Love's Timeline

The Other Woman

Song: If you ask me by Omawumi

February 9th 2019

"Hello?" her voice rang through the speakers of Teddy's Range Rover, answering his call. "I know it's been a while since I came over and I am sorry. I will be there in a few minutes, I just pulled into the estate", Teddy informed her with a smile on his face. "Great, your baby girl has missed you!" she replied in her usual bubbly voice. Even though he loved Larley more than anyone could decipher, he felt an undeniable connection with Elom. Ever since they had met in middle school in the British International School, they had both developed crushes for each other but had never said anything about it. When Larley and Teddy got together, she hated how comfortable Elom was around Teddy when they were in high school but she knew it was nothing. Teddy was glad Larley hadn't put two and two together when he mentioned Elom's name, three months back when she had kicked him out. After all, there are a lot of women called Elom. If Larley found out, his baby momma was the girl from high school who had caused a lot of fights between them, Teddy knew she would never forgive him.

When he woke up next to Elom two years ago in his penthouse with an extremely painful headache, he almost passed out. He felt regret immediately, seeing who he had cheated on the love of his life with and when Elom came a few months later with a pregnancy and paternity test, he did pass out. If it was any other woman in the world, Teddy knew he had a chance of getting back into the good graces of Larley eventually but with Elom as the other woman, he knew he was fucked. He tried over and over again to come clean to her every time they had met up but he couldn't bring himself to do it. Cheating was one thing but cheating with a woman, the love of your life has always despised is on a whole new level of disrespect and Teddy knew that. He loved Larley and hurting her the way he had, killed him a little inside every time he thought about it. "I should've come clean three months ago before she kicked me out. Fuck Teddy! Keeping secrets is what landed you here in the first place", Teddy thought, as he drove into the garage of the house of his by force wife and child.

He wanted to tell her but he couldn't bring himself to do it. She already looked so broken that day, it would have ripped him apart if he did any more damage to Larley's already fragmented heart. He had tried all he could to see her again but Cudjoe had made sure that was never going to happen. Teddy had a restraining order that made sure that even if a whiff of him was caught around Larley, he would be behind bars. He had sent one of the twins over to go and try and coax her into a secret meeting but George had come back with a freaked out look on his face, telling him of how he had turned Larley into a madwoman. From what George had reported back to him, she was a ticking time bomb and the mention of his name set her off. It made his soul sad to know what he had become to a woman he had wanted to be his wife ever since he had met her as a girl.

"Dada!" little Xolarli exclaimed as Teddy walked into the playroom with a human-sized Teddy bear in his hands. "Larli!" he cried out as he swept her up from the ground to spin her around, causing her to giggle and scream. Teddy finally fell to the ground with a thud holding his daughter tightly in his arms as he got dizzy and lost balance. "Are you always going to do that every time you see her?" Elom asked mockingly with a smile on her face as she stood in the doorway to her daughter's favourite room in the mansion Teddy had housed them in. "Are you always going to record these moments whenever I come over?", he shot back pointing at the phone in Elom's hand. "Of course, I know she won't remember any of these moments ten years later so, I am documenting them for her. Besides, she loves watching them when she misses you," she answered moving over to where they lied to join them on the ground. "Okay Miss I-have-a-good-answer-to-every-question, yes I will always spin her around when I see her. She needs to know that she'll always have someone to fall on for stability no matter how uncontrollably her life spins out of control. I know mine is", he said, playing with Xolarli's afro. Elom studied his face for a moment before she ended the video and asked, "You finally came clean?" Teddy nodded his head with a sad look on his face like a toddler and replied, "I did, three months ago. She hates me and her father has made sure I never see her again". Elom's heart sunk to her stomach realizing how much damage she had done. That night, she knew who she was having sex with because she wasn't as intoxicated as he was, but she didn't want to stop. Teddy had always belonged to her first and whatever Larley had with him was bound to end anyways. Elom felt it was destiny when she found out she was pregnant for him, even though she knew the baby wasn't going to make Teddy fall out of love with Larley.

"Don't worry; I'm sure she'll come around. You know the both of you are meant to be. Whatever you're going through with her right now is temporary. Just give her some time", the words rolled off Elom's tongue painfully as they left her mouth but she knew what she was saying was the truth. Larley and Teddy were meant for each other no matter how irritating it was for her to accept, it was what it was and she knew it was only a matter of time before Larley forgave him. "Did you tell her it was me though? I know that was the hardest part for you", Elom probed. "I couldn't. She already looked so shattered by the news. I couldn't go further", Teddy sounded so broken himself, and she couldn't help but pull him into a hug. "It's okay, it's fine. You'll figure it all out and you two will go back to being the annoyingly perfect couple you've always been" she said into his ears, rubbing his back. "Thank you for being here", Teddy whispered into her ears. "You huggy, no me? I huggy", Xolarli said moving away from the dollhouse she had been distracted with whiles her parents were having a conversation. "Come huggy baby", her father said lightly as he opened up his arms for the only person that gave him a sense of happiness, to join in his hug with her mother.