Chapter 3: Embarrassed

ARIELLE.

Arielle wanted to slap the mortified and disgusted look off Levi's face when he asked again.

" You live here? You live here with my children?"

"I have tried my hardest to provide for them, don't act all high and mighty because you didn't know how hard it was for me." She frowned at him, but she made sure to keep her anger in check.

"And whose fault is that? Ugh? You should have reached out to me before instead of making my kids suffer unnecessarily! I would have provided for them”, He yelled.

"Yes, because I knew your name!”, She said sarcastically.

“And how was I meant to get past that battalion of security around you when I finally found out who you are?"

In all reality, Arielle had given up on finding the father of the children by the time they reached two years. It was only a surprise when she found the familiar face even more so because of her son on a tabloid.

He was the CEO of a big group of companies named Midas’ Conglomerate, a parent company for many other ones.

And he wasn't “Tomaso” like he claimed.

"The way you bulldozed your way in today, that's how! Let's go grab my child." He said, unfolding himself out of the car.

He waited by the passenger's car door leisurely sliding his sunglasses on till she alighted too.

Arielle cleared her throat looking around, "I won't advise you to leave the car here unsupervised. I will just go and grab her and we will be back."

"Don't worry, it's very much supervised." He nodded towards a guy standing under the street light, his hand in his leather jacket pocket.

"One of those." He muttered, grabbing her hand as they turned to the apartment complex.

He watched his surroundings, his nose screwed up in disgust.

"What happened to practicing law?" he asked.

****

"Tomaso."

"Wow... That sounds awfully Italian." She said.

"Gee... What a great observation. Yes, I'm half Italian, Miss Arielle."

"You mean Attorney Arielle."

"My apologies, Attorney Arielle. I should just hire you as my lawyer."

"Please do. Just a bit more before being the big shot lawyer."

****

"You still haven't stopped tuning out, eh?", Levi asked her when she didn’t respond to his question.

"I didn't tune out, it was just memory." Perhaps, shock too. Levi hadn't mentioned, until that point, that he remembered her.

She knocked briefly on her apartment door and let herself in. She felt self-conscious with every moment he stood in the threshold, taking in everything in her living room.

He stepped in tentatively, she pointed at the worn-out couch closest to the door. It was the least worn-out one.

"Sit, while I get them."

She didn't have to get them as her mother and daughter both walked into the living room.

"Mummy!"

Arielle was quick to bend over, so as to catch her when she threw herself. She noted the bone and skeleton her daughter had turned to in recent times and she tried to tamp down her guilt.

She turned to introduce her mother to Levi only to find him glaring at her and Lilliana. She didn't know what to make of that.

"So, this is the Tomaso." Her mother was scowling at him.

"Mum, he is not Tomaso, I've told you that before. He is Levi." Arielle was wide eyes, signaling her mother as discreetly as she could muster. Her mother ignored her.

"Yes, the liar." Her mother insisted.

Levi laughed like she was being ridiculous, "Perhaps I lied about my name, but didn't you warn your daughter against opening her laps for complete strangers?"

Complete silence followed as her mother's jaw loosened and hit the floor. Arielle's embarrassment knew no bounds, she held her daughter tightly to herself.

"Where did you find this uncouth person?" Her mother demanded from her. It was clear that Arielle's actions had continued to humiliate her mother. Her children were her consolation.

"Mum, I'm sorry, okay. I'm so sorry."

Arielle wondered if she should introduce her daughter to Levi.

"At least, she will learn not to talk to me in a rude manner anymore," Levi said.

Her mother stomped back into her room, Arielle made a mental note to apologize to her later.

Arielle quickly canceled the thoughts of introducing Lilliana to her father, especially when she clung to her and whispered.

"Mummy who is that man? He is rude to Grandma."

"He is Mummy's old friend, Okay? You don't have to be afraid of him."

Arielle didn't know if she should be afraid of him, she didn't know what Levi was capable of.

"I don't like him."

That was a shock, since Lilliana loved everyone.

Arielle risked a glance at him, he was still scowling at them but he was now perched on the worn-out chair she had earlier offered him.

"How about you get to packing and stop bickering, yes? That will give us time to move to more important things." He snapped.

Lilliana gripped her shirt harder. "I think he is angry."

"We will get to packing." She said to him.

"Be fast about it." He responded absently, already engrossed with something on his phone.

Arielle walked into the room she shared with her children and started to pack for them.

She listened to her daughter's chatter as she thought about what her future would be like.

Was it going to be bleak or bright? Would he take her children from her? Would he do right by them?

He was already showing he wasn't going to be nice for the sake of her children.

"Mummy, my drugs." Arielle jerked out of reverie at her daughter's voice. She almost forgot the most important thing.

She grabbed the drug bag and dropped it into the single box she was packing for them.

When she returned to the living room, her daughter behind her with her teddy bear in her arm, hiding from the ever-furious man in the living room, Levi was on a call.

She dropped the box and asked her daughter to wait in the living room, it made Lilliana grip her even more.

"Don't worry, Lily. He is a nice man." She whispered to her daughter, she could feel Levi's ever-present scowl on her back.

"He is not nice, Mummy." She whisper-yelled.

"Just stay. I need to talk to granny." Arielle left her daughter behind and went in search of her mother.

She lay in bed, her arm folded around her front in anger. She ignored Arielle's presence.

"Mum, I'm sorry. It was my fault." Arielle said as she sat down next to her mother in bed.

Her mother softened a bit, "It's okay…It's done, at least, I got two beautiful grandkids out of it."

Arielle gave her mother a watery smile. "I don't know what I will do if everything doesn't fall into place."

"I trust you to get my grandson back. And I know you will deal with him accordingly. Arielle, you're your own woman and you will not be pushed around by a narcissistic prick."

Arielle nodded again and again affirmatively, she held her mother's hand tightly.

"Nothing can go wrong” She needed confirmation, the tears she had been holding fell rapidly down her face.

"Nothing will go wrong. I raised a strong woman, a woman with a will. Where is she?" Her mother asked, poking her. Arielle smiled tearily again.

"She is here. She just needs a minute to breathe, and her mother's hug." Arielle said, leaning in to hug her mother.

"We leave now!" Levi's voice boomed from the living room.

Arielle stood up quickly, bidding her mother goodbye as she rushed towards the room door.

"Bring my grandkids back, safe and sound”, Emily said to Arielle.

"Will do, Mum."

Arielle left her mother's bedroom, coming to a stop at a loud scream, "Mummy!"