Let Me Love You Again
Chapter 67

Brad

I went into the supermarket yawning, after a shift and a hell of a week, I was completely shattered, destroyed.

I’ve been fighting with Sheila for over three weeks. We weren’t moving forward on good terms, and it wasn’t what I was hoping for in peace, not that she cared.

According to Sheila’s mind, her pregnancy wasn’t important to her and her career. She didn’t want to miss any opportunity, she didn’t want to interrupt her career for our daughter, she didn’t want to pause her life for our daughter, so she’d rather give her up for adoption than raise her, and when I said I’d take full responsibility, she refused.

For three weeks, all I had done was talk to my lawyer and the social workers that Sheila had put in the middle of the adoption because, without my consent, she had sought a family to entrust my daughter to.

Last night, during the break, I called her to talk civilly about custody, trying to make sure that I would never ask her anything, that I would take care of the baby. But she started yelling at me before she hung up on me.

I grabbed a trolley and started circling the aisles.

I didn’t know what to do anymore. My lawyer assured me that he could not continue with the adoption if I did not agree, but I could not have full custody and his waiver at the time when she did not sign the documents.

I kept wandering around the aisles, not really looking at anything until I hit someone.

The man immediately blurted out “I’m sorry” and I looked up at him.

I froze. It was the man who was with Maya. I watched him carefully as he tried to continue when a small voice shouting “Dada!” came to my ears.

I lowered my head towards the point from which the voice came and I found myself in front of a child. The blond hair was shaggy and the blue eyes were cheerful. His face was like Maya’s face and I froze again. Feeling the heart gallop in my chest, but I didn’t have time to say anything. The man went away like a fury. Disappearing between the shelves.

When I recovered I tried to follow him but he had disappeared into thin air, disappeared among the people.

I bit my lips in anguish. I had just seen my son and he was in another man’s arms.

*****

When I returned home, I called Maya immediately. Her number was still saved in my phone book but she didn’t answer. I called again and again until she sent me to voicemail.

Exasperated, I called the hospital, looking for some other contact of Maya. If I had to, I would have gone to his house and knocked until the whole building woke up.

After more than an hour, I finally managed to get her home number, which is illegal since Maya no longer worked there.

Once I got the number and I dialed it immediately and again it went to voice mail.

“Hey, Maya,” I said in a bit of a hoarse voice with emotion, “I’m Brad, I don’t know why you didn’t reply to the message a few weeks ago, or rather I know, I know that I was an a*****e and that I hurt you, but I assure you that I did not want and that for all the days of the last year I regretted that. I don’t expect you to forgive me. Last time I saw you were with a man, and I swear to you, if you’re happy, I’m not gonna get involved, but I saw him with a kid today, and that kid looked like you, and I’m not an i***t. I just want a chance to get to know him, to be a father. Please call me back.”

That said, I hung up and threw myself on the couch, hoping that at least Maya would have some sense.

Maya

“… Last time I saw you were with a man, and I swear to you, if you’re happy, I’m not gonna get involved, but I saw him with a kid today, and that kid looked like you, and I’m not an i***t. I just want a chance to get to know him, to be a father. Please call me back,” Brad’s voice ended before he hung up.

That voice that until the year before gave me shivers all over my body and made my legs tremble and that now did not cause me anything, if not disgust.

How did he find my contacts? How did he see Nate and Axel?

I looked at Nate in doubt. Message? What message was he talking about? I didn’t get any messages.

Nate and I stood still. I looked at him in silence. Nate had overshadowed, his jaw hardened and his eyes guilty. I knew him too well, I knew that look didn’t say anything good.

“What did you do?” I asked immediately.

“Nate broke away from me and began to walk up and down the apartment, putting his hands in his hair.

“What. Did. You. Do.” I said with clenched teeth.

Nate froze and looked at me as Axel came up to his feet and clung to his legs and then stood up.

“Why do you think I did anything?” he looked me in the eye, his features might have seemed quiet, but his eyes betrayed him.

“You look guilty,” I said, “It means you either cheated on me or did something else”.

“I didn’t want him to ruin our family,” he said.

“What?”

“I read the message, he wanted to talk to you and I was afraid, I couldn’t let him get in our way. I wouldn’t let anyone.”

“Wait wait,” I said, putting my hands on my face, “Did you check my phone?”

“I didn’t check it. I read it by mistake! I didn’t want to do it!” he defended himself immediately.

“And you deliberately chose to hide it from me? Don’t you trust me?” I hissed, Nate whitened “When. When the f**k did this happen, Nate”

“Maya…”

“WHEN?!” I shouted this time, and I saw Axel jump and start crying.

Nate immediately took him in his arms, consoling him, before taking a deep breath and beginning to speak “On April 5th”, he said without looking at me.

“The day we got married…” I said with a string of my voice.