Jayden's POV

Grandma didn't spend up to five minutes before running back out and I quickly got out to open the car door for her.

This is when I see tears in her eyes but she is trying to hide them by bending her head.

I was tempted to follow her but I wanted Isabella to see her Grandma first before anything else.

Seeing her again brings a lot of overwhelming feelings to my body. I felt proud seeing her with a protruding belly coming from a bookstore and an unconscious smile crept to my face.

We have been following her since she left the apartment to the bookstore this morning. My private investigator, Fred, is here with us, and Jude who is driving the car.

Fred is beside Jude in the front and Grandma is sitting next to me at the back of the car.

Fred was finally able to track her phone immediately after we landed in Paris. It was a bit hard to do that from America and I decided to bring him along to ease our search.

Grandma only told me Isabella is in Paris, she doesn't know where exactly to find Isabella.

I didn't want her to call Isabella to ask. I thought coming here out of the blue would be the best idea so she won't run off the radar again.

She looks more beautiful with her protruding belly. She is still as calm as ever but my heart ached when she came out of the apartment she is staying in.

It looks like an ancient apartment filled with antiquities and artifacts of archaeological records.

But when I entered to examine the apartment, it didn't look like what I had imagined. It was better looking from the inside but still old.

"Let's go", Grandma's command directed to Jude jerks me out of my reverie.

"Grandma, should I go…"

"No. Not today. Some other time," she replies, cutting me short abruptly.

I nod my head even though I don't know why she doesn't want me to go and see Isabella. I have been dying to do that. I can't believe I won't see her today.

What happened? Did she send her Grandma away? What if she runs off again?

I can't keep my curiosity to myself as the car roars to life and drives away from the apartment.

We lodged in a hotel close by.

"Grandma, what happened there?" I ask her calmly, expecting her to give me a reply but none is coming.

She is silent for a while before saying. "My emotions took over."

I furrow my brows in confusion. "What happened?"

She turns to look at me. "I almost slapped her. I couldn't even talk to her. I began to cry and I left without a word. She was shocked to see me. She didn't even look happy, can you imagine that, Jayden?"

I shake my head.

Grandma looks away before I can say anything to comfort her.

"She didn't expect you would come searching for her here", I say to her.

"You should have seen the building. The apartment is nothing to write home about. There isn't even an elevator. She has to take those stairs up whenever she comes out. How is she even coping?"

I want to tell her that Isabella is a strong woman. That is how she is coping.

She needed time alone and six months is enough time. I am not ready to let her out of sight again. I am no longer going to give her space again, even if she doesn't want to see me.

"Do you think she will run off now that she knows you are here and I might be the next person to come looking for her?" I voice out my fear eventually.

Grandma shakes her head. "No. That's why I said you shouldn't go in today. It will be too hard for her to take in. Let her process the fact that I am here first and then tomorrow, you can go see her. She has nowhere else to run to. Even if she does, she will come home soon when she is tired of running."

I don't quite agree with Grandma. I might do the same if I was in Isabella's shoes.

I still have the fear that she will run off and I can't afford that. I need to do something.

"Do you know why she ran away?" Grandma demands from me, surprising me. I have been expecting this question for months. "Do you think it is only because you two had a fight or there is something more to this?"

She is staring at me intently. Unable to find my voice, I nod intermittently. "Yes."

"Tell me", she urges me with a touch of her hand on my shoulder.

I look down in embarrassment, thinking of how to begin and where to begin from. How do I tell her that Isabella ran off because she knew about my hatred for children and she felt our child would not be accepted by me?

"You don't want to tell me?", she questions with a sad look and I shake my head.

"No, I do. I just don't know where to start from."

"Start anywhere."

I exhale and inhale deeply before holding her hands and facing her squarely.

"Two and half years ago, I almost got married to a woman I loved with everything in me. She was pregnant and we had a fight one night and she left my house in anger. Because of my stupid ego, I let her go without bothering to follow her and she had an accident."

Grandma gasps, her right hand leaving my shoulder and clamping her mouth.

"She died", I smile at her even though the pain is still there.

"She died with the baby and I always blamed the baby for her death. I was traumatized and that led to my hatred for children."

"I didn't want to be married after she died but because of my parent's insistence for me to get married, I decided to sign a contract with Isabella because she needed my help and she seems like someone who could help me with mine too. When we visited my parent's home, my cousin, Caroline, told her of my hatred for babies and Isabella got to know about it."

"Oh, Goodness!"

"I guess that's why she ran away. She thinks I won't accept the baby to be mine. She didn't even wait to hear me out first…"

"Did you tell her all of this?" Grandma is already in tears but I am smiling, not because she is crying for my pathetic story but because it feels like a dream now.

I am still pained from that experience but it is incomparable to when it happened. Smiling became a distant thing to me.

I am smiling because I am healing. I am smiling because I am getting over the trauma little by little. If I am not healing, then I would never want this baby but I want this baby with all my heart.

I want to be able to protect him so that no bad will happen to him. I want to be able to teach him everything and anything. I want to be able to play the role of a father like I used to envision.

I want that little boy or a little girl. I want to watch him or her grow in my mansion so I can proudly say he is my heir or she is my heiress.

Helena wants me to be happy indeed. I want to be happy.

"I excluded the baby part from Isabella but she knows about Helena's death and the fact that she died with my baby. I didn't tell her everything", I inform her, my mind going back to that evening at the lake house where I opened up my wounds to her.

She didn't comment much on what I said but I felt relieved. It was as if a huge load had been lifted off my heart and shoulder. Isabella didn't blame me for not going after Helena like I thought she would and that did a lot in healing me and stopping me from blaming myself.

She didn't know but that night, I knew Isabella was destined to heal me from the pain of my past. She always had the right word to say or the right thing to do to make me happy and forget all about the past

I am just so stupid for letting her go.

I don't realize Grandma is crying softly until her sobs turn into wails.

Quickly, I throw my arms around her and we hug each other fiercely, her tears soaking my black jacket and her hat going off her head to reveal her packed black hair which reminds me of no one but the woman I want, need, and desire so desperately.

Isabella Russell.

My legally married wife.

****

Are you curious to know how many chapters we have left?

I don't feel like telling you guys but I'm sure we will round up this week.

Enjoy!💓