★ Amelia ★

It was a family reunion, alright. The kind where I wished I was the childless drunk aunt who couldn't be bothered with family drama.

After Willem's mother, Bridgette, kindly asked him to put on some clothes, the three of us headed downstairs to sit on the patio overlooking Filo's garden.

Bridgette may have been soft spoken with a gentle rabbit-like demeanor, but she had her son's respect.

Although he pretended not to care, I knew he was happy to see his mother. It was the way he helped her down the stairs and how he held her chair steady waiting for her to sit down.

Willem had gotten us some ready-made lemonade in the kitchen and I ran my finger over the rim of the cold bottle, waiting for my mother's old friend to say something.

Willem spoke up first, breaking the arid air hanging between us. "Where is he?"

Bridgette stiffened, fingers curling tightly around the arm of the chair she was sitting on. "Walking to clear his head. With Tessa."

She added the last part with such disdain it made me think that Tessa was without any doubt hated by one and all. No exceptions.

"Hmm," was all Willem said as he peered in the distance where ships could be seen dancing on the horizon.

"She cornered me in the hospital and every word that came out of her mouth was 'Willem this, Willem that'. When will you tell that woman straight up that you're not interested?"

"I won't waste my breath on Tessa. She knows there's nothing there. She's Bradley's mom and that's the only reason I tolerate her." Willem fixed his gaze on me as he spoke.

"I understand," Bridgette said. "How are things with you two. It's weird meeting you like this, Amelia. I thought I'd never get the chance to apologize to you in person, but it's so good to see you here with my son after all this time."

She blinked as she looked at me and then back to Willem who was looking at me with loving eyes.

He smiled, showing the one dimple that I rarely saw but had grown to love.

I found it difficult to contain the bubble of happiness I felt sizzling inside of me when he interlaced our hands in what I assume was a wall of solidarity.

"Things are, well, they're going. Slowly, but good," I said. "We're playing catch up and getting to know each other."

"Bridgette nodded. "Your mom just wanted you to be happy and well taken care of. We spoke about half an hour before the accident happened. She wanted to know if Jan and I were going to make it because she hadn't heard anything from us."

"And you told her no," I said, going back in my head eleven years ago. "I remember that right before we got in the car her mood changed. She seemed distracted."

"She was worried you would sense something was off. I'm so sorry, Amelia."

"I thought the car that hit us came out of nowhere, but my father, he told me I was wrong. That mama was the one who hit the other car. Now to think that you were the one who made her upset because you didn't show up at your own son's wedding." My grip around the lemonade bottle tightened. "You people make me sick."

"Do you want to know what makes me sick?" Mr. de Vries announced from behind me.

I spun around to glare at him as he approached the table. Tessa followed right behind him, and already, I didn't like his tone.

"Men like your father," he continued. "Men who don't know how to handle money and take care of their family."

Willem stood up abruptly to face his father. "Vader, hou op. Je hebt genoeg gezegd."

"What did you say about my father?" I demanded, ignoring Willem's request for his father to shut up.

"Your mother crashed her car into a brand new Porsche and your father let the insurance on her car lapse. Luckily my son was there to pay for damages in the form of a brand new Porsche using my company's money. Liabilities, the lot of you." He practically spat on the ground as he regarded me with disgust.

"Father, I said that's enough. I paid back every red cent I burrowed from you, so there's no need for you to be talking shit about my wife's father."

I glanced at Bridgette who was busy staring at her hands and at Tessa who was watching me like I was a worm among snakes.

"Why didn't you tell me this?" I asked Willem as he continued to stare at his father. "I feel like I just got slapped in the face. What is it with me and men who can't be honest?"

"It wasn't important," Willem grounded out, grey eyes clouding over into murky territories.

"How much do I owe?" I asked boldly when on the inside I felt like a block of crumbling cottage cheese.

How had my father let things come to this?

Willem backed away from his father and I couldn't help but notice how different his father was to mine, and how maybe those differences meant that Willem and I weren't compatible.

Just as the thought crossed my mind, he tipped my chin toward him and I tried to resist, unable to look him in the eye.

"You don't owe anyone anything," he said and I managed to look up at his face, noticing how straight his eyebrows were when he was serious. "I used your stocks to pay for your studies, so don't mention that either."

"Stocks you funded with your own money," Mr. de Vries inserted.

"That's the least I could do for the woman I call my wife. It's more than you ever did for mom," Willem said, his voice strong and weighted with emotion.

"Willem," his mother cautioned.

"No, mother, you've been under his thumbed for too long. The last time we spoke, you told me you thought that he was cheating on you. With Tessa out of all people."

Tessa gasped. "What? Ridiculous. What would I want with a grumpy old man like Jan?"

Mr. de Vries didn't seem to be caught off guard by this sudden revelation of fornication and treachery. "Bridgette is delusional. We've been together too long and she's fishing for a reason to get rid of me. But we both know that she's not going anywhere."

Bridgette glanced down at her shoes and then looked off into the distance where lights could be seen going up the hills in the wake of the sun setting. "I was being a silly old woman, threatened by the younger generation."

"I could kill you for making her feel that way," Willem half grumbled under his breath.

I took his hand and whispered in his ear. "Let's leave. Let's go somewhere far away from here."

His eyes turned somber. "I can't leave Bradley. Not again."

"I understand but I need to get away for a bit. This is a lot to take in," I said. Without saying anything, he reluctantly let go of my hand. And just like that the wee bit of progress we'd made evaporated into thin air.

I walked off without looking back, but in the reflection of the sliding glass doors, I could tell that Bridgette was crying while Mr. de Vries looked on with a plastic expression on his face.

Tessa sleazed her way to Willem just as I pushed the glass door open. I finally realized what my father was trying to protect me from. I missed him dearly and I just wanted to go home.

Instead of going up to the room I now shared with Willem, I decided to go for a walk in Filo's garden and maybe explore the rest of the property that went up the hillside.

I passed through the foyer in all its grandeur to the front door where I found a peculiar man with an excessive amount of gel in his hair, an eyebrow tattoo, wearing oversized chinos rolled up at the ankles, just as he was about to ring the doorbell.

His small eyes narrowed when he saw me. "Who are you?" he demanded.

Before I could answer, I heard Willem's voice behind me. "Who the hell are you? You're on private property."

"I'm looking for Tessa. Tell her I need to see my son." The man licked his dry lips as he peeped behind us. He appeared to be high on something.

I turned to look at Willem and I was certain that the look of confusion on his handsome face was mirrored on mine as well.

"You're at the wrong address," Willem drawled.

"I'm telling you, man. Tessa has my son. He's about this height," he indicated at about shoulder level, "and his name is Bradley."

"You must be mistaken." Willem shook his head and started pushing the uninvited guest further away from the doorway.

"Don't touch me, man. I don't want any trouble. Just want to see my son." As Willem continued to drag the stranger away from the house, I felt a presence behind me.

"Tessa," the man yelled. "It's me, Sintus."

"Who the hell is that?" Tessa asked from next to me.

"Someone you fucked and had a baby with," I said. "Correct me if I'm wrong."

"I don't know this man," she scoffed. "Don't believe a word he's saying, Willem. You know fully well that Piet is Bradley's father."

Willem turned his hard gaze on us, and the amount of pain I saw behind his eyes broke my heart. He'd raised Bradley like his son. Bradley wasn't just his nephew, he was Willem's lifeblood.

"If I find out that you cheated on my brother, I will throttle you with my bare hands, Tessa." He shoved Sintus out on the street just as a taxi pulled up and a short gray headed gentleman with a large stomach approached the gate.

My heart skipped a beat as recognition bloomed. This day couldn't get any better.

I made eye contact and the eyes staring back at me with so much regret were familiar and they made me miss home even more.

I didn't know if I should run and hug him or walk away. Instead, I remained where I was until he was standing face to face with me.

"Amy," he said.

And that's all it took for me to start crying.

😣