Chapter 29: Chapter 29
Adrian
"So Liam is fourteen months old" Chris asks with her lips wrapped in thin line. "Don't add more meaning between the words Chris." I request her. "It was just a one night stand, a mistake made in a state of dopiness." Amaira is not alive and that is why Liam's responsibility became mine otherwise...." She doesn't let me complete pushing her hand forward, a signal for me to stop.
"Your son is fourteen months old, Adrian. That means you had a connection with Amaira after we started in a relationship. Over and above you hid the information from me. The success of any marriage lies in truthfulness." She tells me hard and serrated. "Had you been honest I might have still forgiven you but now....it's too late." I walk towards her. "Chris that's not what you think..." My sentence dies mid-way as the phone of her starts to ring. "Yeah, I am fine mom. I am a little busy. I will call you later." She cuts the call of her mother and then faces me with glazing eyes of a bitter antagonist.
"You don't have to knit a big story for it Adrian. It is just a one word answer, infidelity." She speaks incensed emphasizing the word more than a way I could ever imagine of her. "Christina, mind your tone." I caution her. "It was just a mistake done in drunkenness and the woman involved has already left the world. So you don't have to worry about anything."
"Oh yeah" she titters hedonistic. "It is just a mistake." Folding her hands to her chest she faces me unyielding. "Adrian, if I was in your place and you were in mine, would you consider it just as a mistake and accept me in your life without a hitch?" I look towards the sky asking God to give me the strength to face the situation. Sherlock was right Amaira is, was and will be the hag in my life. She wanted to break me and she did it successfully even after her death."What do you want me to do for my mistake Christina, fall at your feet and plead for mercy?" I ask her tired.
"It is not a mistake, like you symbolize it, Mr Adrian Martin, it is a blunder and the act is called adultery in English." She spat baleful. "Christina" I raise my hand about to slap her but control myself at the last moment. "Don't dare speak to me autocratic, I'm a billionaire, hundred times powerful and richer than you. I have girls worshipping the soil I walk upon but in spite of everything...." I run my hands in my neatly gelled hair feeling exhausted. "You should be thankful that without minding about your handicap I decided to marry you." I articulate low in an attempt to compose myself.
"There is no constitution in any country that says women are inferior to men, Adrian and regarding my handicap, I did not ask you to marry me. You were the one who proposed me for the marriage." She places her hands on either sides of her waist looking straight up to meet my eyes with her chest braced up facing me undaunted.
She then points to my hand that was raised upon her a few seconds ago not simmering down. "Hands are not there only for you Adrian Martin." I pace two steps towards her monstrous. "What do you mean?" But she was not the woman to step down. "It means that I can make use of my hands the same way you were about to use it on me." I raise my hand about to beat her. "You bloody bitch" But her arm stops me in the mid way. "Hands on control Adrian James Martin...." I was alarmed by the intonation in her voice. "That was your last chance. I'm done." She picks up a suitcase resting in the closet, dumps her clothes inside it along with Ria's.
"What are you doing? I hurry behind her. "Chris, wait." She walks to the exit not reacting to my words with sleeping Ria in her arms and turns back before reaching the threshold. "I know what you want to discuss, Mr Martin. You can come to see Ria whenever you wish but if you want make a mountain out of a mole regarding this issue by inviting media and courts into this, I am not the woman to back off in fear. Let's see each other in the court."
"Chris, please stop..." I was about to reach her arm but the stability and sternness in her voice cautions me to rest back. "I don't like your hands on me Mr Martin and you are using too much of them. Let this be my last warning to you." Her eyes were crisp and sharp while she utters the words. I pull my hand immediately down. "Have a wonderful life." She plasters a fake smile on her brims and walks to the gate. "Wait I will drop you. I rush behind her. She turns back with a stringent closed lip smile and points to the taxi that was already parked outside the huge gates of the mansion.
And at that moment I knew I had lost her forever. Mom and dad tried to convince Christina but I think the damage I did to her was too severe on her forbearance. She refused to react to my parent's persuasion.
As Liam was too weak and puny my parents decided to look after him while I'm at work instead of leaving him with a nanny. Every day after I finish work, I reach my parents home and pick my son back to my home.
"Caleb please help me, I did a mistake by speaking too high of myself and rising a hand against my wife but now I regret it every single time I think of my lost family." Holding his hand in between mine I tell him with pleading eyes. "During her stay with me I was there for Christina on every count, every hurdle she faced in life including the times I was sick and lost my memory. Don't I deserve a second chance, or least a plea for forgiveness?" I urge my father-in-law.
Caleb comforts me patting my shoulder. "Young man you know my daughter has got a lot of pride and dignity. She is not a woman who would easily flex and submit. You need to be patient. Give her some time and she will come back to you in due course."
I doubt would the day ever fall in my life?
Three months later
I was in the sitting room of Christina's house. I left my son with my mother and came to see my daughter. Caleb greeted me inside like usual with a warm smile. "Is everything okay Caleb?" I asked him pensive because the house felt exceptionally quiet. He doesn't answer but just makes a glum nod and my restlessness escalates. Christina comes out with our daughter in her arms.
"Hi baby," I extend my hand in smiles to pick our daughter from Christina's arms. Unlike her usual activeness Ria was abnormally silent. I look at Chris with questioning eyes and no sooner do I hold my princess I understood she was running a high temperature. My stance goes anarchical. "Did you visit a doctor?" I immediately ask Chris. My daughter lays her little arms around my neck and rests her tiny head on my chest, her eyes dull almost shutting off which makes a part of me go numb.
"She is teething and thus suffering from motions and fever." Christina tells me after reaching out for a warm bottle of milk. "I feed my princess and take strolls in the sitting room to help her to sleep.
As Ria falls to sleep Chris enquires me about Liam. Liam has now grown to be a healthy boy. Though my parents were initially very angry upon me for my brazen act they welcomed Liam into the family whole hearted. "What is the mistake of the child in your flagrant deed? The mother already left the world. All he has is only you. I love Liam like any of my grand children." My mother who is always tender hearted expressed her feelings unfeigned to me and my father joined her.
Chris is no less caring and sympathetic to Liam. Every time that I am out of the country and my parents are unavailable to look after my son, Chris takes care of him like a biological mother. Her anger is directed only towards me and though I regret it I feel, it is justifiable from her part.
That night my daughter required me more than her mother. She would get up in the middle of the night and call me "Dada...Dada" It was the first time that she was calling me and if I say I am thrilled there are hundred more words that I would like to add to describe the euphoric feeling. Hugging her little body to me I lay down on the bed kissing a goodnight on her soft cheek. Before closing my eyes I had only one request to God.
Let my son and daughter grow under the same roof with care and affection of both their parents being true siblings that they actually are.