Santa Fe Billionaire

Chapter 55

Sebastian

We have selected our breakfast from the dishes. I have chosen something simple. Scrambled egg, smoked salmon and toast. To be honest my stomach is spinning so much I actually feel physically sick. Ava has chosen the same with a side plate of sweet pastries. She does, I have noticed like sweet things. 

I reach my hand across the table and take hers in mine. "Where to begin." I start with and swallow. This isn't going to be easy since I already know I should have been honest and open with her right from the onset. Only I did not expect for us to grow on each other so quickly nor for our hearts to blend. Yet they have. 

"I'm ready, Sebastian." Her eyes are earnest and expectant. 

"As you know, I was with somebody fourteen years ago. I was just a young adult, sixteen. Her name was Lleña. She was a girl from my father's friends business partner and we went to the same school. We used to play together when we were children and I guess it was always expected we could get married one day. She was my life at the time and we had a lot of fun. Our emotions were intense and we were, as you can expect at that age, intense." I stop and gauge her face. There is no hint of animosity only wide open eyes. 

"We became a proper couple when I was seventeen, it was our first time together like that. I spare you all the details naturally. Lleña and I were inseparable. We were always by each other's sides and at eighteen we were already talking about settling down after our studies and marrying. It was what we both wanted. My heart was all hers and hers was mine. My mother went ahead and booked a palace in Spain for the wedding since there was a three year waiting list. Insane. Lleña even chose her dress. Even though we agreed not to marry until we were twenty-one. It was important to me to finish my studies and to have ground experience before setting up my business. I didn't want to wait to marry her you understand, nor did I want us to rush. It was my every intention that when Lleña and I married, she would be the mother of our children and I would be with her until the day I died." I take a sip of my orange juice.

Ava doesn't speak or interrupt. "When I was nineteen I received a message from her. She told me that it was over. She'd met someone else and that she felt something more for him than she did for me. She told me that we had simply grown up together and it felt like it was expected we were to marry." I catch myself because it still hurts how I was treated, the pain that had seared through my body, the physical pain I endured at having my heart destroyed. I had cried and punched walls, I threw myself into the last of my studies and began to build my empire. I did anything I could do try to get over Lleña."

"The worst thing was not having her tell me to my face. The other man, he was my best friend."

"Oh, Sebastian. No." Ava has tears in her eyes, this woman she has so much emotion it is overwhelming. 

"As you can see this is why my heart has been locked away for ten years. I didn't hear from Lleña again. Then one day about five years ago, her sister Marissa contacted me. The woman you saw kiss me. She told me," I pause and hesitate. "That I have a daughter. Lleña had fallen pregnant even though we had been careful, excessively careful. I did not want to start my family until after I was married. I had made it perfectly clear and we both took the relevant precautions so naturally when Marissa told me, it was a shock. I went through the whole process of paternity testing because I was not sure if she was trying to trick me and in fact my ex best friend was the father. It is definitely me. I am the father." 

"So you have a daughter?" Her voice is wavering. This is a shock, it was like a thunderbolt for me when I found out. 

"I do, Ava. She is now nine years of age and you saw her two days ago. The little girl that was with Marissa, that is my daughter, Arabella."

"Such a beautiful name, Sebastian." She squeezes my hand. 

"There is more, Ava darling. Lleña never reached out to me to tell me. The pain of not knowing I had a child for all those years crucified me. I was a torn man almost destroyed. I tried to reach out and get custody of my child but it started to get ugly. Then tragedy struck and Lleña was diagnosed with a cancer."

"No, Sebastian how awful. I am so sorry." Her hand is holding mine so tightly I don't know how someone so small can have such strength. 

"She passed away last month. This is why Marissa was in the hotel in Zaragoza with my daughter. Naturally I wanted to have her with me but she has always been with her mother and with Marissa and I didn't want to upset her life. She is precious to me. You can understand." Ava nods her head emphatically, I can see she understands.

"Bella wants to live with me. She has decided she wants to be in my life and this is what I want too. But this means my life will change, Ava. I will have a child, a beautiful girl in my life and if you want to be with me, this means a big change for you. It would mean you take on the role of her stepmother. This is a huge thing, Ava to take on a child and at that, another woman's child. It is not to be thought of lightly. Your entire life will change, my life will change."

Ava is silent, I can tell she is taking it all in. Having the responsibility of a young child is overwhelming and Ava is still very young herself at just twenty-three. I do not want to expect anything from her but I am hoping that she will choose Bella and I. My breathing feels as if it has stopped whilst I wait for her to respond. Every fiber in my body is on end, my nerves are jagged. Will it be Bella and I, or will Ava choose her freedom, her young adult years to travel the world, to be the woman she wants to be?