Chapter 10

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A burning ache erupted in Alex's chest. He couldn't believe she was in front of him. Again.

These were called infernal interventions of fate.

The soaring ache spread out to every single cell of his body - pleasurable with joy and relief that was still like how it used to be whenever his eyes found her. He watched her as she smiled; for a tiny second, his lips twitched. That was the best he could manage of a smile. That smile of hers - he observed it didn't define any joy. It reflected everything opposite of that.

His fists curled by his sides. He didn't want to look at her. It was unbearable.

How could he still feel the urge to hide her in his embrace and love her like those old times, even after being well acquainted with her betrayal?

Alex eyed the hand Victor had wounded around Kate's shoulders, presenting her as if she was one of his most-priced possessions.

So, it looked like she had worked her magic here too. Had earned her conniving self another f*ck-buddy.

Holding back the urge to scoff, Alex looked away, disgusted. His amused eyes fell briefly on the other woman standing beside Kate, with her hand shoved halfway inside the neckline of her dress, giving him a weary look. What was the problem with these people?

"I'll send a team of my staff to all your boutiques across the city as you receive the first batch of the order," Alex said in a grave tone, his eyes fixed on Victor firmly and royally ignoring Kate next to him.

After that, he stormed off that bloody place, not bothering to say a decent goodbye. He didn't give a shit about what his new client thought of him for that. Because more important was to get away from that vile woman, the way he still felt for her despite everything making him sick in the stomach.

It was a lousy idea to decide to do the fieldwork for his new projects himself. He had just wanted to bury himself in more workload in order to escape Kate's thoughts taking over each inch of his mind since he had met her at that wretched lake. How funny that he had ended up meeting her again in doing so.

He slipped into his car fast. Before the car pulled out, his eyes helplessly strayed back to the front glass doors of the store, he hated himself for wishing to have a glimpse of her again. And was thankful that it was not granted.


--


The pain was so great that it didn't exclusively stand out anymore. It became a part of her life. The difference was, until this day, she had been trying to move on from it, but with Alex's return to what was her present, she was suddenly soaking in all that she could from the ever-existing but carefully locked-away anguish. 

It was her armor that, while securing her, would also burn her hands.

Until this day, she had tried to forget his hatred for her that she had witnessed in the past, but now she desperately recollected the memory over and over again. This negativity kept her strong and moving, and smiling.

But her stomach always repulsed, her head throbbed, and her heart cried. She realized she had become a self-absorbing black hole, sucking her own soul into her darkness. It was a process that she knew she wouldn't be able to escape from.

However, thank the heavens for still gracing her with mercies and small respites that still somehow kept her sane. One of them was Mary's Home.

"Aw... aren't you such a sweetheart! Yes, you are." Kate cooed at the chubby boy, the five-month-old newbie.

The boy's eyes widened in joyful wonderment as he suckled on the bottle, taking small gulps of milk as he watched Kate with undivided attention.

"You've finished the whole bottle, you hungry charmer." She smiled, removing the empty bottle from the boy's mouth and putting it on the table.

Mother Mary smiled at Kate sitting across the table. Other sisters and the maids, along with them, worked around in the vast kitchen.

"We've decided to vote to decide his name," Mary said.

Kate now had the boy upright against her chest, patting him gently on the back. She chuckled. "That would be a relief, mother. Otherwise, the children and the sisters would never stop their silly arguments."

Mary adjusted her glasses on her nose, her smile broadening into a grin. "Absolutely."

"You're a natural, Kate," Mary said after a short pause. "You would make an amazing mother one day."

Kate stiffened, her hand slowed down for a moment on the cooing baby's back. She drew in a short puff of breath and tightly held it in her lungs for strength. "You know it would never be," she whispered, nose pressed in the boy's cotton cloth-clad little shoulder. "I'm incapable of being a mother. That blessing was long taken away from me."

"Kate," Mary sighed, but her smile didn't falter. "You don't need to hold a child in your womb to be a mother."

Kate's unfocused eyes now focused on Mary, who was looking back and forth from her to the baby, who now burped pretty loudly and then vomited all over her shoulder and hair. The sisters who saw the incident laughed from different parts of the kitchen.

Nevertheless, Kate sat still there until Mary grinning broadly now, stood and walked around the table to help clean the vomit. Finally, Kate snapped out of it. She took the tissues offered to her by one sister and began cleaning up the boy's face, who in return tried to eat the tissue as well.

"Mother," Kate asked. "Can I? is it possible?"

Adoption. It seemed like a ray of hope in her lightless life.

"It is, very much. But that requires a long process and some necessary, crucial formalities to make it actually happen." Mother looked at her encouragingly.

It couldn't be helped. Kate's eyes filled up with tears. However, she was not sure yet if she should dare dream.




--




"Owen," Kate announced with pride and happiness.

Victor and Ellie smiled, sipping tea from their fancy tea cups.

"It was a nice idea - this voting," Victor stated.

"Got the kid a charming name," Ellie clapped her hands gleefully. "I'm dying to meet him. Aw..., his mere name suggests he's going to be quite a wooer when all grown up and will end up rescuing the ultimate damsel in distress and get married and have beautiful kids of his own..."

Victor rolled his eyes. "And you've gotten drunk by the Chinese tea."

"Nonsense!" Ellie sniffed the tea incredulously. "There're herbs in it, not alcohol, you moron."

Victor rolled his eyes some more in reply while Kate shook her head with a smile.

Victor and Ellie had dragged Kate to a traditional Chinese restaurant, getting sick of seeing her confined to work and her apartment. Besides Mary's Home, she hardly ever wanted to go anywhere these days.

Victor leaned a bit forward-looking at Kate across the table. "I'm so happy for you, Kate, that you decided to adopt... Owen. I hope they finish all the formalities soon so you can finally bring your son home."

Kate smiled and couldn't help but feel hopeful. She sipped the relaxing tea - the scent not strong like coffee but more on the meek side, soothing her insides and tempting her to nap.

She sat back, snuggling into the soft cushion of the chair, and watched as Victor and Ellie bickered on something.


It had been a week since she had last seen Alex in the boutique, their second encounter. After that day, his staff only came by with the ordered clothes and accessories and stayed around studying the customer reviews and selling statistics along with the boutique people. It didn't need rocket science to figure out the fact that Alex was avoiding visiting the boutiques anymore. Indeed, he didn't want to run into her again.

That was indeed good for them both.

In the meantime, Kate had signed up to adopt Owen, and Mary had promised that she would personally see to it that the process was done as soon as possible. If it were up to mother Mary alone, Kate was sure that she would have gotten Owen in a week's time, but unfortunately, that was not the case. There were rules and laws and many legal steps to undergo, especially for a young single woman like her who was just recently built up some sort of a career. Moreover, it was totally unfair that couples were preferred more in these cases.


Later that night, after dropping Ellie off, Victor dropped Kate off in front of her apartment.

Kate got out of the car and was about to walk away.

"Kate," Victor called her back.

Kate turned around with a questioning look.

"Tomorrow evening, we're going to get your test reports," he said, lines of worry appearing on his forehead.

Kate recalled the date, yes..., she had an appointment with the doctor tomorrow.

"You forgot, didn't you?" Smirking, Victor narrowed his eyes playfully.

"What are you for other than remembering everything for me," Kate retorted with sarcasm.

Victor laughed, starting the car. "Of course, babe." And he leaned forward to place a chaste kiss on her cheek playfully. Kate pushed him back, chuckling, and slammed the car door close. 

She watched as he drove off. Heaving a sigh, she turned around to get inside her apartment building, but she suddenly halted on the steps to the front gates. She saw a shadowy figure in the corner of her eyes around the corner of the building. She whipped around her face, but the man was striding off by then quite fast, his back facing her.


--


Alex didn't know what he was doing there - standing there in the shadows in a viewing distance from where Kate lived.

Just to stay on the safe side, Alex convinced himself he had dug out her whereabouts in Asthel because she was still his wife and could plan things to take money from him.  He held onto that idea hard, no matter how pathetic it sounded to his own damn ears considering she had yet to show a sign of wanting to take money from him.

Kate's eyes had seemed utterly dead when he had seen her last that day in the boutique. The sight was terrifying and had been haunting him ever since. It made a small part of him question if - if he had done wrong judging her.

But then his fists tightened in a fury seeing Victor dropping her off. They seemed so close and free to each other. His jaw clenched. Of course, she had found that new lover boy. And here he was, making a fool out of himself, thinking that he might have wronged her.

First Neil and now Victor! Quite happily, she played around with wealthy men. 

What more could he expect from her?

Memories of those horrendous photos proving her true self flashed across his mind until it throbbed with the sign of an upcoming headache.

Alex whirled around, dashing away into the night with his mind filled with images of his wife - he growled - of Kate in the most intimate ways with Neil, with Victor.

He f*cking needed a drum full of brandy tonight!


~~   

Alex's getting too annoying, isn't he? Neil is in the background still. Hopefully, he will come back with one hell of a bang. ;)

Don't forget to pls VOTE, COMMENT, FAN/FOLLOW and SHARE this story! 

Please remember that I'm far from being a professional writer, so please forgive my mistakes. 

Take care till later,
Lots of love,
Lara.


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