AIDEN


    There were so many scenarios in my head, so many words that I could no longer pay attention on the road as I drove. After I almost brushed the side of a car, I sharply pulled over by the side of the road.


    I threw my head back and shit my eyes close. Of all the thoughts that raged in my head, the one that baffled me the most were Sharon''s words. My brows deepened as I muttered, "A married woman with a child?"


    After the lies she told Aba and the fact that she even refused to acknowledge that she had done something wrong, I had stopped listening to her, I was too angry to even look at her but those particr words had drifted to me. I had almost stopped to ask her what she meant when she said I was going after a married woman with a child but I didn''t. For all I knew, she could be making up lies.


    But I couldn''t stop thinking about it. I couldn''t simply base those words. as lies and a ploy to stop me from getting mad at her and get them out of my head.


    No, I thought, then I whispered, "No." Then I screamed and mmed my fist on the steering, "No way!" There was no freaking way. Why would Ana get married? Why wouldn''t she? A voice echoed in my head.


    My hands gripped the steering wheel, my fingers digging into the soft leather as my mind wound back to that night that Ana had hurried out when I tried to talk to her. I remembered it was the night of the party. I remembered the child in ra''s arm and I wondered, was that Ana''s child?


    Her utter worry that day now made sense. She had been so fidgety and didn''t even want me to drive her to the hospital. But why would she try to hide her child and marriage?


    I tried to remember if I had ever seen a ring on her My mind had never wandered there.


    jer but I couldn''t.Content bel0ngs to N?vel(D)r/a/ma.Org.


    Perhaps, that was the reason she avoided me after the kiss. She felt guilty that she betrayed her husband. Is that what it was?


    I ran my fingers in my hair and gripped a handful. The more I thought about it; her actions and words, the more sense it made. The more the possibility that she was really married with a child heightened. Even though I told myself that it wasn''t possible, my heart squeezed tighter every minute in my chest.


    I decided that I''d ask her myself. I was done taking things slow and at a pace at a time. I would go to her and demand to know the truth. Was she married? Does she have a child?


    I would leave no stone unturned. I would not let a misunderstanding that broke us apart years ago repeat itself.


    I wasn''t thinking as I started the car, swerved into the road and stepped on the brakes. I heard angry honks from every side as I sped through the road, straight to Ana''s apartment that I had no idea where it was situated.


    So I slowed down and put a call through to my secretary. I mentioned her full name, "get her contact address and send it to me immediately."


    I ended the call and threw my phone in the passenger seat next to me. In the next minute, my phone beeped with a notification. It was an email containing Ana''s home address.


    I sped past cars and buildings, making them look like mere blurs. Each


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    time, I pressed the brakes harder, it was with a purpose. To get back my love.


    Hopefully, a voice in my head would add and my heart would sink


    deeper. I just couldn''t let Ana slip out of my reach like that. Not after I''ve rekindled the hope and nurtured it and started to believe that we could be again. Not when I''ve started to believe that we could reignite our love, get married and make babies and name our kids those ridiculous names she used toe up with.


    I sighed, wishing I had done more digging when I saw her again. I wished I hadn''t just assumed that she was single and avable for the taking. What was I thinking? It had been five years. If I could date a woman and even sign a marriage contract with her, why then couldn''t she get married and have kids?


    Every rational thought further added weight to Sharon''s words and should have quenched the fire of my hopes but I kept them alive, wishing that somehow, Ana would be mine in the end. Without a husband or a kid.


    As I turned into the street that was in the address, I crosschecked to be sure. I pulled up before the apartment that had the house number in the address and hurried out of my car.