Chapter 230 - Chance (1)

"That's not fair." Her eyes dropped.

Theodore flicked her forehead for being stubborn. "The world is never fair. At least not completely. Sometimes you have to sacrifice yourself for the well being of others but at other times, you have to be selfish. If Desmond takes you up on your offer and marries his ex-girlfriend to be with his daughter, what will happen once my grandchild is born?"

Her hand slid down her stomach. "I can take care of my child."

"Without their father, right? You will have switched positions with Angela." He reminded her.

"I…" She averted her gaze. She had not thought about it that way.

He ran a hand down her back. "I know what you are scared of. You just don't want to be a step-mother, right?"

She remained silent, neither agreeing with him or denying his claim and he took it as a yes.

"Do you remember Sofia?"

She was taken aback by the sudden change of topic and it took her a while to process his question.

"Sofia, the Latina woman who was your friend in the past?"

"Yes." He confirmed. "Well, about that, she was not just my friend. She was my girlfriend."

"Huh?" That was shocking, but why was he mentioning it now?

"She was a good person. Kind, beautiful, and most importantly, she loved you. I had long known the kind of person she was before letting the two of you meet so I was certain that she was not faking her love for you. She really did adore you and would treat you well."

"Okay…" She didn't remember much about the woman but the memory of their cheerful times together was still intact.

"She really ticked all the boxes." He continued, making her wonder where he was going with this awkward topic. "And the cherry on the top is that her family was ready to accept you as well. It was going to be a business marriage and I would gain everything I needed from it. Especially a loving mother for you—which I knew you needed more than anything."

"Why didn't the two of you get married then?" She asked, suddenly finding it strange. For a while back then, she had also wondered whether Sofia would become her step mother in future but out of the blue, she had stopped coming over.

Theodore let out a deep sigh. "Your mother, Lucy."

"Huh?"

"I couldn't forget her. I tried my best but no matter what, I would come boiling down to my feelings for her. I soon realized that I was not just finding it hard to move on after her departure. I never wanted to move on in the first place because I loved her so much."

"Dad…" Her eyes watered.

"It's been twenty-three years Zaria. If I were to marry another woman back then, it would be unfair to her. My heart would never belong to her." He concluded, and her view of him once again shattered. For years, he had made it sound like Lucy was the devil he wanted to get over.

"But now that she is back and it's clear that she still loves you too…ow!" She rubbed her forehead that had been flicked by him again.

"This is not about your mother and me. It's about you and the pain you might cause your man by leaving him."

"I understand." She grabbed her phone to make a call.

His phone was off. After trying a few more times unsuccessfully, she concluded that he probably needed some time to himself to process the shocking news he had just received, and decided to meet him on Monday.

__

She saw his car in the parking lot when she arrived at work, much to her relief. She had bugged Natalie for news about him and the latter had let her know that he was alright, but she would only calm down after seeing him. The elevator ride felt like a train ride to Luxenville and when she finally got off, the first person she bumped into was Angela. What a way to start a Monday morning.

"I want to see Desmond." The woman demanded, and Zaria wondered who had let her into the executive floor. She wouldn't be surprised if the woman threw Desmond's name around as her fiancé who was also the father of her child, and threatened to fire whoever got in her way.

But she was not going to cave to such tactics.

She cast Angela a glance. "Do you have an appointment?"

"Are you kidding me?" Angela laughed in ridicule, especially since she knew who Zaria was. Alyssa had already told her that she was the shameless woman who would get into a relationship with her very engaged boss, which intensified her hate. "So I need an appointment to see my fiancé. Are you implying that if my daughter wants to meet her father, she would also need an appointment?"

"Considering you are on this floor and Desmond has not let you into his office, yes. You need an appointment to see your ex-boyfriend." She emphasized on the last word to remind Angela of her place.

This audacious woman!

"Do you know who I am?" She growled, only for Angela to chuckle as though she was a joke.

"Of course, Miss Aguilar. I know who you are. And I also know that if I deny your entry to Desmond's office, you are not going in even if Liam Preston or Lucy Roatta allow you. It's in my employee contract. Do you want to take a look?"

Angela huffed in anger. She despised the woman before her but she also knew that she couldn't underestimate the authority of executive assistants in Preston and Fort Group. Not to mention, this was Desmond's girlfriend and she might intentionally block her entry out of spite. So she reluctantly lowered her voice.

"Look. I'm here because Rosaly's DNA test results have been sent over to Desmond."

"Last I checked, he could read perfectly well. Unless the test report was written in a language he doesn't understand?"

She had had enough. Her hands flew to her hips. "Listen to me, whore! I was just being polite. This is a matter regarding my family and you have no right to interfere! And what you are doing right now is overstepping your boundaries."

A chuckle escaped Zaria's lips. "Relax, I don't want to be involved in the matters of a woman who needs a DNA test report to know who the father of her daughter is."

She left the fuming Angela in the hallway and entered her office. Locking the door behind her in case Angela went crazy and tried to follow her, she used the door between the two offices to get into Desmond's.

"Hey." She whispered when she saw him. He was holding a sheet of paper which she guessed to be the DNA test report.

He put it aside. "Zaria,"

She didn't need to ask anything. His expression was enough response. "Should I say congratulations?"

He looked up at her as she walked over to him. "You can say that. But only if you are ready to listen to my explanation."

She smiled. "I'm listening."

He was in disbelief for a moment, as though he had not expected her to give him a chance. He waited for her to sit before he spoke. "Rosaly is indeed my daughter." He took a deep breath.

"I looked into Angela and according to reports, she didn't abuse Rosaly in any way. I don't have a reason to take her away aside from my own vengeful selfishness, but I don't want to do that to Rosaly. She's innocent in all this."

"What do you want to do?" She asked calmly, and he was uncertain whether to continue. Was she really okay? Deciding to answer since she asked, he continued, "I have decided not to fight for full custody of her. We can share her custody instead. She can live with her mother and over the weekends, someone can pick her up to come over and stay with us." He carefully studied her expression. "If you want to be part of her life, that is."

She weighed his response and couldn't think of a better way to handle this. He must have thought of how uncomfortable it would be for her if she personally went to Angela's to see Rosaly or pick her up, so he chose to have someone else pick her up. He was quite thoughtful, she had to give him that.

"But what if I don't want to be part of her life?" She asked, purely out of curiosity.

The disappointment in his eyes was clear but he didn't voice it as he didn't expect her to accept his daughter who had basically popped out of nowhere.

"And why exactly would you want to be away from her?" He asked. "Is it because you don't like the idea of getting close to a child you didn't know about, or because you just don't want to?"

"To keep things peaceful." She bit her bottom lip. "Desmond, I would never take my frustration out on a child. But if I'm going to continue dating you, I don't want to be thought of as the woman who broke up a happy family."

"That's not what happened." She frowned that she would even think of it that way.

"That's not what happened, but it's what is going to be on her mind. The woman dating your father who is not your mother is often the one at fault." She retorted.

It was a sensitive topic for her, so he didn't want to push her buttons. He remained silent for a while figuring out what to do. "Do you want to give her a chance? Maybe spend some time with her and if you don't like her, I will make sure there is enough distance between the two of you." He suggested.

__

AN

Sorry for the delay, I only finished my household chores a while ago.. The first mass release chapter will be up in 3 hours.