XXVIII
Silence spreads around us like a thick spider web, turning into an endless moment in time and making me unable to breathe. The brown eyes of the toddler seem to be mocking me, destroying me and breathing life into me at the same time.
"You look like my daddy on the photo." he explains, speaking with difficulty because of his young age.
I finally shift my focus to his mother and it suddenly all makes sense.
5.1.2016
"Where the fuck are you?" Axel storms into a house uninvited, brushing past a startled old lady, looking for her daughter.
Her daughter that he loves but who in return, betrayed him in the worst way possible.
"Axel? What are you doing? You can't just storm in here like this!" the old woman yells and he ignores her, going straight for her daughter's room.
He barges in, finding Elizabeth with her eyes wide open like a deer, her phone in her hands.
"Give me this shit." he rips the phone straight out of her hands.
"What the fuck are you doing? Give me back my fucking phone? When did you even come here?"
Axel ignores her, unable to even look at her because of the rage boiling inside of him. Elizabeth reaches for her phone, and he yanks it away harshly, taking a second to look in her eyes, showing her just how pissed off he is.
"What is going on?" she demands, her hands beginning to slightly shake. She knows what this is about, but she won't admit it, no. She's too much of a coward to risk losing him, the only person who truly cares for her.
The person which she betrayed.
"I know. I know everything, Elizabeth. Michael Matthews? Yeah, I know what happened."
He spits the words at her, breaking inside that he's hurting the woman he cares so much about.
She doesn't say anything in return, her silence confirming what he wanted so badly to be a lie, lie made up by the people who envied them their happiness.
He turns on his heels, smashing the phone into her wall and storms out of her house. The adrenaline in his bloodstream is keeping him on his feet, though barely, and he breaks down on her driveway, crying like anyone whose world has just been turned upside down would.
Elizabeth runs after him, telling him how it isn't true, how it's all a lie, but he knows the truth. He saw it in her eyes.
"I'll never commit again. Never. I'll never have a girlfriend again." he talks to himself out loud and Louis comes out of the car on the road, helping him stand up.
He hears them arguing in the background as Louis helps him to his car, but he simply doesn't care enough to listen to them.
He doesn't care anymore. And he doesn't think he ever will again.
***
"Elizabeth." I breathe, looking at the woman who made me be the way I am.
Her features have changed a bit, she looks tired but she's still beautiful. A bitch, but I can't deny her beauty.
It's been very long since our break up, thankfully, or I would lose my shit just like I did any time I saw her after that traumatic event.
"Axel." she replies, overstepping on her feet. She's still carrying her child in her arms, and I take a second to do basic math.
The kid looks about 2-3 years old.
Shit.
"Who is this?" I ask her, nodding towards the boy who seems to look more and more like me with each passing second. He smiles at me, showing off his dimples.
"This-" she begins, stopping to take a deep breath, "is Leon."
Silence spreads again as I wait for her to say the words that I know are coming.
"Your... Son."
She finally says and I lock my jaw.
Mother fucking fucker of all fucking fuckers son of a fucking bitch.
Control.
Control.
Breathe in, breathe out.
Don't freak out in front of him.
Do not frreak out in front of him.
I turn around, cover my mouth with both my hands and attempt to scream as quietly as fucking possible into them.
Rapidly, I turn back around to glare at her.
"My son?" I ask, lifting mu brows and putting my hands on my hips. "My son? Did it ever cross your mind that you, I don't know, could have shared this little unimportant detail with me about two or three years ago?" I mock her.
I'm mad.
Very mad.
She rolls her eyes and I want to rip her head off.
She's holding your kid. Chill the fuck out.
"You're angry." she observes, and I throw my hands in the air.
"Oh no, is daddy mad?" Leon mumbles to Elizabeth and half of my anger is dissolved in a matter of a second.
Fucking hell why does he have to be so fucking cute?
I shake my head. "Daddy is not mad at you. He's mad at mommy." I explain.
Holy shit, that was so weird. Since when to I speak baby language?
Elizabeth purses her lips. "I think we need to have a chat."
I lift my brows up. "You don't say? Wow, what a brilliant idea. Wonder what would happen if you had the same one a few years ago?"
She isn't pleased with my sarcasm but she's not the one who just found out they have a fucking three year old kid.
I look around myself, spotting a coffee shop. "Follow me." I order.
"What if I don't?" she yells back and I purse my lips.
"You can try and see what happens. I wouldn't if I were you, but then again I didn't hide a child from their parent for years so who knows. You might like being kidnapped or proscuted by police."
She waits a few moments and then I hear her steps following me. Good.