"Weeeelll you can't be mad at him for not doing anything because he didn't know. You didn't call, neither did your dad nor his mum, and he's not a mind reader, so there's no way he would have known. But deep down I feel he called but couldn't get to you because this is Keith we're talking about. His persistent nature is almost annoying." Avery said as he polished my toenails.

"Excuse me. I'm a pregnant woman and so I'm allowed to be irrational whenever I want to be." I replied while going through the box that contained all my nail polish bottles in search of a beautiful shade of red.

"Are you done with your counseling stuff?" he asked and I shook my head. I had called Suzanne, my therapist because of the way I reacted the day we got back from the hospital and so we had a mini session over the phone and she offered to come to the house if I wanted her to or we'd continue with the phone sessions and wait till I give birth before going back to her office and I choose the later.

"Are you okay? Are they coming again?" Avery asked with a frown on his face and I realized I had unconsciously reached down to rub my belly where I felt a light contraction.

"I'm fine." I reassured him. "I have been having light contractions since that day. Guess I'll keep having contractions until they're finally out. I can't wait. I'm so tired of being pregnant. It's like the longest and most uncomfortable thing I've ever had to do and that's saying a lot because I have done uncomfortable things." I groaned before reaching back to rub my back.

"Have you seen the nursery Keith made for the babies?"

"No. Haven't been there since I moved out, don't think I can handle it. By the way I'm hungry. I want ice cream."

"Ice cream isn't food." Avery grumbled as he blew on my toenails before reaching for the nail dryer.

"Yeah, well I still want it... And cookies. I'm calling Keith."

"Is that a good idea? You can't really do that after blowing him off many times."

I chewed on my lower lip before shrugging. "He did say I can call him if I have a craving and he will come right over. And I'm pregnant, so I can disturb whoever I want to, starting from you. Would you be a doll and change the nail polish to green? This Black isn't doing it for me. " I said with a sweet smile while wiggling my toes as I picked up my phone and sent a text which he replied with an okay almost immediately.

"Girl you must be sick in the head if you think I'm thing to redo the nails I spent 15 minutes of my life doing. 15 minutes which I will not get back. I'm not Keith sweetheart, so I won't listen."

"Don't call me crazy." I whimpered with tears brewing in my eyes. He looked at me and saw me trying to hold back the waterworks and his face fell.

"Oh shit. Danica come on. Don't cry. I'm sorry. You're not crazy. I'm the crazy one for not telling you it's not a pretty color. I admit it it's a horrible color. I'll redo the nails and do any other thing you want. Just don't cry." he babbled

"But you said it is a pretty color when I picked it out in the first place."

"It's whatever you want Danica." He said as he pulled me into a much needed hug.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cry." I mumbled into his neck. "It's the babies. They're making me emotional and hungry and I always forget things. I don't remember where I kept the gold wristwatch Keith got for me or the pearls you gave to me. I've been searching for so long and thinking really hard to remember but I can't. And now I'm hungry and the food isn't coming as fast as I want it to." I cried shamelessly and he kept patting and rubbing my back while telling me to let it all out.

Finally, I calmed down and blew my nose into the tissue while rubbing my eyes with the tips of my fingers. I watched him reach for the nail polish remover and when he reached for my foot, I snatched it back.

"Leave the nail polish on. I like it." I said and he gave me a look of surprise before shaking his head.

"Girl you're crazy."

I had just turned on the TV to watch the game when the doorbell rang. Feeling too lazy to be around people or stand up to even open the door, I ignored it and hoped the person would go away and come back later. I got a message from Maya asking for ice-cream and cookies and I sent a quick okay.

"Keith?" I heard and frowned a little when I heard my mother's voice. It's been a while since I last talked to her and that wasn't because she didn't try but because I had outrightly avoided her.

"Keith? Son open up. I know you're in there." I heard her shout from the other side of the door and I was really really tempted to leave her there but then my legs moved and carried me to the door. Taking a deep breath, I turned the key and swung the door open.

"Hello Mother." I said stiffly. I didn't know why I was acting up towards her. I was almost like her, so it is not like I could judge her for being the way she was.

Oh yes you know why you're acting up. You know it and you know you're definitely not the same. My mind said and I almost groaned out loud before telling it to shut up.

"May I come in?" she asked with her brows raised up in a questioning manner.

"Sure. It's not like you'll go away if I say no."

"Good point." she said with a small smile which I didn't return. I was mad at my mother, not because of what she'd done to Maya, because I had done the exact same thing, but because I was her son and she'd used me as a major pawn in a petty stupid revenge plan or game or whatever the hell that shit was. I felt violated, thinking of the fact that she expected me to breed like a dog and didn't even tell me to know what I thought about the whole thing. It made me remember that Maya was also a pawn in the whole thing and she had been forced to marry me and she ended up getting pregnant. I wondered if she unconsciously despised our babies because I did end up getting her pregnant even if I didn't know about the whole thing.

God, I hope not.

"I want to apologise for everything." she began.

"Before you say anything, I want to know one thing. Why didn't you let me know that Maya went into labour?"

"I called you a number of times but it kept going to voicemail because you blocked me."

"And you didn't think of using the methods you used to hound me when Maya signed the divorce papers and moved out?"

"In another state? Are you serious right now? Why didn't you call her? If you had called her we wouldn't be talking about this particular thing. And why didn't you ask her father why he didn't call you? Why am I the one you're picking offence with even though I tried? Because I'm you're mother and you're looking for more reasons to act up?"

I growled in frustration because she was right. I had called Maya but it didn't go through, so I called her dad and he said everything was fine. Why didn't it occur to me to ask him questions when I got back and heard of what happened? So many whys and no answer to any of them. I sighed and then looked up to my mum who looked like she was taking deep breaths and counting from the back so she could calm herself. She had anger issues which wasn't good for her health and I was definitely not going to push that. I may be holding a grudge but I wasn't going to endanger her life just because I opened my mouth and said irrelevant things.

Letting out a sigh, I leaned back into the chair and softly asked what she came for and she said sat down.

"To apologize for everything. I know sorry isn't enough but I still want to say I'm sorry for everything. I really am."

"I don't want your apology mother. It's not helping, so..."

Reaching out to take my hand she continued. "Keith come on. We used to be so close; it has been just us for so long and has been both of us against that whole world for so so long. What happened? What went wrong?" she asked softly.

"What happened is that my mother who was the most important person in my life for so long took advantage of my willingness to do anything for the company and decided to use me to breed and ruin an innocent girl's life all because of a silly revenge plan." I snapped.

"Breed is a nasty word."

"Breed is the appropriate word for it. You arranged for me to get her pregnant and ruin her life after getting her father's business just because you wanted the life of the lovechild who ruined things for you ruined, so breed is definitely the appropriate word. How could you do that to me? You're my mother, you should protect me not the opposite. I feel so horrible and I can't even begin to imagine how Maya feels and she's the pregnant one."

"I cannot apologize enough for what I did Keith, but I don't want you to feel this way or think that I succeeded because I didn't. Your unborn babies were made out of love and not because the stupid contract requested it. I know it because I knew when you fell in love with her and that was months before you told me she was pregnant and I was angry you felt that way about her. I hated her as much as hated her mother and I tried so hard to break her but at a point it stopped being about hate and revenge and more about the fact that my son no longer needed me. It was jealousy."

"A person will always need his mother." I drawled with an eye roll while pulling my hand out of her grasp.

"Yes well that's not how I felt. It was just us for so long and all of a sudden it was Maya this, Maya that. I have to go get that stuff for Maya. Oh Maya and I are going out for dinner, so I won't make it for Thursday night dinner. Oh Maya is cooking something up for me and the boys. Maya Maya Maya. It was so offensive. Her mother took my man and now the stupid lovechild is taking my son away and I didn't like it one bit."

"Mother I am your son not your lover. If you want to be clingy and jealous, do it in a healthy manner. Get a partner and do it properly. Children are supposed to leave their parents behind and kinda spread their own wings and build their own families. That was what I was trying to do and you should be happy not the opposite."

She nodded and kept turning the ring she had on over and over again, a thing she did when she was in a state of turmoil emotionally. She was right, it had been just us for so long. But if she'd gotten a partner, I wouldn't have gotten jealous or tried to break them apart just because I didn't want someone to take my place in her life because no one could ever take my place in her life, not even a having a new son could do that, and that was exactly how I felt and expected her to feel. No one could ever take her place in my own life because she was my mother, I didn't have another and didn't want another because no matter what she had done, she had raised me all on her own when my dad died and she had done a very good job at that.

She cleared her throat and then stood up to leave and brushed her hand down her skirt to smoothen out invisible wrinkles. "Well I have said what I had in mind to say and thank you for listening. I have a meeting with someone, so I will talk to you later."

I nodded and walked behind her to lock up. While she walked down the stairs and the driver stood by the door waiting for her to get there, I called out.

"Mother?" she turned.

"I love you." I said with a small smile. I felt she needed to hear those words to reassure her that she still had me and I wanted to say those words to her so she'd know I didn't hate her, that I was just angry at the whole thing.

"I..." she started but the sound of her phone ringing cut her off. With a frown, she dug into her purse for it and when she looked at the screen to know who was calling, her frown turned into a scowl which made her pretty face look ugly. She didn't pick the call but she did look up and gave me a nervous smile which wiped the scowl off her face.

"I have something else to tell you." she said as she walked back to where I was so she wouldn't shout. Her tone made me know it was pretty important.

"what is it?" I asked as I opened the door wider for her to get inside.

"We should sit down for this." she said as she walked to the bar and I frowned when I saw her pull down the bottle of brandy and a shot glass. She never drinks unless she needs to dull her nerves and say something she has to say and that happens almost never because she's usually the type to just say what she wants to say without caring whether or not her words hurt you.

"What's going on mum?"

After a moment of walking around and drinking to calm herself, she sat down and said "This is hard for me because I have lied to you for so long and I don't know how you'll take it."

"Stop stalling and just say it."

"It's about your father. He's... He's not dead. I lied, we both did. He's alive and he wants back into your life."

It took me a while to process her words and when I did, the shock that hit me would have knocked me down.

"What?"