Chapter 81 A child

Chapter 81 A child
ARIHYA POV

The moment Mr. Lawrence said yes, it felt like the universe had finally decided to give me something back.

“I don’t usually allow strangers into my home,” he had said, his sharp eyes assessing me like I was a risk he hadn’t fully calculated yet. “But Mirabel needs consistency and you came highly recommended.”

I had smiled, calm on the outside but desperate on the inside. “I won’t disappoint you.”

And I meant it because this wasn’t just a job, this was my way out.

The Lawrence estate was everything my life wasn’t orderly, peaceful, untouched by chaos.

It has tall white pillars framed the entrance, glass walls letting sunlight flood into rooms that smelled like fresh lilies and quiet wealth.

It was the kind of place where problems didn’t scream… they whispered behind closed doors.

Exactly what I needed when I needed a place to disappear and where Zayn couldn’t find me so easily. I had been working for him for a month now but have never really moved around his house to know how it really looks like but now I finally have a place where I could breathe well.

I dropped my bag on the bed in the guest room I had been given, staring at the ceiling as exhaustion washed over me. “I’ll start filing for the divorce soon,” I whispered to myself.

Zayn had laughed the last time I mentioned it, like I was a child throwing a tantrum instead of a woman walking out of a hopeless marriage.

“You won’t leave me, Arihya. You don’t have the guts and remember the debt I covered for your parents.”

My lips curled, he really thought I was bluffing but he had no idea, I won't continue to pay for my parents mistake but Zayn wasn’t the problem that kept me awake at night.

It was someone else and someone I never expected to see again, Cassian.

The memory of our last encounter still burned under my skin, his presence alone had been enough to shake everything I thought I had buried and now he was here.

In this same city refusing to return back to his perfect family, he has Elena and that cute daughter of his with a dimple.

A bitter taste filled my mouth and the thought of him been happy with a beautiful family while I was devastated but he wanted me initially but I was too scared of Omar and my parents to leave Zayn and choose Cassian.

So now that he shows up again I won't give him that satisfaction of knowing what's going on in my life, I will carry my burden alone without involving him. I know I sounded crazy but maybe I am after all.

Three days later

“You’re doing it wrong!”

Mirabel giggled, her small fingers pressing the piano keys randomly.

“I am not,” her friend argued, dramatically flipping her hair.

“Miss Arihya said we should feel the music.”

I leaned against the piano, folding my arms with a smile tugging at my lips.

“I said understand the music,” I corrected gently. “Not attack it.”

They both burst into laughter and God, I didn’t expect this which was to enjoy teaching them and watching their clumsy fingers find rhythm and their faces light up when they got a note right, it did something to me.

“Again,” I said, sitting beside them. “This time, slower.”

Mirabel nodded seriously, her tongue peeking out slightly as she focused.

Her friend followed, less serious but equally determined and as the melody filled the room imperfect, uneven, but alive I felt it that ache and a sudden, sharp ache deep in my chest.

I froze as my fingers hover over the keys because I want this, the thought came out of nowhere but I want… my own child.

My gaze drifted to Mirabel, her laughter echoing in the room as she hit a wrong note and groaned dramatically.

A deep, consuming longing that made it hard to breathe.

Later that evening, after the girls had left and the house had gone quiet, I sat alone in my room, staring at nothing.

The thought wouldn’t leave, It kept coming back stronger.

What would it feel like to have a child,my child and someone to love and just like that my mind betrayed me again because it went straight to him, Cassian.

I let out a shaky laugh, dragging my hand down my face.

“Of course,” I muttered bitterly. “Of course it would be him.”

Because no matter how much I tried to erase him… he was still there in my memories but fuck he was married now and he had chosen Elena and that union produce a daughter already and that was everything we were supposed to have but he gave to someone else.

“Pathetic,” I whispered to myself but that didn’t stop the thought or the reckless, impulsive, completely irrational idea forming in my head.

If I wanted a chilld, there was only one person I could think of, I know I was been selfish but it has to be him.

My heart started racing. “No,” I said out loud, shaking my head.

This was insane, completely insane but the more I tried to push it away, the more it made sense.

I didn’t want a stranger or something clinical.

I wanted… something real and someone I knew, who once knew me and whose child I wouldn’t regret having.

My hand moved before my mind could catch up, grabbing my phone, unlocking it.

His name was still there, I had left my phone in Zayn house and now this was the phone I gave me the very first time I fled from Zayn and his number was the only contract saved on the phone aside Mr Lawrence.

My thumb hovered over the call button and my heart pounded so hard it felt like it might break through my chest.

“This is a mistake,” I whispered and I should stop, delete his number and walk away.

Instead, I pressed call and the ringing started.

“Pick up,” I whispered, immediately regretting it. “No, don’t pick up.”

Soon the line clicked and my breath stopped.

“…Hello?”

Everything inside me went still, that voice God, after all this years he still had this effect on me and for a moment, I couldn’t speak, think or even breathe.

Then, he called my name. “Arihya?”

My grip on the phone tightened and just like that every wall I had built around myself began to crack.

“Cassian.”

There was silence on the other end of the call and deep down I knew that this call?

Was about to ruin everything.