Sixty Nine
“Is Mommy sick like I was? Is that why she is always in the hospital?” Brian asked. He had to give it to the little guy, he was quite intuitive. Was Astra sick? In a way she was, but she was the only one who could heal her self, it was the worse kind of sickness.
“Yes, Brian, your Mommy is a bit sick, but she will be well very soon,” Nicholas told him.
“Oh, is Mommy going to have a baby?” Brian asked again. Nicholas chuckled. He did not even want to know how the little bugger came up with that. Astra did not want to tell anyone about her pregnancy, so it was a secret, even from friends and family and some how Brian had figured it out.
“You are going to start staying with your Mommy and Aunt Yvonne soon, just like before,” Nicholas told the boy to distract him from his question. It worked.
“And Daddy?” Brian asked and Nicholas shook his head. It was very nice to know that his son liked him that much.
“Why not? I like staying with you Daddy,” Brian said and Nicholas’ heart almost melted.
“Don’t worry, Daddy will come during the weekends, it will be fine. And maybe later, Daddy, Mommy and Brian will all live together. Maybe Mommy will have a baby then,” Nicholas said. Brian’s eyes widened in wonder. He clearly liked that plan.
“I will like that very much,” Brian said and then Nicholas phone rang, it was his assistant.
“Good afternoon, Sir, you have a meeting in thirty minutes,” he said. Nicholas was about to say that there was an emergency and he should cancel, but he remembered that he had a ton of work waiting for him.
“Give me some time I will be there,” Nicholas said and disconnected the call. He then called Yvonne.
“Hi, I am at the hospital,” Nicholas said.Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.
“What are you doing there? Is Brian alright?” Yvonne asked, she sounded frantic and Nicholas sighed, his son was still sick.
“Brian is fine. It is Astra, please can you come?” He asked Yvonne.
“Of course, I will be there,” Yvonne said before disconnecting the call. Brian and Nicholas sat together as they waited for Yvonne.
“Nicholas! What is wrong with Astra?” Yvonne asked immediately she got into the hospital
“She tried to cut herself, I found her in time. She said you should come and stay with her and Brian when I suggested she should not stay alone. She seems fine now, she was not able to harm herself, I am worried for her Yvonne,” Nicholas said and shock appeared on Yvonne’s face, and then realization and pity.
“Thank God she is okay,” Yvonne said.
“She doesn’t want to see me though and I need to get to work,” Nicholas said to Yvonne and she nodded.
As he was sure that Astra was fine and Yvonne was there, he went back to the office. He had been out of work for so long that went he came back it all just hit him like a pile, it was not at all pleasant or nice. He had been attending meetings back to back, but he was still giving himself time to be with Brian and visit Astra. He needed to be with his family as much as he could. Sarah and Theo were staying with him since Brian was still there. Stephanie was also staying with him so he had a full house. Jared was always coming by and Nicholas knew that something was going on between Jared and Sarah. His house was usually full these days. It made him to realize how lonely he had been.
Nicholas was grateful that he wore a suit as he expected that he might be late in leaving Astra’s house and he had not been stained with blood but it was a bit rumpled.
“Good afternoon, I am sorry for being late,” Nicholas said as he entered into the board meeting.
“No problem, shall we begin?” A board member said and they all agreed. The meeting started then. The meeting went on for almost two hours as they talked about the company and made a lot of decision. By the time the meeting was over, Nicholas was tired. His day had been uncommonly long.
He was on his way home when Detective Morris called him. Nicholas wondered what the man wanted, as they did not have any unfinished business.
“Good evening, Detective,” Nicholas said.
“Good evening, Nicholas. I wanted to let you know about something. Thompson’s trial is tomorrow, I figured you would like to come,” Detective Morris said. Nicholas had been friends with Thompson for the longest time and he felt very betrayed when he started suspecting Thompson of the fraud. Now that he knew the entire truth, he was not sure Thompson deserved the punishment he was going to receive. Thompson had been manipulated to become a pawn for Ray. He was the one that spread all the letters, even the one that Nicholas say. He also gave Ray a lot of information that led to Ray destroying their family, his hands were not clean at the end.
“I will be there,” Nicholas said. He wanted to be there when justice was served, he had been manipulated, but that would have not been possible if he did not have some initial hate.
Nicholas got home to see Sarah, Jared, and Stephanie having dinner. Theo was also there.
“Good evening, where is Brian and Yvonne?” He asked immediately. They could not be gone so soon. He had not said goodbye yet.
“Good evening to you too, we heard what happened to Astra, Yvonne is still with her at the hospital and Brian is asleep. He is in his room, he was really tired,” Sarah said and Nicholas nodded. He was relieved. He did not like how he felt when he thought that Brian was gone. He loved his son a lot.
“Okay, I will go upstairs to freshen up,” Nicholas said. He would look in on Brian on his way.
“Do come back down, we were discussing Theo’s birthday, it is in a few days,” Sarah said and Nicholas smiled. His nephew was already a year old. It was so fast, he remembered how frustrated Sarah had been throughout the pregnancy and how much pain she had been through at the end. She had done well for herself at the end.
“Of course,” Nicholas said.
“I will be back, you guys should carry on without me,” Nicholas said to the rest of them.
He then went to upstairs and took his bath. As he was taking his bath, he thought about the events of the day, it was such an eventful day and tomorrow would also be the same. He would go and see his best friend from when they were younger go to jail. After taking his bath, he put on his clothes and went to Brian’s room. Surprisingly, his son was not asleep, he was just sitting down in his cot.
“Brian,” Nicholas said.
“Daddy!” Brian shouted in reply. He was clearly happy to hear his voice.
“Are you okay Brian?” Nicholas asked as he carried him out of his cot and dropped him down.
“I did not see you Daddy, and Mommy was not here and Aunt Yvonne. I was scared,” Brian said. It did not occur to Nicholas that the change in environment would be too much for his child. It made him feel so senseless for not caring. Brian had clearly pretended to be asleep because he did not know any one around.
“It is okay Brian. I am here now. Let us go downstairs to eat. You must be hungry,” Nicholas said and Brian smiled and nodded.
Father and son went down the stairs to have dinner and plan Theo’s first birthday.