Chapter 19: Chapter 19

Ray was too shocked to speak. "What ... what do you mean? It's not like I'm going to snatch Fillo or anything."

After begging in a hoarse voice, Alexa even cried without realizing it, but when she saw Ray looking confused, she looked down again.

"Mom," Fillo called with teary eyes, he felt scared because his mother was crying.

"Peanut, why are you crying too?" Ray asked confused.

When asked like that, Fillo actually cried loudly. His tears didn't stop flowing. And it spread to her hands too.

Ray was stunned.

Seeing a woman crying, he could never help comfort her, now plus the baby was crying too. His headache came again as if it was splitting the contents of his brain. As hard as he could, he tried to keep them quiet, but the sound of crying only grew louder and filled the car and could probably be heard outside too.

Alexa roared, "Fillo is my son! Please, don't take him from me, Ray. Please."

Along with the roar, Fillo responded with a cry. They cried so loudly that they filled the entire contents of the car, making his nerves finally break in his head.

He panicked. "Oh my! Stop! Please stop! That's it! That's enough!"

However, they didn't stop.

"Fillo, peanut, please stop crying, ok?" Ray almost seemed to let out an impatient high note. "Alexa, you have to stop too! Come on!"

The crying finally stopped after a while, but left a face that was red from crying. The two people, whose faces were wet with tears, were just silent with their lips trembling. The two of them were so cute, it was as if they were playing the same rotten role.

Ray also didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Peanut, why are you crying?" Ray asked in a firm tone.

Fillo glanced at his mom briefly, his eyes blinking as tears fell, almost crying again.

"No! No! Don't cry anymore. Oh, my goodness. Poor kid." Ray took Fillo from the back seat and cradled the boy on his thigh. "I'm just asking, not angry at you, okay?"

As if it had been implanted in his mind that he had to sulk to avoid being scolded, the little boy hugged Ray and pressed his little head against Ray's chest, so that his shirt got wet. Seeing that Fillo was still sobbing, Ray patted the little boy's shoulder gently.

Then he looked back at her and lowered his tone, "You see this? You made him cry. What's your real problem? Why are you accusing me as if I'm going to take Fillo away? Are you playing tricks on me?"

Was she jealous because Fillo came to him and hug him instead of her?

Alexa fiddled with her fingers and said, "Children are used to crying."

What?

Ray was completely stunned.

This mother-child parenting logic seems incorrect and must be corrected. Ray, who was previously confused, became a little angry, shifting his body to face her. In her eyes, that angry face didn't look cruel at all, he was even more handsome.

And she hated this thought.

His thick furry eyebrows dipped sharply as his forehead furrowed. His eyes looked worried. After opening his mouth several times to say something, he finally swallowed his words.

In his heart, he counted the number of days he would meet her, and it wasn't even seven days. But what can be achieved in less than seven days? Misunderstandings and continued misunderstandings. This was the first time in his life that he was angry with a woman.

And that was on Alexa Greisy.

Suddenly, he felt uneasy. "Fillo, straighten your legs, don't press my stomach."

Ray's chin fell on the little boy's head, smelling the attractive and apparently quite soothing smell of shampoo.

The discomfort in his stomach returned along with the pain in his head, he pressed his head back and closed his eyes. Just want to be quiet for a moment while calming down this stiff atmosphere a little.

Since the beginning, he has liked small children, sometimes dreaming of having a boy and a girl. They will both be very noisy; crying, laughing, disturbing him at work—and he felt that if it happened, maybe he wouldn't mind. Sometimes he talked to Hailey about this, that if two kids weren't enough, maybe they could add five or six more, he would all pamper them well. Unfortunately Hailey had told him that she didn't want to have children. Being pregnant would damage her body.

Then when he had erased his dream of having children when he got married, Fillo came into her life; whose appearance is almost identical to him, like a split part of him.

Seeing Fillo for the first time in front of the door of a large supermarket and almost being squeezed, he felt as if it was destined by the heavens.

Once he got to know Fillo better, saw his pure and innocent nature, he liked the little boy—he loved Fillo. When Fillo cried, the fatherly instincts in his blood grew, and he wanted to hold him like this to calm him down.

What if he wanted more than just to know him? What if he wanted Fillo to be his son?

"Ray, give him to me." Alexa reached out to pull Fillo, but Ray practically moved backwards.

He took the tissue box from the dashboard. "Wipe your tears first."

"I'm sorry," she said, wiping her tears slowly, "I'm just ... scared."

Another tear fell from her eyes. Ray grimaced before saying again, "Enough, Alexa. Please don't cry anymore. I don't know what the problem is."

Ray felt sorry for this poor woman. Her trauma towards men must be very great for her to experience psychological pressure like this. He swore that he would beat up the bastard who hurt her, if they happened to meet him later.

"Are you calm down now?"

Alexa nodded.

"You misunderstand me," Ray said. "Trust me. I won't take Fillo away from you even if someone says that I'm his father."

Her heart turned cold.

She couldn't believe Ray could say that. There were no words that she could utter after that, completely stiff and tense. Ray probably didn't see that, because he kept his eyes closed and looked tired.

She slowly took Fillo from him, but the little boy tied his legs under Ray's waist and refused to be taken.

Ray opened his eyes. "It's okay. Let him be. Come on, it's time for you to go home."

During the return journey, the atmosphere was even colder and stiffer. Fillo fell asleep while continuing to shed tears. Even when he arrived at the gate of their simple house, Ray didn't say anything, carried Fillo and put him to sleep in his small room. He measured the room a little, it was neater than all the other rooms, on the walls there were paintings made by Fillo; mountain view with forest.

Alexa saw that Ray's tired face, then cleared her throat slightly.

"You can rest inside first, I'll bring you some porridge," she offered, whose brain was probably already damaged from going soft on this bastard.

Ray also thought that he might not be able to drive much longer and agreed. Then called someone to pick him up, heard the person get angry loudly, "You skip work, and play as much as you want, then just ask to be picked up! Am I your driver?"

But he knew, even though he was angry, this person would definitely go to get him.

"You're going out to buy porridge on the street?" He sat on the sofa while glancing at her.

"Please don't call it that. It sounds as if I'm going to feed you rubbish food."

"Oh, sorry." Ray looked in another direction, coincidentally finding a pile of colored books on the table. "Fillo likes drawing?"

She was tying an apron around her body as she answered, "Yes. He doesn't talk much, but he doesn't hide his hobby."

There wasn't much on the pages of the book, most of them were repeated pictures of houses and gardens. Sometimes he draws fruit, which he seems to find easily at home, there are also chicks, chairs and tables, and so on.

What was interesting was when he found a picture on the last page, containing a natural scene inhabited by three people holding hands; fathers and mothers and small boy, giving the little child the name 'Fillo'.

"Where is your ex-husband?" Ray asked subconsciously.

The sound of kitchen equipment was loud behind there, apparently the woman didn't go out, she definitely didn't hear his voice.

"Nah, forget it," he whispered, feeling like it wasn't his place to ask.

He didn't want to make her cry again.

... to be continued ...