Chapter 128 128
AMELIA froze, her pen hovering over the keyboard.
“W— what?” she exclaimed, her eyes widened in disbelief.
Again, Adrian. Again.
“I know, I know!” Hazel giggled, spinning around. “It was a surprise! We drew together, laughed, and he even brought me colored pencils! Mom, it was so much fun!”
Amelia’s heart sank, though she tried to mask it with a calm voice.
“Hazel… did he tell you to tell me about this?”
“No!” Hazel shook her head vigorously. “He didn't also say it was a secret. But I wanted to tell you because it was the best day ever!”
Amelia’s eyes narrowed, lips pressing into a thin line. Her chest felt tight, and anger began bubbling beneath the surface.
“Hazel, he wasn’t supposed to… he wasn’t supposed to—” Her voice cracked slightly as the fury built.
“But Mom,” Hazel protested softly, sensing the storm, “I just… I just wanted you to know. I love him and—”
Amelia slammed her hand down on the table, cutting Hazel off.
“No! No, Hazel! He cannot just… show up wherever he wants and act like nothing happened! You don’t understand, Hazel, he— he—”
Her voice trailed into a hiss, trembling with rage and frustration. She stood abruptly, pacing the room, her hands clutching her hair.
“I can’t believe this. He thinks he can just— he thinks he can waltz back into our lives!”
Hazel watched her mother, eyes wide and uncertain, feeling the tension rise like a storm around them. She wanted to explain, to defend her father, but Amelia’s anger was too sharp, too intense.
And then Amelia stopped suddenly, her gaze hardening, staring out the window as if she could see Adrian’s smirk from miles away.
Hazel’s small voice whispered,
“Mom… are you… mad?”
Amelia didn’t answer. Her jaw tightened. Her hands balled into fists. And just like that, the room seemed smaller, charged and dangerous.
Hazel stepped back, clutching her sketchpad a little closer, realizing the storm she had brought into the apartment.
And outside, somewhere, Adrian had no idea what he had just unleashed.
About forty-eight minutes passed, the apartment was still buzzing with tension from Hazel’s revelation. Amelia sat on the edge of the couch, phone clutched tightly in her hand, knuckles white. Every nerve in her body was on fire— frustration, fear, and an undeniable sense of betrayal mingling like storm clouds ready to burst.
She had dismissed Hazel and sent her to bed, the twins and Betty were already asleep, leaving only her in the living room.
Taking a shaky breath, she dialed Adrian’s number. Her thumb hovered over the call button for a moment longer than necessary, and then, with a quiet hiss of resolve, she pressed call.
The phone rang twice before Adrian picked up, his voice cautious but hopeful.
“Amelia?”
She didn’t answer immediately. She just let the phone tremble slightly in her hand before finally speaking, her voice tight, controlled, but layered with barely contained fury.
“Adrian! What the hell do you think you are doing?!”
“Amelia, wait—”
“No! Don’t you dare, don’t even try to talk your way out of this one!” Her words came fast, sharp, slicing through the quiet of the evening. “You went behind my back. To my child’s school! Do you have any idea what kind of nerve that takes? Any idea at all?!”
“I know, I know it looks bad—” Adrian started, but Amelia cut him off, her voice rising.
“Looks bad?! Adrian, it is not about looking bad! It is about trust. It is about respect! It is about boundaries you completely obliterated! Do you think I wanted my daughter telling me, ‘Daddy came to see me today’? Do you think I wanted to find out that you just waltzed into her life like you own it?!”
“I— Amelia, I didn’t mean to—”
“You didn’t mean to?” she barked, pacing, voice shaking with rage. “You didn’t mean to sneak around, go behind my back, and act like nothing happened?! Hazel is just a child! And you—” She pressed the phone harder to her ear. “You think it is okay to manipulate situations for your own relief? For your own satisfaction?! You are her father! You are supposed to protect her, not sneak around like some… some shadow figure in her life!”
Adrian swallowed, closing his eyes and running a hand over his face.
“I— God, Amelia… I only did it because I love her. And because I want to prove to you… to you that I have changed, that I can be better. I wasn’t trying to hurt you.”
Amelia scoffed, her breath coming faster.
“Prove that you have changed? By breaking every single rule I have set? By disregarding me completely? By making my child the messenger of your… your guilt?” She shook her head, spinning in a small circle, pacing like a caged animal. “You think you can just keep showing up and everything will be okay? That just because you feel regret, I will magically forgive you? Adrian, it doesn’t work that way!”
“I know, I know it doesn’t,” he said, voice low, almost pleading. “But can’t you see? I’m trying. I made a mistake, I know that. I’m asking for… for some mercy. Some chance to show you, show Hazel, that I’m not the man I was before. That I can be here, that I can be—”
“You can’t just ask for mercy like it is a favor!” Amelia’s voice cracked, frustration spilling into despair. “You don’t get to wave a magic wand over every wrong and hope I will just… I will just nod and accept it! You don’t get to decide how I feel, Adrian! You don’t get to decide when I forgive! You… you are so reckless! So damn… selfish!”
There was a pause on the other end, the quiet static of his breathing, heavy with shame.
“I am selfish,” Adrian admitted softly. “I will admit that. I have been selfish, and I have hurt you— hurt Hazel. And I… I don’t know how to fix it. But I swear, Amelia, I want to. I need to. Please, just… let me try.”
Amelia’s chest heaved. Her hands gripped the phone so tight she could feel her nails pressing into her palms.
“Try?” she spat. “Do you know how many times I have let you ‘try,’ Adrian? Do you? Do you know what it’s like to constantly guard your heart, to always think, ‘Is this the moment he finally screws it all up again?’”
“I know,” he whispered. “I know, and I hate myself for every second I made you feel that way.”
“Well, congratulations,” she said, voice dripping with sarcasm and venom. “You have done it again. You made me feel unsafe in my own life. You used Hazel to get to me, and now you are standing there begging for forgiveness like I’m supposed to just— just hand it to you?!”
“I don’t want handouts,” Adrian said, his voice cracking. “I want a chance. A chance to be the father she deserves… and maybe… maybe… the man you deserve too, and also the chance to father my sons. I know I messed up. I know I crossed the line. But please, Amelia… just don’t shut me out completely. Don’t push me away forever.”
Amelia’s vision blurred with tears, her heart hammering. Rage, heartbreak, and disbelief warred inside her. She pressed the phone tighter to her ear, wanting to scream, wanting to cry, wanting to tell him exactly how dangerous, how impossible, how broken his attempts made everything feel.
“You have no idea, Adrian,” she said finally, voice low but trembling. “You have no idea how hard it is to look at you and not hate you… not want to throw the phone across the room and pretend you don’t exist. You have no idea—”
“I do,” he said softly, almost inaudibly. “I do. Every single second of every day, I feel it. I feel what I did. I feel what I lost. And I will do anything to make it right. Please, Amelia… give me a chance to show you.”
Her hand shook, and she pressed the end call button before she could respond, letting the line go dead. The apartment was silent again, but the echoes of their argument reverberated like a storm that hadn’t passed.
She sank onto the couch, burying her face in her hands. She felt every part of herself screaming, every emotion tangled in impossible knots. She hated him. She feared him. She wanted him back. And she wanted him gone. All at once.
Across the city, outside, somewhere, Adrian sat in his car, hands frozen over the steering wheel, hoping, praying, that somehow, she would forgive him. That somehow, he had not lost everything.