Second Chance at Love

Chapter Three

CHAPTER THREE

ELLA'S POV

Ella felt like she had been going since she had woken up the following day after arriving back. She was going through the bookkeeping and learning that her mom hadn't actually been keeping any of the records on the house current since her dad had died since he had always took care of the financial side of things. It made Ella's job that much more hard. And it also made Christopher frustrated with her because all of her attention was focused on getting all the financials sorted instead of him.

"Mummy, mummy," Christopher said, tugging on her tee shirt. "Me play outside, Mummy."

"No, baby, not yet. Mummy's busy."

Her mother wasn't any help, either. Apparently Renee and Ryan had been helping mom pay the bills for the past several months. Yet it hadn't come up in conversation at all in the multiple times they had spoken on the phone. But it had to be hard admitting when you could no longer afford the costs of living on your own. Still, Ella couldn't keep up with any of the emails that had already started pouring in about her case studies for at least the next week or so. She had to make a trip to the bank within the next day or two as well.

"Muuummmmmmmyyyy."

"Not now, Christopher John Madison," Ella snapped, instantly feeling bad when she looked down at her son's face, eyes already filling with tears. "Come here," she said, lifting the sniffling child up into her lap. "Mummy didn't mean to snap. I'm just really stressed right now."

"Me go outside?"

"No, not without me," Ella said. "Maybe later we'll go into the backyard, though."

She smoothed down one side of short, sandy blond curls, which only bounced back into place. It made her smile. Christopher may have had his father's hair color, but he had inherited the curls from her. It was the main attribute that stuck out that he was indeed hers since otherwise he resembled his father.

Just then, Elizabeth entered the office,

"Ella, honey, I can look after him if you want."

"That would be great," Ella said, snapping out of the trance she had drifted into. "Thanks, Mom," then turned toward her son, "Go ahead with Grandma. I need to finish going through files in here."

"But I wanna stay with you."

"Christopher," Ella said, giving him a look. It was the look she always gave him when she needed him to be reasonable with her. When she needed time to get something done. After she had organized these files, Ella would put him first like she always did. Her son was number one in her eyes and he knew that, but he also understood that she had other things that she needed to get done.

"Okay."

The heaviness of his childish voice tugged at her heart.

"Come along, Christopher," Elizabeth said. "Grandma's got to catch up on spoiling you from the past few years."

Ella continued looking through the files and after several hours had them organized in a way she could understand. She hated to think it, but once her mother had taken Christopher out of the office, Ella had gotten so much done. She loved her little boy, but he could be a handful at times, and she actually felt grateful that she had help now. Sure, Ella had had a babysitter back in New Zealand that had watched Christopher when she was at the lab, but when she hadn't been at work it had all been on her.

All of that pressure that had rested on her shoulders for the past five years — she was counting her pregnancy — and now she finally had her family to share the burden with. Suddenly things seemed lighter, causing her to feel less bogged down under all of the intangible weight of the stresses of juggling her work and being a single mother.