"Well great then I want you to meet Cole."
She pointed to the guy beside her all this time. I forwarded my hand for a shake, and he obliged.
"Hey! I'm Janet."
The car honking noises pulled me out of my past and then all of a sudden, Emily broke away from my hold and ran straight towards the man that was coming to us.
"Daddy!"
She yelled, excitedly and Cole picked her up. They talked about something and then joined us.
"How is my king?"
He asked, looking at Aiden strapped to my chest, gently touching his baby head. Emily was still in his arms.
"He is fine."
I smiled. It was only then he looked up to see me. Not very amused to be facing his wife...it seemed so.
"There you are..."
Before either one of us could exchange another word, a slender blonde approached from behind and stood beside him.
It was Bianca Lombardi, my husband's beloved. Her beautiful face beamed up like a sunflower coming close to my husband.
And then she saw me. We both knew each other. Our positions in Cole's life. It has been years and there was no unfamiliarity between the two of us.
"Hello, Bia!"
Emily chirped from her father's arms. Bianca kissed her little cheeks. My little girl knew her as Daddy's friend. Nothing weird in her small world.
"I will go get the car."
I said. They made me look like a happy family, where I was playing the third wheel, unwanted.
"No!"
That made me stare back at my husband. 'What did he mean by no?'
"I'm just going to go to my place."
He meant his condo. He did not want Bianca to spend even a night without him. I understood that. He loved her. And I was the only one standing like a wall between them.
'Who was going to make Emily understand though?'
The little girl was practically the most excited when she heard her father was going to come in the evening.
All throughout the school ride from home, she could not wait for us to drive to the airport to pick up her father up.
The disappointed face in my husband's face was not something I had not expected before coming herr when he had told me to not come.
No wonder he was taken aback by the sudden appearance of his wife and children. I only had done it for Emily.
"Emily can come with us."
Bianca stepped in before my babygirl could protest because she was definitely going to.
"I will drop her at school tomorrow."
Cole added. Everything was already set. I had nothing to say no to. So I just agreed as if it was a good plan.
"I will call you Mama before bed."
Emily spoke out. I nodded. She was very smart for her age. There was nothing to worry about leaving her to be without me.
Bianca knew her needs and that kept me at ease. I moved forward a little bit more than my husband's liking to kiss my daughter's forehead.
"Be a good girl."
She gave me a thumbsup. I could not comtain my smile looking at her very happy face.
"So lets go?"
Bianca asked Cole. He called his driver. And Emily requested him to hand her his headphones to listen to songs. He gave it to her without a word.
"Let's go. He is here."
Cole let out and then they were off to their place. I turned around to see them leave the airport looking like a family.
"Did you call her here?"
"No. She just showed up."
I then undetstood why he always gave Emily those headphones.
His driver came in a minute time and then they got inside. Emily waved at me from afar. I did the same until she disappeared from my sight.
"It's just you and me, Aiden."
I said, kissing his bald head.
Inside my car, I strapped him on his baby chair and started the engine to drive home alone once again, without my husband.
Reaching home, changing into my pyjamas, I sat down in the living room to feed my babyboy and then my cellphone started to ring.
I thought it was Emily, calling me to inform that her father got her new jammies for the night because she did not pack one with her. But it was Viviana.
"Hello stranger!"
"Hey. How are you?"
I spoke out. She would always call me every other week to see how I was doing and I do the same to her.
Taking over her father's chain of restaurant business all over the world, she had to travel more often than before now.
"I'm fine...just got done with this deal. And I swear to god, all Italian men are the embodiment of Greek Gods."
She started and I knew that it was not going to stop anytime soon. Viviana believed in 'love comradship'.
In between the call, my phone flashed to saw Cole's name. I immediately put her on hold telling that Cole was calling me.
And as I had pressumed, it was Emily on the phone telling me about the new pyjamas that her father had got her and that they were going out for dinner soon.
"Do not eat too much dessert ok?"
I said not wanting her to get sweet tooth. Emily gave me a pinky promise that she would not and in just a few minutes, she had to hung up because her father was calling her and it was getting late so she hung up.
"I thought Cole was with you."
Vivian's voice made me sigh in exhaustion. Well he was supposed to be with us. But he did not want to.
Our marriage was not the most ideal one. He did not hid it from me that he had fallen in love with someone else.
Yet he also loved the kids, just like me, making him put up with our marriage. But seemed like he had run out of patience now and wanted to be with Bianca.
When I did not give any response to his divorce proposal, at fast he was very understanding but then over the last months, almost a year to be exact, lack of an answer from my side made him turn bitter against me.
"He is with Bianca. Emily is with them...like a family." I said.
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The story will begin with a soft and static note before all the drama unfolds. It will transition between the past and the present.
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