Chapter 51: 51

Lana's POV

I don't know how to start explaining to him. I simply wake up to see that he wants me for some kind of meeting. While I am fine with following him and even representing him if required, I find it a little strange for it to be so urgent all of a sudden. However, I don't think too much into it, simply finding joy in how much he seems to trust me and how involved I am in it all of a sudden for no apparent cause at all.

I smile sleepily and keep on smiling as he shoves me over his shoulder the way he tends to do nowadays until he brings me to the room filled with elders. I frown. Something is wrong, if only for the reason of there being so many elders here. Something is definitely wrong. I don't want to think too much about it. I want to simply relax and pretend it is fine, but then I hear the topic at hand and I feel a little apprehensive.

The child with me isn't his. I'm not sure if he knows that, but obviously now it's clear that he didn't previously, and this will come as a shocker to him. Can I keep it to myself? Well, maybe, and then I can continue enjoying all the love and care he showers. But when I think about it, I really shouldn't hide something like that from him because I don't want anything between us to be fake. I want it all to be genuine, and the only way I think that it will work is if I tell the complete truth, no matter what.

It's not going to end well if I don't, because I don't need anyone to tell me that the truth will find its way out in the end. I want to tell him as soon as possible before he starts boasting about it and trying to get out of sticky situations, but I prevent myself because I don't want to embarrass him. He has already made it clear that he believes he's having a child with me, and he is already banking on it. While I might want to reveal the truth immediately, I don't want it to have more consequences than it should.

A couple of moments pass after the elders are dismissed, each and every one with tentative looks on their faces. I know without a doubt that they have come here to pressure him into taking Dylan back. There is no other reason why this meeting would have happened. And thinking about the prospect, I know that if Dylan, the father of this child, is actually thinking the way they want, it is going to be a complete disaster for everyone here. There will be absolutely nothing they can do to remedy this situation once it becomes clear.

"What's wrong?" he asks me, a simple question, but I don't know how to answer this time. What is wrong? Well, pretty much everything when I really think about it, but it is absolutely necessary to speak out.

"This child," I tell him slowly, trying to maintain my voice at a level tone. He blinks, and I realize that maybe I should be quick enough dropping this bombshell before he thinks I am unfaithful to him or something like that. "It's Dylan's," I say.

He blinks again, and this time multiple times. "My grandson?" he says, not looking as if he believes it. Another sob. That is one way to put it – it makes it not all that bad when I consider that they are at least still related in some way, but still, I know how this is a terrible blow to him.

He looks as if he has aged a couple of decades. I dig my hands like he has used a lot of things on the premise that the boy is his. He shakes his head. "How on earth did I get involved with the woman my son's already involved with?" he mutters to himself. I find it particularly terrible for me, considering that the woman is me.

It makes me feel somehow funny when he says it out loud, but I know that I need to deal with the situation as it is because it is already pretty much arranged. He walks slowly to a seat and slumps there, having such an exhausted expression on his face. I must have done him a lot of harm by revealing the news. I start to wonder at the moment whether I have done the right thing because of exactly how much it seems to take on him.

"It's not all that bad," I comment, trying to calm him down before he thinks it is a more or less hopeless situation. He shakes his head, and I come to sit beside him. My biggest hope is that this won't change the way he sees me, how he loves me and cares for me, because that would absolutely devastate me more than anything.

"It's not your fault," he says finally, shaking his head. "So you were with him all that while previously, and he actually managed to put a baby in you." I nod, not denying it. I have already admitted to this after all. This is what I started, and this is about the damage that is squarely induced. I hope things will get better in the end.

He smiles painfully. "Okay then, I think there's one thing we can actually do," he says. "The child is still mine, just one generation younger. He still carries my DNA, even if it's not directly," he says. I blink. "What are you suggesting?"

He looks at me, having a weird look in his eyes but still a determined look. "Since nobody else knows about it already, I think it won't be a bad idea to let them think that the child is mine," he says. "If there is a paternal test in the end, it will still be seen as mine anyway, so I don't see any major difference."

I frown at him. What he is suggesting is criminal – taking another man's child. But when I really think about it, it isn't really another man's child; it is his, he says, as much as it is his son's, because the best thing we're dealing with now is simply his grandson.

"What's your decision?" he questions. He smiles at me. "Do you have a better idea? Or would you like to tell the elders he's not my son and have them come over again in full force asking me to take Dylan back?"

"Well, I guess it doesn't matter if Dylan's son is the one to lose. It's pretty much his own blood anyway," I comment, and he smiles at me.

"Yes, and this time it's a different Dylan. Someone we can raise and shape him. I won't make the same mistake again. And he's going to be a different person entirely."

I smile at him. Yes, he is right. I will be the one raising this boy personally, and I will make sure he gets the best training there is to give at all.

He gives me a smile. It is still a pained smile, but it isn't that pained anymore. And I know that he is recovering from the blatant shock of having his son, his supposedly son, reduced to his grandson in the blink of an eye.

Well, from the look of things, it doesn't really matter anymore, so I am very glad as I decide that I will be taking my leave. "I'm very sleepy, you know," I tell him, wanting to make my intention clear. He blinks at me as if he doesn't expect me to think of sleep at such crucial times.

"I would be heading back if you don't mind," I tell him, simply wanting to leave as soon as possible but also wanting his permission so that he wouldn't feel like I am forsaking him or something like that when the problem remains, even though in my own opinion, the problem is pretty much solved already.

He doesn't tell me not to go or to stay with him, and I appreciate that he doesn't keep me just because he could if he wanted to. At least that is one situation, something I wasn't sure if I had ever gotten when I stayed with that devil of his son, Dylan.

Before long, I find myself in my bed. Complete bliss envelops me, and within a couple of seconds, however, I find myself dreaming of the new boy that would come and the unexpected changes that will come with him.