When the next day came, Grant opened his eyes to the sun rays that shone brightly through the curtains of the hotel room. He moaned slightly and stretched on the bed when suddenly, he jolted up from the bed staring widely at his side.

Empty.

Her side of the bed was empty.

At that time, Grant realised that Alexandra had left him all alone in the hotel room in Paris.

Does this means that it is time?

He sighed sadly, running his hands through his ruffled hair as he zoned his eyes outside the window that overlooked the Eiffel Tower.

***

Two days.

It had been two days since she left Paris for London. That meant it had been two days since she left Grant all alone in Paris when she decided to make the next move in her life. It was time for her to act on it.

This was what she wanted.

And this was what her heart, body and mind wanted.

That morning, she had woken up early at dawn. Grant's soft snores still lingered in her ears and how she missed them so very much even if it was only two days since she last saw him.

Deciding on leaving him alone in the hotel room, Alexandra finally braved her heart out and left the hotel room with a heavy heart. This was what she needed. As much as it was hurting and aching for her to do so, eventually she needed to get up and face her demons from the past.

For the past few days, Alexandra had been thinking all about her past and present. Everything was taken into context and nothing was left out. She too had reached out to her recently hired private investigator and had sent him on the run to get her some important informations.

Those days were so crucial. She cried herself to sleep thinking of all the possibilities that were bound to happen in her life. Of what were the outcomes if she decided to move on with her choice in her life. However, one thing she was sure of was that she knew that this was the right thing to do and she was happy with the choices she made so far.

After two days, her investigator managed to gather up quite the information she needed to find out who she really was and what was really happening in her past and present life.

Glancing at the address in the paper, Alexandra looked away from the paper and onto the signboard hanged just above the entrance of the building.

DC Mechanics & Car Wash

Letting out a big breath of sigh, Alexandra zipped up her grey hoodie and walked towards the old rusty building. The sounds of machines operating could be heard clearly from where she was standing at the moment.

As she stepped foot into the building, her hand quickly shot up to the rusty metal door and gave it a few knocks. The sound echoed throughout the hollow building and just like that, all the machinery stopped working when a shirtless man all in his muscular form approached her.

The shock on his face did not go unnoticed by Alexandra. She had noticed it and she was confident that he knew who she really was. A moment later, she was proven right when the first word that came out of the man's mouth was her name.

"Alexandra?" The man muttered, almost in a surprised tone.

"I'm guessing you are Brandon DeCastiello?" She asked.

The man nodded and immediately invited her into his office. Alexandra slowly took a seat on the couch when he handed her a cup of tea. She sipped the tea, indulging herself into the bursting flavour of the tea before looking back up to face the man who was busy staring at her after a few minutes she had sat down.

She cleared her throat, "I'm sure you're wondering about my sudden visit to your workshop today. Also, I do believe you recognise and know me from my previous life. Am I correct, Mr. DeCastiello?"

"Yes, you are certainly correct. Alexandra, I-" He uttered and stopped. Trying to find his words, Brandon scratched the back of his head a couple of times. "I'm sorry for everything. I hope you can forgive me after everything Rosie and I had done to both you and Nikolei."

"That is the problem, Brandon. I would forgive you if I had known who all of you were in my life but nothing came up. I don't, can't remember who Rosie was... or you as a matter of fact." She said in distressed.

"You don't remember us at all? But-"

She intruded quickly, "That is the reason why I'm here. I need you to tell me everything about what really happened in my past life. Please."

For a minute there, Brandon looked down onto his entwined hands and breathed heavily. He was shocked that she didn't remember everything, and now he realised what Nikolei had meant the other day. The guilt added more burden to his conscience, feeling extremely guilty after remembering everything that he and Rosie had done to separate these two lovers.

He breathed in deeply and looked back up, "It all started when we were in the university. You and Nikolei-"

And so, the stories of her past life was told. Alexandra had been patient as he told her about everything that had happened in the past. She was mad, at first. However, as mad as she was the first time, the feelings slowly subsided and eventually dissipated. All she felt was emptiness and throughout the time, Grant's handsome and cheerful face frequently appeared in her mind.

He was smiling at her the first few times, but eventually was replaced by the sad ones before disappearing from her vision until Nikolei's dark and distressed ones made an appearance in her mind after the picture of Grant's sad face disappeared.

Brandon had been nothing but truthful to her in telling all the stories. She knew it because her private investigator had walked her through it, roughly. All she needed to do then was to confirm them with Brandon and finding out more details about them.

She glanced at the watch on her hand. The hands were ticking, indicating the time now to its owner. Alexandra breathed out a desperate sigh.

Two days.

Two days and fifteen hours to be exact.

It had been that long since she left for London that early dawn, leaving the hotel room carefully not to wake up Grant from his deep slumber. She covered her tracks, refusing anyone to discover her location. Alexandra never did stepped foot in her bakery anymore. Not until everything was settled and she was glad that she had Rae and her other workers to help her out.

She also refused to step foot near the apartment she shared with Grant. It was hard for her to resist the urge to come home, but she needed to do this in order to move past her previous life. Alexandra knew that by acting and doing so, Grant had come to believe that she had left him for good after that night.

Though, he did gave her a choice for her to make. To leave or not to leave. In other words, choosing to stay with him and be by his side.

But... she hadn't know that yet. Her heart and feelings were diverging and this confused her more than ever.

By the time Brandon had finished telling her everything, Alexandra was more clueless than ever. She didn't know what to think of Nikolei anymore. The diversion her heart and feelings were having that night at the hospital had made her feelings went unruly. They were wild, so dangerous that Alexandra was afraid of making wrong decisions later on.

Brandon had strongly defended Nikolei and had tried to convince her of the spark she and Nikolei used to have, or still has. He didn't know that she was now engaged and was in a very committed relationship with Grant Carson. Although if he did know, Alexandra still believed that Brandon would still back up Nikolei no matter what to lessen the guilt that was burdening his shoulder everyday. She could see it all in Brandon's eyes. The guilt, sadness and regret altogether mixing up in one.

Alexandra reminisced back the times Nikolei had asked her out. Those times were the times when she never had to worry about anything. Nikolei had been a wonderful host, or date like Grant had said it the night before. They had great times together, enjoying each other's company but that night, that night at the hospital struck her hard when Nikolei's cold tears slipped down onto her slightly warm hand.

She was shocked at first. The strong urge of wanting to comfort him did emerge for the first few seconds but she refused to do so when Nikolei started telling her something. Unaware of her state of consciousness at that time. She recognised him then, the memories and all flooded back into her mind. Maria... Boris... Gayle....

Gayle! Oh dear... How she missed him so badly after all these years.

Staring into the evening sky, Alexandra sighed loudly into the palm of her hands before turning around to face the guilt-ridden Brandon who stood just a few centimetres away from her. Just a few seconds ago, he had been apologising profusely to her and had promised to offer his lifetime free service whenever Alexandra in desire of having a car wash or getting her car fixed. She chuckled slightly and smiled with a part of her still grieving in the inside.

Coming here hadn't help her at all in making decisions, but it sure did help her relishing back everything that her dreams and flashbacks hadn't told her yet.

So, off she went after thanking Brandon for the day. She drove and made a stop at Hyde Park. Walking and walking, Alexandra made a stop and finally settled down onto the bench by the fountain. Her decisions was still blurred, and so, witnessing the serenity of the park was the only thing she could do now in making the decisions that will forever changed her life and fate.

***

The house was awfully quiet at night. Nikolei was on leave from all the works for a week by now. He had no mood for days since, and all he could projected from himself was anger and harshness towards all of his employees.

Gayle had helped him for several days. Staying by his side, spending time with him in his office and even had a slumber party with him in his bedroom every other night. Nikolei was glad that he had his son with him. At least now that he knew he had zero chances in winning Alexandra back, his son will still be there for him at the end of the day.

Sighing roughly, Nikolei leaned back into his comfortable leather chair when his son busted through his office doors with a piece of white paper in his hand and crayons in the other.

The wide smile that graced his son's lips had his heart clenched at its sight, and Nikolei quickly vanished the pain replacing it with happiness instead. He had been neglecting his son's feeling for a while now and maybe it's time for him to toughen up and be there for his son who was longing for Alexandra's affection for years now.

"Dad! Dad! I have a present for you." Gayle exclaimed excitedly as he ran towards his father.

Nikolei chuckled and followed his son movements with his eyes. He parted his legs slightly and quickly helped his son up who was struggling to get onto his lap.

Beaming brightly in front of him, Gayle shoved the piece of paper in his hand and dropped the crayons on the table mercilessly. He tilted his head to the side to see Nikolei and smiled.

Nikolei blinked twice and faintly muttered, "It's... beautiful." He hesitated and stop, scrunching up his forehead in return. "Although... uh... Walk me through the picture, Gayle."

Gayle pouted and playfully glared at his father. He sighed and sat up straight on his lap. "It is a drawing of you, me and mom!" He said and pointed towards each of the stick figures drawn on the paper. "I can add up Boris and Maria if you wanted me too."

"Sure. Come on." Nikolei turned around in his chair with Gayle on his lap as they faced the mahogany table. "Now where do we start?"

"Brown crayon!" His son yelled exhilaratingly.

Nikolei chuckled and his chest rumbled as he did so. He quickly enclosed his big hand around his son's small one that was holding the crayon. Slowly, Nikolei followed Gayle's guidance as they drew another stick figure together on the right side of the paper.

As Gayle would say it, the brown stick figure would be Maria. Switching to the yellow crayon, Gayle quickly guided his father's hand to draw Boris' stick figure.

Nikolei snorted and grinned at his son, "We did a great job, didn't we lad?"

"Indeed, we did!" Gayle giggled playfully as Nikolei tickled his neck. As they stared at the drawing for a few good seconds, Gayle carefully turned his body to face his father instead of the table. Blinking twice, he then pouted slightly and stared longingly at his father. "Dad..."

Nikolei's ears perked up as his son's sad and slightly longing face came into view. He breathed in quietly, "Yes, Gayle? You can tell me anything that's bothering you."

"D-do you think... I mean... will m-mom come home again? I really miss her very much." He pouted again, casting his eyes downwards this time as his small, dainty hands played with the buttons of Nikolei's button down.

"Gayle..." Nikolei sighed sadly. His heart clenched painfully against his chest as he stared at his son on his lap.

"She promised me she would be with me to give all the teddy bears we won together from the Halloween Parade to Lily and also to bring home a princess for me, dad." He muttered faintly, almost fell into a whisper. "Does she not love me anymore? A kid in my school was left with his father alone. They said his mommy does not love him anymore."

"Alexandra loves you very much, Gayle! You are the most precious kid to her in her heart. Just give her time, okay? You know... Princesses are hard to find nowadays." Nikolei explained, trying hard to ease the worry etched on his son's face.

"You think so?" He asked in wonder.

Nikolei nodded his head reassuringly as he pressed his lips onto Gayle's forehead. His arms wrapped tightly around his son as he leaned back into the leather chair with Gayle snuggling closely into the warmth radiating from his torso.

Rubbing his palm calmly onto his son's back, Nikolei inhaled and exhaled calmly as Gayle's frail arms tightened around his torso. Throughout the week, he had been spending his time with his son in effort to make the best out of it to take his mind, including Gayle's, off of Alexandra for a while.

His son would understand what he was trying to do the whole week, but once in a while Gayle would gave up and started asking about Alexandra about when she would be coming home again. Every time that came up, Nikolei tried very hard to make excuses for him. He knew it was his fault that Alexandra left the house in first place but he couldn't bring himself to speak out the truth to his son.

Selfish as it was, Nikolei believed that the reality was still too much for a six year old boy like his own son to handle.

Beep... Beep...

The sound from his smartphone snapped his thoughts. Just like him, his son too raised his head from his chest as they stared down the phone together. The vibration and the sound on its own were enough to catch the father's and son's attention away from their own world.

"Is it mommy?" Gayle's voice came out with a lot of hope attached to it. He eyed the phone curiously, raising his head more to take a peak at the screen as Nikolei raised the phone to his view.

"Looks like it. See?" He said, showing his son the phone too as they both read Alexandra's name displayed on the bright screen.

Gayle's eyes lit up brightly as his expression brightened. He jumped and moved happily on his father's lap as he beamed happily at Nikolei. "She's coming home! Dad! Dad! Answer it!"

Nikolei chuckled at his son's excitement and enthusiasm. He then swiped his finger onto the phone to read the text Alexandra had sent. Just as he read the whole sentences, his bright smile fell into a thin line.

Can we meet? I have something I need to talk to you about. Meet me at Hyde Park, near the Princess Diana's memorial fountain.

8 o'clock sharp.

Alexandra.

Nikolei stared at the text for God knows how long. His heart was beating wildly against his chest and his eyes snapped downwards, realising that Gayle had placed his small palm onto the area where his heart was beating.

"Can I go with you, dad?" Gayle asked timidly, his eyes glinted with hope. He then pouted, "Please..."

His gaze softened as he smiled faintly at his son. Standing up from the leather chair, Nikolei tightened his hold around his son as he walked out of his office with Gayle in his arms.

Gayle was grinning widely at his father as Nikolei made his way towards his son's bedroom. "Come on. Let's get you into something more presentable. Wouldn't want you to greet mommy in these yellow ducks pyjamas now, would we?"