Chapter 27 A MISTAKE PART 2
When she walked into their apartment, it was quiet. Noah had already gone into his room, and she could hear him moving around softly, probably getting out his art supplies or books. When he was upset, he always retreated to his safe place.
Vivienne stood in the doorway of the kitchen and looked down the hall at his closed door. She should go to him. She should go say sorry in a more sincere way, explain things better, and make sure he knows she didn't mean to be harsh.
But she didn't.
She walked to the sink, filled a glass with water, and drank it without tasting it. But the cold drink didn't help her throat feel better.
The contract was on the kitchen table, a thick stack of papers with the Hunt Enterprises logo on the folder. She had planned to read through it tonight so she could fully understand what she was signing up for.
She felt sick just thinking about looking at it.
Vivienne put the empty glass in the sink, leaned against the counter, and closed her eyes. The day played back in her mind like a movie she couldn't stop watching.
Alexander smiled when he saw her at the park. How he knelt down to talk to Noah, making himself smaller and more approachable. The real warmth in his voice.
He had been nice to Noah. Kind. Everything a good uncle should do with his niece's new friend.
And Noah had reacted to it, and he had gotten excited about the attention. There was something wrong with everything about it. Her body rushed with complicated feelings that she didn't want to think about too much.
"Mom?"
She blinked her eyes. Noah was in front of her. He looked unsure, as if he didn't know if he was still in trouble.
"Hey, baby," Vivienne softly said. She was in the living room now. "I thought you were in your room."
"Yes, I am. I was, I mean." Noah moved forward a little bit. "I drew something. Would you like to see?"
She felt a wave of relief. He was giving her a chance to make up for the distance she had made.
"I'd love to see," she said, and his face lit up.
She followed him down the hall to his room and stepped through the door into the familiar mess of his own space. There were drawings all over the place: on the walls, on his desk, and on his bookshelf. His careful, improving hand drew spaceships and planets, superheroes and monsters.
Noah sat down on the floor where he had been working, with his colored pencils arranged in a rainbow around him. He picked up the paper he had been drawing on and showed it to her.
Vivienne's heart stopped.
It was the park. He had drawn the park.
In his simple style, the playground equipment was easy to see, and the jungle gym was drawn with careful lines. In the corner was a wavy oval-shaped duck pond with two small circles on its surface that looked like ducks.
And there were four people.
One of them was clearly Noah himself, who was standing near the playground with a big smile on his face. Lily, who was wearing a pink dress and pigtails, was next to him.
And then there were two grown-ups.
One of them was clearly supposed to be Vivienne, who was tall and thin with long hair and stood a little apart from the others.
The second one was Alexander. Noah had drawn him taller than Vivienne, with a wider body, dark hair, and a suit that he had colored in with gray and black pencils. He was close to the kids and had one hand up, which could have been a wave.
"It's everyone from today," Noah proudly said. "I wanted to remember it because it was fun. Look! You, me, Lily, and Uncle Alex are all there. I even drew the ice cream truck in the back, but it's a little small."
Vivienne couldn't talk. She looked at the drawing, a simple, innocent picture of a moment that had changed everything for her.
Noah had made them look like a family. Not on purpose and not knowing how ironic it was, but that's how it looked. There were two adults and two kids in a happy scene at the park.
"Do you like it?" Noah asked again, his voice shaky. "I know the people don't look quite right, but I worked really hard on the faces."
"It's beautiful," Vivienne was able to say. "You did a great job, baby."
Noah smiled at the praise and put the drawing aside to show her the other ones he had been working on. Vivienne listened to his excited explanations, said the right things, and tried to ignore how her heart was breaking into smaller and smaller pieces.
Vivienne stood under the shower that night and let the water pound down on her shoulders until it got cold. She had just fed, bathed, and tucked Noah into bed with his usual stories and cuddles.
"This was a mistake," she whispered again, but the sound of water hitting tile drowned out her words. "This was a mistake. This was a mistake."
But she had already agreed to the meeting by replying to the email. She had already met him and agreed to the contract, even though she hadn't signed it yet. The sessions for motion capture start on Monday, which is only seven days away.
And there was no turning back now.