ODDS OF LOVE - SEASON 14

Episode 79

Monday October 6 , 2025

" Is this Matilda Swan ? "

Matilda made a face at the phone she held as she swung her legs from her bed in the guest bedroom onto the thickly carpeted floor and slipped her feet into her slippers. She wasn't in the mood for a silly phone conversation with some strange man. She was still just a little pissy over Nicholas wanting to marry that nine fingered bitch interior decorator. She could understand Margaret because she was really pregnant with his baby but this? It made absolutely no sense. At all. She needed to figure out a way to sabotage this little wedding without it reflecting badly on herself and she needed to do it fast. She sighed. If she wasn't pregnant she would make a play for this new young prince moving in today. Prince Cedric of Eldermere. She had seen his pictures in People magazine. He was very sexy and looked like he wouldn't mind a slightly older woman by his side.

The unknown man once again asked her over the phone," Are you still there? I.... Is this Mrs. Matilda Swan ? The mother of Nigel Norland ? "

She froze on the bed as she heard the man mention her son. Her heart chilled over. Nigel. Was there something wrong with him ? Yes. She had abandoned him years ago and reuniting with him was more of a con than anything else. Even she would admit that if only to herself. But as time went on she got to know him and...... well , the more she grew closer to him the more motherly she felt towards him. It surprised even her. Like her mother she was not very maternal. After all, how could she be having been raised by Nance Glover? Maybe it was just Nigel. He had something about him.....

" Yes , this is Matilda Swan. Who exactly are you? Is my son alright? "

As she said the words her hand almost instinctively went to the belly where the baby rested and grew inside. Oscar's baby. Oscar. Sometimes she missed the man and his sweetness.

The man was quiet himself for so long she was beginning to believe they had been disconnected from the line and she almost hung up when he hesitantly said," My name is Aiden Norris. I'm a.... a reporter for The Washington Reign. I got your number from Nigel. His husband's grandfather just married my grandmother in fact. I... I have a picture that he identified as your sister Maeve. He told me she was.... dead. That you could tell me about her. I was wondering if we could meet sometime, maybe today? For lunch? To talk. "

Matilda felt dizzy suddenly. She flashed back years to the small cramped farmhouse in Ireland where they had been raised by their parents. If you could call it that. She certainly didn't. She had basically raised herself. She gave her parents not one tiny bit of credit for her having survived not only poverty but also them. She saw Maeve in the same bed she shared with Matilda herself and Margaret. She saw Maeve , the sweetest of them all , the most naive , lying in that bed screaming as she gave birth to that man's damn baby. She saw her father threatening that man and almost throwing the baby at him , telling him to take the brat away before he drowned it. 

( " Get out of here with it ! Before I kill it and you , you American bastard ! You should be ashamed of yourself sleeping with a lass that young and innocent ! " )

( " I didn't know how young she was. She was in a pub drinking alcohol. All the college kids go there ! She didn't look young. She told me she was eighteen. " )

( " NO ! Da , I want my baby ! I want my son ! " )

She saw Maeve swinging from the rope. She heard Nance screaming at Da to cut " the deft girl down ". She heard Margaret screaming like she was being murdered as she rushed over to her seventeen year old  identical twin sister who hung from the rafters in their barn. )

" Who are you really  ? , " she asked although she already knew the answer. She had known it when he uttered his last name. Norris. He was that brat. Daniel Norris's brat that had destroyed her delicate sister's life from the moment she lay down with Daniel. The moment she lost that baby Maeve had lost her mind and was never the same...... " What do you want with my sister ? "

Aiden almost whispered as though he was a very young helpless child , " She's ..... I have the picture given to my grandparents by my father years ago. It is of her. Nigel said it is. He said to talk to you. Because I'm ..... she's my mother. He said she's ..... she's dead...... "

Matilda lied coldly , " Yes. She is dead. " At least she might as well be dead after what his father and him had done to her. " She's dead. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to meet with you. Don't call again. You are nothing to me. And , neither is that father of yours. Goodbye. " 

Then she hung up. With the phone in her hands and the image of her sister's body limply hanging still so vividly evident in her mind she began to weep. Then there was a knock at her door and she called out through her tears , " Go away. "

But the person knocking did not go away. The door swung open and in strode a greatly concerned Nicholas who immediately went to her side. 

Nicholas asked with alarm , " Matilda , Tillie , are you alright ? Are you in any pain ? "

She couldn't answer him. Not even as he sat beside her on the bed and gently held her as she cried still in his arms.