ethan's words splashed a bucket of ice water on me. Ignorance drove me from the last one week. I didn't make an effort to care about him in the last week. The time we spent together was so minimal that I was unaware of why did he have an early release today. God knows, how my darling coped with me.

I didn't blame Samuel either. Let him engage with our son. Even if I combine sky and land somehow, the fact of them being connected wouldn't change. The fear of losing Ethan to Samuel had suppressed before it rose. Samuel signed the child rights on the next day of our divorce making my life easy. Even with his manipulative mind, I would never let Samuel succeed in case of our son.

I dashed towards Ethan and embraced him like my life depended on it. "I am so sorry," I whispered through the tears.

"Why you cry?" His voice shook whilst his tiny hands grasped the fabric of my shirt tightly.

"Because momma is happy."

"You cry when happy?"

I unwrapped him from my hold chuckling. "This is different happiness. You will understand when you grow up."

His lips formed an 'o' and the strands of hair covered his forehead. "You need a haircut," I said.

"No!" He ran away before I managed to blink an eye. Did he join in running lessons?

"Let me catch the little guy," Sein volunteered and ran after Ethan while I just laughed. Ethan must have felt bored all the time locked in the palace. Maybe, Sein's nephew could visit here for Ethan and vice-versa. I made a mental note to discuss this with Sein later.

It had been a good five minutes and still no sign of these two. Hmm...where might they be?

And then, a knock on the door shook me out of the thoughts. Neither Sein nor Ethan knock. Who might this be?

"Come in!"

I expected a regular maid to walk-in or some security guard carrying important message but definitely not him. "Can I talk to you?" he asked.

"What do you want Samuel?" He flinched sensing my bitter tone.

"Just a small talk, then I will be gone." He walked into my room and stood tall in front of me carrying the authority, he was naturally gifted with.

"Say what you want to."

"Umm....I don't know how to start." He scratched his neck awkwardly avoiding my hard gaze.

"Then you can gladly walk out of my room." I held out my hand towards the door indicating that he'd make me happy in the instant he carries himself out.

"Look," he started with a new found determination, "I came here to say that Ethan needs his parents. As in, both of us."

"Be clear and don't play around with words." I glared at him withholding my inner anger. From where was I getting this much anger that I couldn't even control?

"What I say is, he can be with me for one year and next year with you and so on."

"You mean combined custody?"

He nodded.

A humorless loud laugh escaped my lips, and Samuel winced in an instant. It was a scary one. I couldn't decipher if it really was from me. "First, you deny the child. Second, you sign all the rights to me. And then, you come begging for rights after you realise that he was your blood all along." My  voice was dripping with sarcasm and venom combined. A strong and unhealthy combination.

"Listen-"

I held up my hand for him to stop, the same way he did when I begged to believe in me, five years back from now. "Stop Samuel! He is not coming anywhere with you. Certainly in the place where she lives. Alice. The one who is responsible for my condition then."

"I will do anything for my son. You  cannot take him away from me." His voice became low, the kind he uses on his employees to threaten them, or anyone for  that matter. But we both knew I've already won the matter.

"What can you do? Let me think....Can you leave Alice for him? huh?" The volume of my tone raised to the level that was capable to bleed one's ears.

"What does she have to do with him?" His tone matched with mine. We portrayed an aggressive couple struggling to live with each other. The irony of the situation.

"I know that she will not keep my son happy!"

"How do you know that? You can't judge her like that. Moreover, she is not like you!"

"She's not like me? What do you mean by that!" Yeah, probably he meant that she was not as good as me. How could she be anyway? With that vicious brain.

"Leaving the child alone and romance with god knows how many lovers!"

A sound of skin to skin contact echoed in the room. The cheek where I had slapped started to redden forming a bruise. My body shook in anger whereas my eyes clouded with uncontrollable tears. What did he know about me to make such an outrageous accusation?

"You know what? I can live all my life single. FOREVER! Only for my child. Why don't you just accept that you cannot devote yourself to our son like me?"

"Oh stop the non sense. I know that you are not happy that I am with Alice now. You are just jealous. Like a desperate woman you are." This man doesn't have shame, even after receiving a tight slap from his ex-wife.

A dry laugh escaped my mouth, again. "What makes you think so, Anderson? Don't be too overconfident about yourself, okay? Me? and jealous of Alice? That too...over you? You made me laugh a lot. Stop day dreaming." I laughed hysterically like a woman who had lost her mind. But I did not stop, the humor his words contained did not let me.

"After all, she has me. Not you."

"Yes..she has you and let her have you. Because- I poked his chest hard with my finger-I don't need a stupid, and unlovable person like you, in my life. I have my family now, and I am enough happy. You can gladly leave now." I pointed the door with my eyebrows, and showed how happy I was when he had started to walk out.

"If only you could control it in your pants," he muttered walking away. He was oblivious to the fact that I heard the words he said.

I ran in front of him. Fisting his shirt collar in my palms, I yelled, "What do you know about me huh? Nothing! You believed her when she threaded lies about me instead of your own wife. You still blindly believe her. In truth, you never loved me as the way I did. Even after seeing Ethan, you failed to unfold the truth. I was with you always. She lied you.  Isn't Ethan enough to prove that I never cheated?"

Tears rolled down my cheeks landing on my fisted palms. The angry clouds cleared his eyes one after the other. He grasped my palms delicately and freed his collar from my hold. He looked in my eyes for a second or two and left me hanging there in the room.

Did he realise something now? Why did the anger clear out of his eyes? Why did he look at me like he did five years ago? Maybe, the gears in his brain started to work. So many questions and yet no answers were provided.

"Mommy,"  a soft voice called me. I hastily cleared the traces of tears from my cheeks and faced the door to find Ethan clutching Sein's thigh as if his life depended on it. From when was he standing there? Why did not Sein stop him from witnessing me and Samuel?

"Yes darling?"

"Why you and daddy fight?" His voice was trembling and he made no move towards me. Is he afraid of me?

"Come here." I kneeled on the floor and extended my arms for him to jump. In an instant, he left Sein and wrapped himself in my arms. I looked up and saw Sein holding his ears as an apology. But, he had a lot of explaining to do.

***********

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