Chapter 54: Chapter 54

Five years later

[Nivera’s POV]

“Luca, where are you now?” I asked, careful not to shout in order not to disturb the people around.

I reasoned he was probably playing hide-and-seek again with me, but without telling me, and I had agreed with Lucien to not make use of my abilities to find him anytime something like that happened. We were trying to be normal people, after all.

“I’m sorry, have you seen my son? He has curly brown hair and eyes with chubby cheeks,” I said to an old lady who was struggling with pulling her overloaded trolley.

“Do you know how many people’s kids match that description? Please, be on your way and don’t bother me,” she said, dismissively.

“Well, I tried my best, Lucien,” I said in a whisper, then sniffed the air to catch Luca’s scent, and as soon as I caught a whiff of it, I immediately followed the scent.

From the looks of it, he was where they sold ice-cream at the mall. I definitely should have looked over there first. He had a great love for ice-cream which I couldn’t comprehend. Sometimes, it was as though he loved it more than he loved me.

I smiled when I spotted him just staring at the kids who were getting ice-cream with their parents. He was allowed to look at it, but I wasn’t letting him get any more for the rest of the week… and that was okay, not until I saw Lucien pop out of the corner suddenly and hand over a cone filled with vanilla and strawberry-flavoured ice-cream to him.

“Thanks, dad. You’re the best,” he said with a toothy grin, and immediately started slurping on it.

“You’re welcome, big guy. Now, hurry up before your mum finds us,” Lucien said to him in a hoarse whisper.

“His mum already found him. Both of you are in big trouble,” I said, folding my arms and glaring at Lucien.

“Uh-oh,” Luca said, and immediately went to hide behind Lucien.

“Babe, I can explain,” Lucien said to me.

“Explain what? I’m sure the entire situation is self-explanatory. I told Luca he couldn’t have ice-cream for the rest of the week after he shoved a family-sized ice-cream tub down his throat on Tuesday. Then, you went behind my back and showed up at the mall to treat him to ice-cream without me knowing. Classic,” I said, looking directly at him.

He stuttered, then looked away from me. “I’m sorry. The little bear just wanted some ice-cream and since he performed so well in his test at school, I thought it would be okay to do so. I never should have gone behind your back though, I am sorry,” he apologised.

“First of all, he’s not a bear. Secondly, I know what you’re doing. You’re trying to waste my time by giving excuses and rendering fake apologies, so Luca has the time to finish up the ice-cream. That’s not going to work,” I said, firmly.

A smirk appeared on Lucien’s face. “Fine, you caught me, but I’m pretty sure my plan worked. Right, bear?” he asked.

“Yes, dad. I’m already done with it,” Luca said, coming from behind Lucien, chewing up the cone with layers of cream on each corner of his mouth. And yes, he was grinning from ear to ear, and that riled me up.

“Good boy!” Lucien said , wearing a proud smile as he gave a high-five to Luca.

“You both are grounded for the rest of the week,” I said, turning around and pushing the trolley, refusing any help from Lucien who followed me from behind, holding Luca close to him.

“You can’t ground me,” Lucien said, poking my arm playfully and trying to sound adorable.

“You can’t ground dad. He’s just going to disappear out of the house whenever he wants to, and if he brings you novels, you’ll have no choice than to forgive him,” Luca added.

“Shush. You shouldn’t be saying that in public,” Lucien reprimanded.

“Of course, he shouldn’t, but he would… because even though you say you want us to live like normal people, you keep teleporting in front of a five-year-old. It doesn’t help that Celeste enjoys transforming stuff to snacks for him to eat all in the name of being a fun aunt. And that Ryle, I would strangle him one of these days for always eating raw meat without keeping his fangs and claws in check,” I said.

Apparently, my voice had been higher than usual and I could feel the eyes of everyone on me. Some shook their heads in pity, while others just walked away. One thing was sure though; they all thought I was out of my mind.

“Poor child. Imagine being left with a woman that isn’t mentally stable,” one had the guts to say.

“Hey, I’m okay. I was just joking around,” I snapped at them, but they looked at me as though I was more insane than they had earlier thought.

“Hello,” a voice said behind us and we turned around to see a woman in her mid-forties.

She stretched out her card to us. “I am a psychiatrist and you can stop by at my hospital one of these days. A child shouldn’t be kept around you, but with our services, you will become better and stop imagining things,” she said with an annoying smile I wanted to rip off her face.

“Hey, that’s enough. Like my wife said, she was just joking around. There’s nothing wrong with her mental health,” Lucien said, looking at her with extreme disgust.

“I admire you both for taking care of a child that isn’t even yours, and you probably don’t know it, but making such jokes in front of a child is one of the signs of mental illness,” the woman stated.

“Excuse me? This is my son! What do you mean he isn’t mine?” Lucien was enraged, and now, I wished I hadn’t said what I had said earlier. I knew what the woman was driving at, and Lucien knew it, too, and that was why he had gotten really mad.

“How can he be your son when he doesn’t look like either one of you?” she asked.

“For someone who is into psychiatry, you are really dumb. Have you never heard of anything called recessive genes?” it was Luca who attacked her. We had explained to so many people, including him that his looks were as a result of recessive genes and that was how he could say something like that.

“You heard what he said. That’s how I know he’s my son. He’s rude like his father. Come on, big guy,” Lucien said, then led Luca away and I tagged along, after which we paid for the stuff we had gotten and left the mall.

Lucien and I had had a private wedding ceremony five years ago in the garden of our home with Celeste and Ryle in attendance. A few months later, I had given birth to Luca and although he had initially looked like me, his face morphed into Tyler’s own as he grew older. He was an exact replica of Tyler and had a striking resemblance with him in every single way.

That had been Lucien’s worst fear, and at a time, he had begun to push Luca away, but how could

I blame him when he was constantly haunted by his greatest enemy’s face everyday? However, the love he had for Luca was strong enough to push that fear and annoyance away. They had the greatest bond and did everything together. In fact, character-wise, Luca was more like Lucien and not like me.

The drive home was way too quiet, and Lucien sat in the passenger seat, fuming.

“Dad, why didn’t you just teleport out of the mall the same way you came?” Luca asked, breaking the silence.

“Because it would seem weird that I didn’t leave with you guys,” Lucien replied, tiredly.

“Dad, is the reason you don’t go out with us anymore because people always ask why I don’t look like either one of you?” he asked.

“What?” Lucien asked, looking back to see him in the backseat.

“If you’re going out with me, mum doesn’t tag along. If I’m going with mum, you don’t come. Is that the reason?” he asked, with big curious eyes.

“Luca, don’t bother your father,” I quickly said, noticing the stress it was causing Lucien.

“Dad, if you want, I could dye my hair jet-black so we can have some sort of resemblance. I could also start wearing blue contacts. Would that make us leave the house as a family once again?” he asked.

Lucien blinked back tears. “How would you be my adorable little bear without your brown curly hair and adorable puppy brown eyes? Listen, never change a thing about yourself, and don’t worry. Henceforth, we would resume going out together again as a family,” he stated.

“Yay! I love you, dad. You’re the best,” Luca said, happily.

Lucien smiled at him, then leaned back into his chair. I smiled as well, but I knew that in all of the excitement, he wasn’t truly happy.

I squeezed his hand reassuringly, then kept on driving. I got where Lucien was coming from, but he had nothing to worry about. He kept saying he had a terrible nightmare where Tyler took Luca from him and that’s what he was most scared about, but it had already been five years… five good years without seeing or hearing about Tyler.

We lived in two separate worlds and our paths would never collide. Alpha Tyler would never know he had a son with me, and for the rest of his life, Luca would only know Lucien to be his father. This was what I had in mind, but destiny always has a different plan in store.