The Way Back | ✓

3.2

note: we made it to 1k reads lovelies!! This chapter is longer than the usual chapters. I hope you enjoy it. Don't forget to drop your thoughts in the comments and vote if you enjoyed this chapter. Happy reading! 

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Andrew Cai had never felt that relieved in a long time. The second his pen lifted from the paper, terminating his marriage, he felt a great burden lift off of him and felt lighter. The only thing that troubled him was the child custody.

Talia had physical custody over Aurora. Aurora even retained Andrew's surname and even though he had visitation rights and those were every weekend, he doubted Talia, knew that she was going to slowly cut him out of the equation. Maybe it was just his overactive imagination, or his easy paranoia that was getting the best of him. Whatever it was, he couldn't help but imagine the worst coming.

Talia and Andrew have been out of love for so long that he could not even remember when things in their relationship had taken the wrong turn. All he did remember was that he met Talia at orientation and that the degrees they had both chosen to do involved business management. They'd easily fallen in love and though Andrew's mother had disapproved, Andrew didn't want to stop seeing Talia. Perhaps there was something forbidden about the act, the fact that he was going against his mother's wishes to stop seeing Talia. He never did defy his mother often so when he did he revelled in the feeling of victory. His father on the other hand was quiet when it came to matters that his mother had a lot to say in. Kuan Yu never commented on whatever it was that Andrew did, believing that everyone had the right to choose a path for themselves and not be forced upon it which was the complete opposite of Meiling who tried to force her ideals down her son's throat.

Andrew started to panic when Talia got pregnant. It was an accident. They had been drunk and while that was no excuse for not taking the necessary precautions, it was what led to the unplanned conception of Aurora Cai. Talia, who was unsure whether she wanted the child or not, had no choice in the matter. Andrew hadn't breathed a word of her pregnancy and his mother had somehow got word of it — well, technically, she'd forced it out of Talia.

Andrew had invited Talia over for dinner, desperate for his parents and his girlfriend to get along, especially when there may be a possible child in the equation. Andrew, of course at the time, was not ready to become a father but he silenced his voice and supported Talia, supporting whatever decision she had yet to make. The dinner with his parents and girlfriend turned into family talk. He should have known. Everything was serious with his parents. Family talk led to marriage talk, which Talia happily said that she could definitely see herself married to Andrew in the near-distant future, when they both had their lives sorted out. Then marriage talk let to the 'are you having kids' talk and though Andrew was present at that dinner he had no clue how his mother twisted the information and got Talia to admit she was pregnant.

Everything went downhill from there.

Meiling insisted that Andrew and Talia break up, right there and then at that dinner, but Andrew refused. He loved Talia, they were meant to be — or so he had thought — and they'd stick together no matter what.

They had been rushed into a marriage. Meiling had no other option and Talia did not want to lose Andrew. She, herself, had admitted to envisioning a future with Andrew as his wife so there shouldn't be any harm in making that dream a reality much sooner than expected. Except there was.

Andrew and Talia were not ready for marriage. They lacked the maturity, the sense of level-headedness, and financial support. The Cai family happily, and discreetly, helped them out until Andrew found his feet in the corporate world and Aurora was grown enough for Talia to back to working full-time.