The Way Back | ✓

6.3

note: this chapter was exciting to write so I hope you lovelies enjoy it as well. Please do drop your thoughts in the comments, I'd love to hear them, and do vote if you liked the chapter! 

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No matter how much he tried, he could not forget what happened two weekends ago.

Talia's words kept circulating his mind. She was getting married. To Simon. The bastard who went behind his back and slept with his wife. She was getting married to the man he thought was a friend, to the man who betrayed him for a woman, to the man who took his place and filled in his shoes in his old household.

Aurora would have another dad now and this fact unsettled Andrew. He wasn't happy about it, especially because that man was the one who betrayed him. Simon would get to spend more time with his daughter than he did and he couldn't begin to see where the fairness in that lay.

It had been a mere three days since the weekend and he already missed Aurora. His arms felt empty. His old routine consisted of hugging her every morning before going to work and hugging her every night as he tucked her into bed and kissed her gently on the forehead, after her eyes had slid shut, tired from the day, his stories lulling her to sleep.

Telephone conversations only went so far. He needed his daughter's physical presence, to feel her laugh not get automated through the phone. He called every night and every night Talia let him speak to their daughter for just a few minutes before bed. He looked forward to every weekend but he didn't want to have to — he wanted to be able to see her every day, to hug her every morning, to kiss her goodnight every night, to tell her tales that weren't found in many English books because these stories came from his mother, her Nainai.

Andrew breathed out a deep sigh, trying to shift his focus back to work as the elevator doors opened. He walked straight to his office, not exactly ignoring those around him but not in the right mood to interact with anyone until he had his coffee.

The thought of coffee made him smile, not because he loved it so much, but because of a conversation he'd had recently with London. She was a tea person and he was a coffee person. He liked tea, he didn't think it was so bad but he preferred coffee over tea. Bitter over sweetness but then London made him tea and her tea was not as sweet as the teas he'd had before.

"Tea isn't meant to be as bitter as coffee but I hate when it's overloaded with sugar or any sweetness. It's got to have the right balance," she had said, taking a sip of from her own cup of tea, her eyes radiating with happiness.

It might have been a trivial moment but he suspected that he'd treasure it for a long time in his heart. Seeing her happy, knowing how much she loved tea and how she took it — it brought him a joy he hadn't quite felt before.

He sipped his coffee just as there was a knock on his office door.

The day went by faster than he'd anticipated and when he lifted his head up from the pile of work that he was still in the middle of, exhaustion filled his bones and lazily his eyes dragged to the clock hanging by the wall.

It was past nine. In the night!

Suddenly alerted, he searched for his phone on the mess that was his desk and when he found it, he grabbed it quickly, fumbling for a moment to unlock it before he called his old house number.

It rang once, twice, thrice—

"You're late. She's already in bed," were the first words he heard when the phone picked up and his heart instantly deflated. The tiredness that he was quick to forget when realising what time it was came flooding right back into his body.