Chapter 38 — Old Lady

“My father is a man of love, friendship, sacrifice, and happiness. How could I forget all the pain that you swallowed all alone? How could I forget your huge love for me? You are my only friend in the world who makes my everyday wonderful. You have sacrificed so many things in life just to see the smile on my face. You have brought so much happiness into my life like stars in the sky. You are the name of the God who does everything without any expectations and demands. You’re my hero and you’ll always be my hero. I’m the luckiest person in the world who has a father like you. Thank you, Viv, for bringing me to this beautiful world.” Harley glanced at her father, who was sitting beside me. “Love you, Viv,” and then she finished her speech.

Vivian quickly stood up from his seat and clapped his hands together loudly. “I love you too, sweetheart.” He shouted and the entire crowd applauded cheerfully.

He sat back. “Are you crying?” I asked, shocked to see his moist eyes.

He quickly wiped away his tears. “No, I think something in my eyes.”

“Hold on, hold on.” I quickly pulled out my phone. “Look at me.”

“Are you fucking crazy?! Why the fuck are you snapping my picture?”

I giggled. “I’ll post it on my Instagram with #crybabymafialeader.”

“Post it after this, you won’t be able to see the next morning. Because I don’t have a lack of enemies. If they get information that I have not only a cute daughter but also a sexy woman then they won’t think twice about killing you.”

I frowned. “Are you kidding me? Why would those people kill me? They are your enemy, not mine! And anyway I’m not your wife.” I pushed my hair behind my shoulder, looking away. He was scaring me.

He leaned down. “But half of my men thought you were my girlfriend.” I caught him in the corner of my eyes, smirking.

“Hey, young couple, what are you two doing here? This is a public place.” The old lady who was sitting in front of us exclaimed.

I pushed Vivian away. “No, we…” before I could clear up the other lady cut me off.

“Come on, Katie, they are young and beautiful. You can understand young love and desperation. At least they can kiss here. It is not illegal,” she said, winking at us playfully. “Don’t you remember how many times I used to kiss William when I was her age?”

What does she mean by my age? I wasn’t kissing him. Why the hell was she talking like that?

“Excuse me, we are not…” I opened my mouth, but before I could clear them everything Harley showed up.

“Viv, how was my speech?” She asked while hugging her father.

“Your speech was amazingly beautiful, sweetheart,” he said, kissing her forehead.

“Really?”

“Really.” He dragged her hand over his heart. “It touched my heart.” He kissed her again. “Thank you.” Warmth filled my chest, seeing them happy.

Harley giggled. “It’s my pleasure, Dad.”

“My hug.” I opened my arms wide, and she quickly jumped on me.

“Thank you for your speech,” she whispered in my ear so that Vivian couldn’t overhear us.

“You’re welcome.” I got closer to her, hugging her tightly, kissing her on the cheek.

“Oh, my gosh.” She slapped her forehead.

“What happened to you?”

“I forgot to meet him.” She quickly jumped down. “I’ll be back soon,” she said and rushed towards the hallway.

I and Vivian looked at each other. “Him?” We said simultaneously and laughed.

“Oh my god, Is she your daughter?” Again that old lady said, surprised. “You two are married. How sweet. How many years has it been?”

Daughter! She couldn’t even see the difference between us.

I opened my mouth to say, but Vivian cut me off.

“Six years,” he said shamelessly. I snapped my eyes at him, glaring at him hard.

“But your wife seems young.” She studied me.

“I’m not his…” I said before Vivian again cut me off.

“She was only eighteen when we got married.”

My blood went ice cold and I wanted to slap him right there.

“Oh, she was very young,” she said.

“Yeah, when she got pregnant with our baby, I married her.”

“Wow! You are an incredibly good person. Otherwise, in today’s world, who would think of girls who got pregnant before marriage. I’m a lawyer and I have handled many cases where many men didn’t want to take responsibility for their women. What a sorry world. I feel really bad for those women who get divorced and their husbands abandon them for another woman—” Before she could finish, I cut her off.

“ENOUGH!” I exclaimed, catching everyone’s attention. All the heads turned at me.

I cleared my throat, feeling embarrassed. “S-sorry.” I sat back in my seat.

“Anything bothers you, darling?” She asked worriedly.

I threw my fake smile at her. “My husband.” I looked at Vivian. “Can you excuse us?” I grabbed his hand and dragged him out of the hall.

As soon as we got out. I quickly pulled out his pistol from the back of his pocket and pointed right on his chest. “What would you do if I shot you right here in your chest?”

“Ouch! It hurt.” He mocked me. “How could you shoot your fake husband?”

“How dare you! Why did you tell her a lie? An eighteen-year-old pregnant? It’s all disgusting. I hate you, Vivian.” He laughed at me. “I’m not telling you a joke!” I gritted out.

“When you get angry you look more attractive,” he said, eyeing me, and I turned pink.

“Princess, what’s in your hand?” Harley approached us, looking at a gun.

Shit!

“Um, t-this is.” I cleared my throat. “Your dad and I were playing ‘shooting devil.’ This is just a toy gun. We were just having fun together.” I quickly put back his gun into the pocket. It was as horrible as holding a real pistol.

“Alice, are you coming with me to the hospital? I guess you got information about Ava. She woke up from a coma yesterday, so I’m going to see her,” Vivian said.

Henry had not called me at once since last night. He didn’t bother to tell me how she was. I would go with Vivian to see her.

*****

Suddenly I stopped right in front of Ava’s room before stepping in. "She is going to hate me. She has been through this because of me.”

Vivian looked into my eyes and squeezed my hand. “No, she won’t hate you, Alice. She will understand the circumstances,” he said and guided me inside the room.

When we entered. I saw Henry was lying in Ava’s bed, they both were lying in a single bed even in the hospital. Her head rested on Henry’s chest as he was caressing her hair lovingly. Wow! What a beautiful scene. I didn’t feel bad, anyway. Is it what I expected? Was I expecting this? I don’t know. But I felt hurt.

Vivian cleared his throat to grab their attention. “So how is my little sister?” he asked as stepping towards her bed.

Henry stared at me, but he didn’t react to my presence as if he was expecting me here. We stared at each other for a while and I could feel the tension between both of us, but I ignored his stare and moved towards her bed.

“Bro and Alli,” she called me with my pretty name. She used to call me ‘Alli.’ I liked this name. I studied her pale and skinny body. She was thinner, but still, she looked so beautiful as she used to be. I looked at her face. Her nose was red and her eyes were moist, swelled slightly underneath it as if she had cried before our arrival.

“Ava.” I quickly approached her bed and hugged her tightly. “I-I am sorry Ava, because of me, it’s all happened to you. I am sorry.” I shook my head. Sorry, it changed nothing. When she went into a coma, every single second of my life had become hell. Every time I felt like I was a murderer. Because of me she was injured badly and went into a coma.

“Don’t apologize, Alli, I am fine,” she said softly as if nothing had happened to her.

I pulled myself back and looked into her eyes. “I-I missed you so much. Thank God you’re back.” She smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. Something painful was hiding behind those blue eyes.

“Bro.” She hugged her brother. “Where is my little queen, Harley?”

“She wanted to come with me but I lied to her that you've gone to some other place instead of the hospital so I didn’t bring her here. But she missed you. When you were in a coma, she used to stand near the garden where you two used to play. It became fucking hard for me to handle her without you, but after Alice.” He glanced at me, smiling. “Everything has changed. Now Alice has become her priority. She adores her.”

Ava laughed sweetly. “Wow, you already met my brother and niece? She likes you.” She said and held my hand. “Thank you, Alice, for taking care of them.”

“No, don’t thank me, Ava. I like her and I love her. I love to spend time with her, make her happy, her sweet chat, her smile, everything.” I smiled at Harley’s adorable face pictured in my head.

“You sound like her mother.” She eyed my left hand. “You got married?” She raised her brows together. “With whom?”

I glanced at Henry before at my diamond ring. “He is a businessman. It was an arranged marriage. I didn’t even know that I was going to get married to him.” I smiled at those memories flashing in my head when I got married to Henry. I thought it was the worst day of my life but it turned into the most beautiful day of my life.

“His name?” She asked.

“I'll introduce you when you recover properly.” I didn’t want to tell her the truth because her brain injury wasn’t recovered properly and this was the best option not to tell her.

“So you don’t want to tell me that your husband’s name is Mr. Henry Robinson?” she said and left me shocked.