Damaged Beyond Repair (Student/ Teacher) ✔️

Bonus Chapter- III (Final)

Alana

No matter what I did, Andrew continued to wail in my arms. The people on the other side of the aisle passed me pointed looks, as if to say give the baby his nipple. I wondered how I was going to handle eight hours of flight if my son wasn't going to cooperate.

I hugged Drew closer, "Shh, baby. It's okay. We are going to meet your daddy, aren't you excited to see him?"

Minnie shifted in her seat, she was reading a book on her iPad. She stashed the gadget away and raised her hands towards me. "May I try?"

I shrugged and handed her the wailing baby, she hugged him closer, and started speaking baby language, "There, there. Don't you wan to meet daddy, baby brother?" he giggled. "Let me give you a kiss." She kissed him noisily on his cheek.

I stared at her in disbelief. Some passengers clapped in the background and even cheered. Minnie passed me a look of triumph. The other passengers threw me a hard look.

Great. I'd almost gotten my hair pulled out from the roots and now I was a bad mommy with nil parenting skills. Even though Drew was already one and a half, I wanted to smack his smug face, but his cute gooey mocha eyes melted me into a puddle, and his cute giggle and the dimples proved that it was a good decision of marrying Rowan. He had given me the cutest baby on this planet.

Eight hours of a long journey from Carmel to Denmark were passing excruciatingly slow, mostly because I'd waited four long months since I last met Rowan. We did promise to meet every two-three months but this time, we just couldn't. We also promised to see each other on Skype every single day, but then again, things got in the way.

Rowan and I sometimes quarreled over little things, and one day, he said, 'Alana, it's best we don't talk to each other for a few days. I think you need a break.'

You being the operative word here.

But I mostly blamed myself for the fighting, between studying, sitting for exams and taking care of Drew, I thought I might lose it. The stress was too much, and Rowan wasn't here to help me out and it made it all worse because at night when we talked on Skype I threw some facts into his face about how he wasn't doing what he was supposed to do which was being a good father and a husband by being here with me and I guess that hurt him a lot more than anything that ever would.

I didn't mean it that way. I never meant to call him a bad father or a bad husband outright, but I'd been way over my frustration when he saw my term paper and began lecturing me over a video call about the importance of studying. He acted like he was still Mr. Masters, like I was his reckless student.

Some habits die hard, I guess.

And then it ticked me off. In the heat of the moment, I said, maybe my grades would have been better if I hadn't been pregnant at twenty before marriage.

I'd said it like the pregnancy was his fault; like he had spoiled my life, as if Drew wasn't supposed to happen and all of that was not true. I would never take back what happened. But, it was too late to regret the words that had left my mouth. I was guilty and I'd cried myself to sleep, pulling Drew closer and whispering to him that he was the best thing that ever happened to me.

And it wouldn't hurt to admit, Rowan had been pretty calm about it. I read those eyes though, I knew the storm hidden behind the calmness. He didn't say anything, even after my repeated attempts at apologizing. After that day, he only answered calls to talk to Minnie or Drew.

So here I was flying to Denmark to make things right and end the cold war. When I reached the institution, I told them not to inform him and that I wanted it to be a surprise. Minnie, Drew and I were standing at his room door, Drew in my arms, my fingers hovering over the door to knock. I was so scared how he would react.