Chapter 44 CHAPTER 44: At Crossroads
Hazel
Williams repeated the question as he advanced towards me. I stood at the staircase looking up at him with my tear-stained eyes.
“Answer my question, Hazel,” he thundered, his eyes red and blazing. He got to me and stood in front of me.
“Did you have sex with him all night? He repeated before putting his hands on my shoulders and shaking me. I looked him in the eye. “No, I did not have sex with him”?
Williams gave a sarcastic laugh. “You could fool me with those innocent brown eyes'," he replied, tracing my cheeks with his fingers, then moving to my lips. There was a look of vulnerability in his eyes as if he was about to crack before the stoic, cold expression returned, and he quickly withdrew his hands from tracing my lips as if they burned before he stepped aside.
“I'm sorry I left without your notice. I just needed a place to breathe after everything that happened.”
“And you chose to go with Adam”? What happened to your parents”? He barked.
As he screamed, Maria walked in. I turned to look at her, and she had a look of alarm in her eyes. When she looked at me, she had an accusatory look on her face.
I moved close and touched his arms, but he flinched and moved away from me. I gulped, and I felt a twist in my chest as I withdrew my hand.
“I know leaving with Adam without your permission was wrong. It was impulsive, and I was trying to make you feel the same hurt I felt when I heard the news about Emily, but believe me, nothing happened between me and Adam.”
“You expect me to believe that”? He screamed, pushed me aside so he could pass and walked towards the sofa and sat down.
“Master Williams, please be careful. She is pregnant” Maria gasped and ran to steady me. I gave her a half smile before following Williams.
I sat at the opposite end of the sofa. “I’ll leave if you want me to leave”, I said.
He looked up at me with a hooded expression “You want to leave again. Then leave. I can’t even stand you right now, anyway. Leave, just like every woman in my life does. He replied before bending down, his hands on his head. Then he looked straight at Maria.
“Maria”
“Yes Sir” she replied.
“You can take her to her parents. Heck, you can take her anyway. I do not care. I don’t just want to see her right now” he spat.
“I can take care of myself” I replied before I stood up from the sofa and took the stairs to my room.
My room was just as I left it. I sat on the bed as tears flowed down my cheeks and thought about how my life had taken a dark turn since I got into the marriage contract. The mistakes I'd made overwhelmed me and I felt the tears prick my eyes. I propped the pillow and laid down for a while. I was woken up by the shrill ringing of my phone. I checked the caller and it was my mother. I picked it up.
“Hazel, where have you been”? She asked, her voice sounding angry and anxious over the phone.
“Mum, I was with Adam,” I replied.
“Are you out of your mind”? Adam? While you are married and expecting William's baby? Why would you do that, Hazel?
“I tried talking to you after the incident on the news, but you blanked me”, I sulked.
“Yes, because Williams is now your husband and I do not have any say in your life till the contract is over” she replied.
“That was a really terrible move, Hazel. You are smarter than that and I raised you better”, she continued.
“Did you call me to reprimand me”? I asked
“I just got a call from your husband saying you are back, and I should come and pick you up because he cannot stand you. Start packing and get ready. I'm coming to pick you up. He insisted I come” she said.
“I can find my way to the house mom, you don’t have to come” I sulked.
“Don’t worry about that, worry about what this means and how furious your dad will be. Our contract is far from over with The Thorns and, as it stands, we are barely surviving. You were the only hope out of this situation, and we don’t know what the next plan will be ''She complained, and I sighed as the tears continued to flow.
“I'll be there in an hour so get ready” she said, and then the line went dead.
William
As I sat there in the living room, I was torn between locking Hazel inside her room until she gave birth or sending her away. I could not stand her at the moment, but my heart said otherwise. I did not know when I fell so hard on her, but she got me, which was why I called her mother, because even though I needed some time to process my feelings and her betrayal, I needed to know that she was safe.
Was there something about me that repulsed women? I thought about my life and how I have only attracted wild women to fall hard for me, but the ones I needed to had to work with always ended up leaving.
My mother left me to the care of nannies at the tender age of four with no explanations. I had not spoken of my mother or my childhood for years, had buried those memories so deep I hoped they would never resurface. But here they were, as vivid and painful as the day they were etched into my being.
I could not stop my mind from going back there as I sat in the living room and let the memory engulf me, transporting me back to that fateful day. I saw my mother, her figure framed by the doorway, a silhouette against the blinding light. Her bags were packed, her face resolute. I remember reaching out to her, my little hands grasping the air, tears streaming down my face as I begged her not to go. But she didn't stop, didn't turn, didn't waiver.
The door closed with a finality that echoed through my very soul. After she left, my world became a series of cold, indifferent faces. Nannies came and went, each more detached than the last. They provided for my physical needs but left my heart barren, a landscape devoid of the warmth and love a child craves. I was a task, a job to be completed, not a child to be loved. I remember lying awake at night hoping she would come back, that she would open the door and take me into her arms. But she never did. And in the night the nightmares crawled at me and each morning, I woke up a little hollower, a little less hopeful.
My dad had never been open-minded when it came to her. I did not know who my mother was and how to find her. I tried searching on my own, but how do you find a ghost? I had hoped, with Hazel by my side, I would face my past, confront my nightmare, and maybe, just maybe, find the peace I had been searching for.
Then came Carla, the first woman I loved with all my heart, who almost destroyed me. Now Hazel, whom I trusted with my deepest secret, turned and stabbed me in the back just like everybody else. How could she make me fall for her and hurt me this way? Did I really deserve to be hurt like this? Was this my fate? I felt my heart wrench and I gulped, holding my chest. I felt a dull thud of pain in my heart and my hand reached out and rubbed it as I leaned on the sofa.
I was no longer that abandoned child, helpless and alone. I was not that person Carla abandoned a few years ago, I was William, a man who had woven through his hurt or so I thought, ready to face whatever lay ahead, but at that moment, I was not so sure. I felt like that helpless child again as I watched Hazel come down the stairs with a box. My fist clenched and my chest constricted.
I could not bear to see her leave. I turned away from her as she approached me. Immediately she touched my shoulder, the entrance door opened and her mother, Mrs George, walked in. Hazel turned to her.
“I’m ready mom” she said.
Mrs George walked up to me and touched my shoulders, then squeezed them. “William, I'm sorry. Please just give us some time before you make any decision”. She pleaded, and I nodded and squeezed her hand on my shoulder as an assurance that I would think about it.
“I'll meet you in the car mom”, she looked up to her mother. Her mother nodded before she grabbed the box in Hazel’s hand and walked out the door.
Hazel came up to me and held my hands. “I’m sorry Will, I understand you are upset and have every right to be” she said but I cut her off.
“You don’t have to go,” I said, looking up at her, hopefully wishing she would change her mind.
She gulped and fixed her hazel eyes on me “I need this too, we both do”. She replied before standing on tiptoes and kissing my cheeks. As she was about to leave, I grabbed her hand and she halted.
“I'll never divorce you unless you really want me to. We have all made mistakes in this relationship, but we are human, and you are mine. Take care of our baby. I will make sure your stay at your parents’ is comfortable…” she cuts in.
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I have to, even if it's only for my baby” he replied. She nodded and I let go of her hand. She strode out as my heart sank. I stood there for a while before my phone ringing took me out of my reverie.
“Helo dad”
“Son, I need you at the house as soon as possible”
“What is the matter, dad?”
“We found Emily; she is here right now. She faked her pregnancy”
“What!?
“Get here as soon as you can”, then the line went dead.