Chapter 30: Chapter 30
Adrian
I open my eyes to something crawling on my chest. Looking down I couldn't hold but to extend my lips. My daughter who was sleeping beside me all the night was now on my chest. She was laying on her stomach with her head raised up looking at me very curiously in her big Gray eyes that she inherited from me. I do not know what goes on in her little head, what she dreams but the way she looks at me like I was her sole refuge, her protector and her saviour from all the sins of this world brings in me the pride of being her father.
Probably she had a meeting with fairies in wonderland I thought. And wanted to share with me her views on building a new block for fairy meets. I chuckle at my own ridiculous idea. "Why are you looking at me so curious princess?" I titter, kiss her little forehead and run my hands on her soft baby hairs that felt like velvet between my fingers. Pressing my hand softly on her neck I check her temperature and find it normal to my great relief.
"You got up earlier than me?" Heaving a sigh I ask her and squat on the bed bringing her to my lap. "Daddy needs to go to work. Today he has two important meets with the Chinese clients. Now that you are good will you allow him to go to office?" I ask her playing her tiny fingers in my large hand. She gives me her toothless baby grin like always with two front teeth slightly projecting out.
I pick her up and walk to the front hall where Caleb was reading the news paper. After having a stomach filling breakfast of pancakes, bacon and eggs made by Jade I drive back to my house.
Tomorrow Christina is having the exhibition of her paintings at Grand Hyatt hotel. I took the responsibility of taking care of our kids. Spreading a carpet a few feet away from the fire place I lay some toys in front of my daughter. Because of itchiness due to teething she places everything that she sees in front of her into her mouth and tries to chew it. That's why I sterilized all her toys. My son was with me in the kitchen playing with a spider man toy while I prepare our dinner.
After a few minutes I look down and find Liam nowhere in the cooking room. Being almost eighteen months old he is mobile now. He crawls very fast and sometimes also takes baby steps holding the walls of the house. He might have gone to check on his sister while I cook for us. I guess, smiling at my absurd notion. How can eighteen months old know that he has a sister? That's when I hear a shrill cry from my son to my utter consternation.
The scene I saw in front of me got my jaw hang to the floor. A soft gasp escapes my lips as I resist my laughter and rush to the scene. Ria was laying on her back pulling the hairs of her brother while Liam was sitting beside her crying and trying to remove his hairs from her grip. Landing in chuckles, I pull my son from my daughter's grip. All this while I thought my son being older is going to be my daughter's protector but now I understand it's the other way round. My daughter is too smart for the boys to be taught a lesson and if these two are together I need to worry about Liam rather than Ria. "Princess, why are you pulling the hairs of your brother?" I ask her in between my snickers and pull my son to my chest pacifying him.
Seconds later both of them start crying. I recollect Chris's words before I bring my daughter home. "Do not put both the children in the same room. Else you would have a tough time. Sweet heavens! I am going crazy. Now I know why parents plan a gap between their children.
Fifteen years later
Pouring a drink for myself from the bar like every day I look towards the sky from the window of my study. For the world outside, I am happy man blessed with prosperity but only a few know I am a vacant man with a vacuous soul.
Christina is my wife, the sole woman who occupies my existence like the early morning twilight. She flies like a fairy in my dreamland to make me fall in state of intoxication. She lighted my life with smiles but stood black in my pupils making my heart the funeral pyre.
She is like the moon that glows in my nub with winsome glances, like sweet nectar, like the life giving boon of a cool breeze which warms my heart. Yet today after she left me fifteen years ago, every day feels like the pinching silence in my kernel, a wound that cannot be borne by my heart.
"Dad stop drinking. The doctor had already advised you, if you continue this way, you aren't going to live long. Your liver is already damaged. Why do you keep thinking of the woman who is never going to return into your life?" My son's voice brings me out of the thoughts about my Angel and then a sudden blackness succumbs in me.
Liam's POV
There is enough silence that I have suffered in my life. If I continue to keep my mouth shut the woman I unfortunately still treat like my mother is going to end my father. Dad needs an urgent liver transplant which he refuses to do. He says he has no light left in this world but I'm not the son who is going to seal his lips and watch the ruination of my father in front of my eyes. I'm the only reason, the only person responsible for my parents to part their ways and I will be the sole person who is going to unite them. Making a resolution I call my sister.
Christina
Mom...' I frowned at my sixteen year-old daughter's slightly hesitant voice that interrupted my concentration on the accounts on which I was working. "You're not going to believe this." Ria informed me, perching on the edge of my desk, swinging her long leg, which were still brown from her summer holidays.
While I was shy and hesitant woman five feet two inches tall who was often called an introvert. Ria on the other hand is a talkative, active and a fun loving girl. She possessed her father’s entrancing Gray eyes. She is tall with long bones and a mane of wild, tumbling deep brunette curls.
'What's wrong?' I asked my daughter adjusting my glasses, pushing away the papers on my table and turning to look up at her. "I know you're not going to believe this." Ria responded to me once again but this time with more nervousness. "But...I think...I think..." She looked down and started fidgeting with the laces on her boots. "I think I..." Knotting my fingers of both hands to one another I give her my undivided attention "Yes, go on...you think what?' I encouraged her wryly.
"I think I saw my dad today..." I hear my daughter speak.
Despite the unhappiness and trauma of my marriage, I never tried to put my daughter off getting to see the pictures of her father which I had not destroyed in spite of hating to have a look at them. My daughter needs to know her father even though all the memories they brought back to me were accompanied by pain.
"I think I saw my dad today..." The words began to reverberate in my head.
The shock was rather like believing I was crossing a completely empty road and then suddenly realising there was a ten-ton truck bearing down on me at high speed. I recognised, my body's adrenalin system surge to fight off the blow I had just been dealt. "I don't believe you. It's impossible for your father to be here." I added more gently, when I saw my daughter turn her head away biting her lip. "Your father is in Australia. He emigrated there with your brother just after...just after....
The memories began to rush in my head once again like every day.
My parents advised me it as a heart wrecking game of destiny and come to terms with my fate. Accept Adrian for the sake of Ria's better life. But I did not find their suggestions convincing. Do I require a man in my life? Can't I rise up my daughter without the help of her father? I questioned myself. I'm a strong self motivated woman. Weakness is not my pursuit. I was determined and never looked back since.
"Chris, I am sorry for everything that happened between us. Believe me I regret it every day every hour and every minute." He pleads me. "Amaira was a bitch. I agree with you but why should little Liam bear the brunt of her actions? He is a poor kid. He needs the love of a mother just like he requires the care of a father." I face Adrian violent. "I never told you that I hate Liam. The only person I hate is YOU."
"I am sorry." He pleads, eyes turning to pools. "If not for me and Liam, think about Ria in the least. Doesn't she deserve the care and affection of a father?" I did not want to speak to him any further. "You are disturbing me in my work, Mr Martin and regarding forgiveness I can never pardon you for your disloyalty. You destroyed us, you demolished our marriage."