Chapter 52: Chapter 52

[Lucien’s POV]

I had thought about it again and again, and although I was sure that our lives would never remain the same if Nivera should have the child, I also somehow knew that it would be worse if she never had the child.

There I was, sitting in the park, and just then, a boy of around seven years old ran up to me smiling, exposing his missing front teeth and he handed over to me a loose kite.

I stared down at it, wondering why he had decided to approach me of all people. I never had a smile on my face and no one ever spoke to me first and avoided me as much as possible. I knew what he wanted and not saying a word, I helped him out with the kite so he could fly it properly then handed it back to him.

“Thank you,” he said, then turned around and left.

I stood up from the bench and walked to leave the park, not knowing why I had come there to think of all places, knowing fully well that there would be a lot of people around since it was a sunny Saturday, which was also the day Nivera was to take out the child. Perhaps, I should have been there to give her moral support, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to go through with it if I was indeed there.

“Daddy, daddy,” the voice of a little girl called and as I looked towards her, I saw her run happily into the arms of her father who carried her in his arms after which he handed her a cotton candy.

I looked at them with nostalgia and a rare longing feeling. It had been nearly five hundred years since I had been transformed into a vampire, but all my memories remained fresh and vivid whenever I went back in time. I also had a family once… a mother, a father, siblings and grandparents, but somehow, I had buried those human feelings after becoming a beast… but now, I was starting to wonder: What would it be like to be a normal human again? What if this was my shot at just living an ordinary life once again?

Looking back, that had been the whole essence of everything that had led up to this moment. I wanted to lead a normal life with Eloise and that was why I had gotten involved with the werewolves in the first place. Then, I had spent four centuries waiting for her reincarnation, and now that I had her back, why couldn’t I live as I had wanted to in the first place?

Apparently, Celeste had been lied to that she would be given all the necessary ingredients to make me human again and had been driven out of her coven, but even at that, what was stopping us from just existing in the world now and forever?

I heaved a sigh, not sure about what to do… but then, I got my sign. On that sunny day, right there in the park, a man held up a big sign asking his lover to get married to him and all around me, the crowd cheered, urging her to say yes.

I didn’t want to be a part of the drama and hastily left the park, but once I was outside, a baby shop I had never noticed was standing right in front of me. I didn’t know why, but I entered inside and once I was in, I saw heavily pregnant women with their partners, those with baby carriers, those with toddlers and those just holding their babies in their arms. Across the counter, a matching floral outfit for the mother and the baby were placed on a mannequin and I imagined Nivera and the child putting on the outfit.

Was the universe telling me something? Why did I already feel a connection to a child I had never met? Why did I suddenly want to meet someone I knew I shouldn’t meet?

I was rattled out of my thoughts when my phone beeped. I took it out of my pocket and saw a message from Celeste which read: “Just got to the clinic. Sure you don’t want to be here?”

I kept the phone back in my pocket, then my eyes rested on the matching clothes again. At what point in time did I begin to have a conscience? I blamed Nivera for saying she didn’t want to abandon her child like her parents had done, but it wasn’t even the same thing as what they had done. The child wouldn’t be alive to resent her after all.

I ran my fingers through my hair, letting out a rasped breath, then turned around to leave the shop.

“Aren’t you getting anything, sir?” one of the workers asked.

I politely shook my head and stepped out of the shop. Celeste was right; she always was. But looking around me and having a vivid memory of what my whole life had been like, I had been in complete darkness for the most of it and had forgotten that like all these people around, I was once a normal human being with a family as well. And truth be told, that was the peak of my life, excluding the time I had had Eloise in my life.

Would it be so terrible if I wanted to try living that way again? I had spent centuries waiting for Eloise. I had her now. What next? What was my purpose in life?

And with that question, I knew exactly what I had to do. I knew exactly what my next path in life would be. There had been a time when I was just a normal schoolboy, then I had worked with my father in the stables, then my family was stolen from me after which I had become a cold-hearted vampire who hid in the shadows. After that, I had found Eloise and my life had gotten a meaning, then she was stolen from me. For years, I led different lives and grew in wealth and power. It was time for me to embrace a new life; a different path… a brand new Lucien O’Hara with a meaning, a purpose; a family.

*

[Nivera’s POV]

“Everything has been set. We have other patients to attend to, so you have to make up your mind,” the doctor said.

I bit my lips in a worried manner. “I… I’m just worried,” I said.

“Relax. You can’t die and you know that. It’s just going to take roughly twenty minutes, if not less,” Celeste assured me.

“Of course, I know I won’t die. I just wanted to wait for Lucien. Have you texted him? What did he say?” I inquired.

“He read the message, but he didn’t reply,” she replied.

I heaved a sigh. He had been avoiding me like a plague, and now, he wasn’t going to show up when I was doing exactly what he wanted? Was he that mad at me? I mean, I didn’t intend on getting pregnant. Did he have to be such a jerk?

“Let’s get this over with then,” I said, figuring I didn’t have a choice. If getting rid of the child would make Lucien happy, then I was willing to do so for his sake.

“Wait!” Lucien’s familiar voice yelled as he suddenly appeared in the clinic.

The nurses and the only doctor around moved backwards in fright, looking all around and rubbing their eyes over and over again as though they were in a dream.

“Where did he come from?” the doctor asked, touching his skin repeatedly to see if he was still alive.

“Really, Lucien? You had to make a dramatic teleportation entrance?” Celeste bugged him, and I was just completely silent, wondering what he was up to.

“I’m sorry. There was just no time and I wasn’t with my car. I figured I would be late if I took a bus like normal human beings, but I’ll just compel them later to forget,” Lucien stated.

“I’m so confused. What is he saying? Am I dreaming?” a nurse asked.

Celeste rolled her eyes at him, but then, he looked away and just seemed to pay attention to only me. I looked right at him and he approached the bed I laid on with slow steps, then to my surprise, he got down on both knees.

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and I sat up on the bed.

“What… what are you doing?” I inquired, staring at him all over with bulging eyes, which were wide with surprise.

“I’m sorry. I never should have forced you into getting an abortion. I know you’re only doing this because you want to just repay me for everything, and you don’t really want to. You didn’t intend on getting pregnant for some other guy, and I’m the asshole for making you feel like the victim and being immature by wanting you to get rid of it,” he said.

I shook my head slowly, disagreeing with him. “No, Lucien, you’re not an asshole. I would have probably done the same thing if I was in your shoes,” I told him.

“Do you forgive me then?” he asked.

I smiled at him. “I don’t hold any grudge against you, but yeah, I forgive you,” I said, smiling at him.

“Glad to see you guys have made up. Since you’re here now, Lucien, the doctor can now proceed,” Celeste said.

“Proceed with what? I didn’t just come here to apologise. I came here to stop the abortion. I don’t want Nivera to get rid of the baby. I just want her to do as she likes,” Lucien explained.

“What?” Celeste, Ryle and I chorused.

He shrugged his shoulders. “You heard me.”

“So, you’d let me keep the child if I want to?” I inquired, disbelieving my ears.

He nodded his head in the affirmative. “Exactly. In fact, I am hoping that you decide to keep the child,” he said.

“But why?” I was confused.

Suddenly, he brought out a glass box from his pocket then opened it, revealing a 24-karat gold engagement ring which was engraved with diamonds. It was magnificent and the prettiest thing I had ever seen in my life.

“I want to do this the right way, Nivera… the human way. I want us to be a family; you, me and hopefully, your unborn child,” he said.

I looked at him as tears filled my eyes. “Are you… are you asking me to marry you?” I asked, as a drop of tear fell from my eyes.

“Yes, Nivera. Please, do me the favour of becoming my wife for all eternity, till the world comes to an end,” he said.

“Isn’t it usually till death do us part?” one of the nurses whispered.

“He’s a vampire. He can’t die,” Ryle said, to which Celeste bopped him on the shoulder to get him to keep shut.

“Yes, Lucien. I’ll be your wife for all eternity,” I said, then stretched out my hand to him, but before he could put on the ring, I stopped him.

“What’s wrong?” he inquired.

“I just need you to know that it’s not just my unborn child. It’s our unborn child. You have to accept the child as yours for this to work, okay?”

He smiled and nodded his head. “Yes, my love,” he said, then wore the ring perfectly on my finger, after which he stood up and pulled me from the bed, then embraced me tightly.

I always thought it was weird when I saw people cry in the movies after being proposed to, but I just couldn’t control my tears and just cried joyfully in his arms.

“You two, it’s okay. You’re going to make me cry and I don’t usually cry,” Ryle said.

Celeste smiled. “Congratulations, you two. I can’t believe I waited four hundred years for this. Thankfully, you don’t have friends so I can fill in the space of a Chief’s bridesmaid,” she said, and began to talk nonstop on how the wedding was going to be like.

“Well, I guess the appointment is off,” the doctor noted.

Lucien didn’t say a word and just kept me in his arms. Right here, everything was perfect and I thought that since we now had it all, our story will end here, but it didn’t.

Somewhere beyond the horizon, fate was scheming something different; something we would have never seen coming even in a billion years.