My face paled as soon as I heard that.
"W-What?"
"Yes, mommy. Turns out, he isn't that bad! When are you coming home, mommy?"
I closed my eyes, mentally slapping myself for leaving him alone. I didn't want to make him doubt anything, so I came up with an excuse: "I am coming right now… my work is done."
"Done? Yay!! I will wait, mom."
"Yeah, honey. Bye."
"Bye, mommy!"
I kept the phone down and my breath was literally hitched up to my lungs. How could I be so careless and leave him alone?
Packing up my stuff and closing the bar down for the night, I stuck a note on the wall outside. It said: "The bar is closed for today. Please come back tomorrow." in my bad handwriting. Well, I couldn't care less about it.
I quickly reached my car and drove back home. As I parked it in front of the house, my steps quickened and I unlocked the door, heading inside.
"Drew? Andrew, where are you?" I called out loud inside the house. Fortunately, I saw his little figure rushing to me with a smile.
"Mommy!" He hugged me and I let out a sigh of relief.
However, my gaze followed a shadow and when I looked up, my eyes saw the smirking face of Xavier. My shuddered breath made it evident that I was too afraid to even stand properly — and half of that fear was probably disgust.
"You got a great kid," He shocked me with his sudden remark. "Who's the father?"
I scoffed and looked at Drew. "Drew, you did your homework?"
"Yes, mommy. I completed everything!"
I gave him a huge smile. "That's amazing."
I looked up at Xavier with a strong face. "I… we, Drew and I, have some important stuff to do. He completed his work so we have to spend some time together. So, it would be really nice of you to leave us alone now."
His smirk didn't vanish, but he looked at Andrew with a gaze I didn't like.
"I asked a question," He looked at me again. "Who's the father?"
I had never talked about this stuff in front of Andrew. He knew that he lacked a father, but he didn't care — at least not till I was giving him all the love he needed.
That didn't stop the bullies from being a bitch. Everyone in his class made fun of him for not having a father, since apparently, everyone else had one.
I could never give him a reason. Maybe I was too ashamed. But I wasn't ready to talk to him about this — not this soon.
"He doesn't need one. His mother is enough. Right, Drew?" I looked at him and he smiled.
"Yes. Mommy is enough for me!"
"But your father could love you so much more if only he knew you existed," his words made me let out a frustrated sigh.
"My friend here is immature. But you're mature, right, Drew? You know that your mommy can take care of you!"
He nodded his head several times while a smile was plastered on his face. I reciprocated a similar reaction.
I looked up at him again.
"Now, if you may leave."
"You didn't show up for work today. I got a lot to talk about. So, Drew, why don't you let mommy and I talk?" He shifted his focus from me to Andrew.
He nodded and left the room. I sighed.
"What?" My voice displayed irritation.
"You're not the best mother, I should say."
"At least I am not a monster."
He looked at me and chuckled. "Well, a shocker is coming right up."
"What do you mean?"
He turned around and went to the living room. I followed him. After taking out a couple of files from a bag, he handed them over to me.
I looked at them with confusion and opened them. My face paled once again, and I looked at him without blinking my eyes. He took them back and smirked.
"So. Do you want to work for me again, or do you want the truth to be out?"
I didn't have a choice anymore.
"I will work again from tomorrow," I whispered and looked down.
"I didn't hear you. Can you repeat?"
My eyes were glowing with rage. I let out an exaggerated breath. "I will work again from tomorrow!"
A satisfied smirk made its way to his lips. I looked down again, not believing what I had just done. This was bad, this was worse — but he had every possible advantage against me and I couldn't provide a single thing in my favor.
________________
"Did Xavier Uncle leave, mommy?" I heard Drew as I entered his room. Hearing him addressing him like that, my heart ached.
"Yes, he did. Anyway, do you want to hear a story?"
"Yes, yes!"
I spent the rest of the time reading him some stories. He soon fell asleep, even if it was rather early. I left the room, ate dinner, and went to sleep — trying not to overthink.
The next morning, after Drew left, it wasn't normal anymore. I dressed up and left for Valencian Corporation without any more thoughts.
As I entered, I wasn't greeted by the receptionist. It wasn't a bad thing — it felt nice to be treated like an ordinary person.
I knew my way around the company, so I went to my cabin. Thankfully, it was empty. So, I simply sat down, downloaded the task list from the shared server, and started my work.
…
It was lunch when I finally got out of my cabin and headed to the canteen. Ruby, a fairly sweet colleague, told me the way and we had lunch together.
"Yes. The meeting is up in two days and I am already so stressed," she said in a worried voice. "Are you in that meeting?"
"I don't know yet."
"You don't know? You should ask our boss. He rarely misses informing about his meetings to anyone, but you don't want to be on his bad side."
Well, ain't that truest thing I have heard in a while.
"I know. But I am okay, really."
"He is hot, isn't he?" She said as she bit her lip.
I wanted to laugh, but that didn't seem relevant. So, I just smiled.
Suddenly, a notification hit my phone. It was from Xavier — I knew because he had a profile picture — and he had sent a detailed message. It seemed like a default sent.
"Look! I received this." I showed it to Ruby.
She was shocked when she read it. "Woah. You are on the Board of Directors. How did you make it there?"
I looked at her confused. "I am in—what?"