A Dream I Used To LOVE

Chapter 28

"You really love Ryan don't you?" She blushed for a second and then nodded "Yes I do"

"He brings out the best in me, I'm at peace with him. It's like when he's not around I'm a turbulent and violent ocean ready to dash everybody in my way into pieces but when he is there it's a sunny day and I'm calm"

We both had our ways of describing love, her's a gentler version.

"Does he?" I don't know why I even asked her that question, just the way he looked at her and cared for her made it apply clear that he loved her.

"He does," she said appeased. We sat there for a while talking, just enjoying each other's company, arguing a little but still happy in our cocoon of love.

When we came back and found Ryan asleep on the couch with the TV switched on. Mia switched off the tv and put a blanket over him. She kissed him on the forehead and watching them like that made my heart flutter. It's a thing about people in love, they can make even the ones around them feel their love. It's like their love was so pure it could be called agape and I know it's only theoretical but they made me feel that way. I appreciated love a little more seeing them like that. Ryan woke up and smiled at Mia, he then held her hand and gestured her to sit next to him.

"Hi, Mia. How are you? Did you have fun?" He kissed her and I couldn't help but smile watching the two of them.
Mia nodded "By the way your dad called. He wanted to talk to you guys. Said it was urgent"

Mia picked up the phone and called them. The formalities of wishing each other were done with and then I saw her expression change from a happy one to a frown as if something terrible had happened. Ryan sat up and I looked at her worried wondering if all was fine. I hadn't seen papa for 3 months now, only on a video call and he was a heart patient. It was only natural for all of us to worry. Ever since papa's first heart attack, I had distorted thoughts. Mr. Steve at that time told me about Beck's cognitive model as if that helped. He could have given me normal advice like adults do "Don't be scared. It will all pan out" or "I'm there for you" instead he sat me down for over an hour explaining a model I didn't care about.

After a twenty-minute long conversation, Mia sat down and asked me to join in. I waited desperately for her to tell me what had happened "They are coming back". I looked at her wondering if I had heard something wrong "and that's bad news because?" 

"The investors say it's a big risk considering it's papa's first-time undertaking such a large scale project. There was some issue with the paperwork as well and so the whole deal fell apart. Papa is..."

I couldn't even wait for her to finish, I already knew who was behind this. I was so very angry, I felt betrayed. I wanted to go and slap Mrs. Scott for what she had done. I knew it was a calculated and conscious decision and that she had severe beef with me but she didn't have any rights to get my family involved especially since I had been particularly careful around her kids.

I immediately drove to Chris's house to meet up with Mrs. Scott. I wondered if Chris knew about this, a part of me felt that he would have done something if he knew that she was going to do this to my family.

In life such moments define us. I loved my family enough to go to any extent to fight for them, yes we did have our differences but as I stated earlier our relationship was more than a binary '1011011...' relationship.

Mia wanted to come with me, worried that I might lose my temper, she didn't know about Mrs. Scott and my turbulent relationship with her. I sternly asked her not to come, this was something that I had to deal with and I couldn't drag more people with me.

It was after 8 years that Mrs. Scott was celebrating Christmas with her children and even though I didn't want to otherwise interrupt her holiday she had interrupted mine.

When she saw me storm in she remained calm and quiet which aggravated me further. How did this woman have the audacity to act all naive and innocent?

"How dare you?" I screamed at her and everybody accumulated in her room. Tyler and Keith were prohibited from being a part of this hassle.

"Audrey, what happened?" Chris intervened but I immediately stopped him, this wasn't about him. This was about his immoral stepmother who lacked the basic ethics to live up to her promise.

"Chris please take your girlfriend away. She's spoiling my Christmas" was all she said. I was spoiling her Christmas. Maybe Mrs. Scott was used to betrayal and that had filled her with all the poison that she had within her but that didn't give her the right to treat me or my family like we were inferior to her. We all had worked hard to reach where we were today and we were proud of it.

Kathy pulled me back and so did Chris leaving Mrs. Scott alone in her dreadful room.

"Audrey, what happened?" They asked in unison and I just jerked their hands off me and walked away. I didn't want to talk to anybody.

I stormed towards the garden trying to recoup after that horrid encounter. Chris followed me but I didn't need him around. I needed some time alone with Mrs. Scott.

All I could think about was Mrs. Anderson and her words. She had warned me that no good would come out of this and it was true. I wasn't made for love, the least I could do was worry about my family. While I was trying to fix Chris's family mine was breaking apart. It wasn't like his family would turn out to be like Kintsugi. They were damaged and I couldn't do anything about it, regardless of how much gold I would paint onto the broken pieces they would still be broken.
It wasn't a metaphor for embracing one's flaw or imperfections, it was a metaphor to indicate that however hard you try to make something broken look beautiful at the end of the day it's still broken. It might be beautiful but it's still broken and no way can be undone.