Chapter 336

Chapter 0336

Ava

I’m already worn and tired. Don’t get me wrong, I love Noah, but I can’t wait for his party to end so that I

can rest. The past few days have been busy with planning the part. That managed to keep my mind

occupied, but not by much.

I’m still in turmoil about what I should do. Every time I look at him, I can’t help but wonder if I should

give him a chance or not. I do love him, but I’m just not sure I’ll ever truly heal and let go of everything

he has put me through.

Pulling myself from those thoughts, I text Kate and tell her it’s okay for her to bring Emma. Travis was

obviously coming, as were Rowan’s parents and Kate. They attended every birthday Noah has ever

had. It would be rude of me not to invite them because of my issues with them. Besides, Noah wanted

them here.

She replies immediately and says they’ll be over in around thirty minutes. I know it might be immature

of me, but I wanted to test Rowan. I wanted to see if there were any lingering feelings between him and

Rowan.

“Mom!” Noah screams my name, scaring the life out of me.

“What is it?” I ask, turning, only to find him grinning from ear to ear.

Seeing him this happy makes all my troubles and worries melt away. Iris was still with Rowan and

Gabe, but both she and Noah were my life. Even if I decide not to get back together with Rowan,

having them in my life would be enough.

“Is it time yet?” His excitement is evident, making me laugh at how he was bouncing from one foot to

another.

“Not yet,” I answer him. “But in a few minutes, your guests will start arriving. I’ll call you then so you can

help me welcome them.”

He nods his head eagerly. Happiness radiating from every pore of his body. “Okay, call me when it’s

time.”

I nod my head, and he rushes/upstairs, all the while muttering how he’s going to make sure he looks

dashing and handsome. I laugh at that, feeling joy and happiness spreading inside me.

“Ava!”

I turn around to find my mom and dad entering the house. I’d decided to call them that after I went back

to pick up Iris that day. It just felt right, and they were happy to hear me call them that. Theo had told

me he’d missed hearing me call him dad.

“Hi Mom, hi Dad,” I greet, hugging them.

“We came early because we didn’t want to miss a single thing.” Mom tells me giddily. “This is the first

time we get to celebrate our grandson’s birthday and we wanted to be here to witness everything.”

“We bought gifts; I hope it’s not too much,” Dad adds. “We’ve missed so many birthdays and we

wanted to make it up to him.”

My eyes bulged open, staring in shock as two of their drivers walked in with mountains of presents. I

know Rowan, and I bought him a lot of gifts, but this was on another level. My mouth continues to hang

wide open as the drivers ask me where to place them.

“Outside,” Rowan says next to me. “There is a space set aside for gifts; you won’t miss it.”

I sharply turn and stare at Rowan. I didn’t even notice when he arrived. In my defense, though, there

was a lot going on and a lot of noise. I didn’t hear his footsteps.

“Nora, Theo,” he says, greeting my parents respectfully.

“Hello, Rowan,” Mom greets back, but dad just gives him a manly nod.

Iris was lying on his shoulders, completely asleep, with drool coming out of her mouth. It surprised me

that, despite the noise around her, she was sound asleep. She rarely sleeps when it’s noisy. She’s the

type of child who requires absolute quietness so as to fall asleep.

“Seems like she’s asleep,” Mom begins. “How about we girls take Iris up for a nap while you boys have

a chat?”

She doesn’t give any of them a chance to answer. She gently swoops Iris from Rowan’s arms, grabs

my hand, and tugs me away from the two men, who looked awkward standing together.

We are both silent as we head upstairs towards Iris’s room. Once we get there, mom gently lays Iris in

her crib. Once she’s settled, she takes my hand, and we take a seat near the window.

“So, tell me, have you made a decision about Rowan?” she asks, holding my hand.

I turn to face her and shake my head. “No. I’m still not sure about things.”

“I’ve been thinking about it and I think that you should start getting therapy. Letty had told me that you’d

started but stopped for obvious reasons. I think that you should resume.” She begins. “You went

through a lot, and obviously letting go is going to be hard. You need help and someone to guide you in

your healing journey.”

I go to interrupt, but she cuts me off.

“I get it, my love, but you need this. Whether you choose to stay with Rowan or not, you will still need

therapy. You can’t say that you’ll heal on your own, and sitting around without addressing the issue

won’t help at all. You’ll try to move on, whether with Rowan or not, but the past will always drag you

back until you address the problem, so please think about it”

I remained quiet for a while. I get it and it does make sense. My issue is that I’m having a hard time

letting go of the past. Unless I deal with what happened, I will never heal or truly move on.

“Okay, mom, I’ll do it.”

She tightens her hand around mine. “Another thing, if you decide to get back with Rowan, you’ll both

need couple therapy. Maybe Rowan will also need therapy on his own. Your lives started off on the

wrong foot. You messed up when you obsessed over a man who belonged to someone else. I’m not

saying that what Rowan did was okay, but any sane person would do the same thing.

He was hurt, angry, and had lost the girl he loved because of you. Yes, you were both drunk, but that

doesn’t take away the fact that you stalked him and approached him when he was alone and drinking.

That was terrible of you, but I also understand that you were young. We were all young and stupid at

one point in our lives and made mistakes we can’t take back.”

Everything she said made sense. I knew Emma and Rowan loved each other back then. I should have

tried my best to crush my feelings for him instead of allowing them to foster and turn into an obsession.

I was drunk when we had sex, but I wasn’t when I decided to stalk him across town. I was completely

sober when I joined him at the bar, despite knowing he had been heavily drinking.

… And I was definitely not drunk yet when I started flirting.

I take a deep breath and release. I’ve been blaming Rowan for how our marriage turned out all these

years, but how much of it was my fault?

Sighing, I look at my mom. “I don’t know where we stand, but if we do give it a chance, I’ll make sure

we seek couple’s therapy.”

“Good,” she nods with a small smile. “Now, let go downstairs before your dad accidentally murders

Rowan.”

I chuckled at that while picking up the baby monitor, “We both know it wouldn’t be an accident.”

We leave the room and head downstairs while chatting. We’d just gotten on the last step when the door

opened. Kate walks in; she looked pristine as always, but the person behind her shocked me

Emma followed behind her. She looked like shit… and I’m not saying it as an insult, but she looked like

she’d been to hell and back.