Change of heart
‘I hope your heart will not change, Lucas.’
Nathalie murmured to herself and grabbed his hand and gave him a nervous yet forced smile as they walked inside.
“Why are we here, honey?”
Lucas could not contain his curiosity since the beginning of the day had sucked all his energy. Now that Nathalie had been proving all his bad feelings and guesses true, the man felt himself in the middle of nowhere.
“You will see soon.”
She gave him a vague answer as they both strode towards the office after passing through the enormous entrance lawn. Lucas could witness numerous kids of all ages playing and engrossed in different activities which could keep them away from the sad thoughts.
“Hello, Mrs Lee.”
The owner of the orphanage was a Chinese couple who had lost their two children in miscarriages, and opened the shelter for orphans afterwards. She reacted to Nathalie’ voice and stood up from her seat, as she witnessed a couple walking inside the office.
“Good morning, Miss Nathalie.”
She had no clue about Nathalie’ identity nor did she ever ask her, the secretive atmosphere of the office room had been scaring Lucas Petrakis by every passage minute.
The both women exchanged greetings and other formalities when Nathalie requested something. Her voice nearly broke down whereas Lucas felt himself completely blank in the whole damned situation.
“If you allow us, we want to meet Khal. I promise we will not get closer to him.”
She stated her request and promised in a worried tone while reassuring the owner lady.
Mrs Lee thought for a moment and then agreed since she could not avoid the facts too, and disclosed the whereabouts of the young boy.
“You will find him in the backyard of the orphanage.”
“Thank you.”
Nathalie stole a glance from Lucas who did not smile this time and kept quiet, whereas she thanked the owner and they both left the room to head towards the backyard.
“You know what you are doing?”
Lucas threw a question at him in a stern tone because perhaps he could not stand his nightmare becoming real any soon.
The man stood there clenching his fists when Nathalie turned her face towards him, tears had been struggling to come out from her eyes which caused some soft effect on him.
“Please!”
Somehow she managed to utter that when they both reached the backyard and saw different kids doing some artwork there. Lucas inhaled deeply and skimmed his eyes to see which was the certain kid she had been looking for.
It took her less than a few seconds to find the boy and she sat on the bench opposite to the young child, Lucas seated himself beside her with no questions. This time he wanted her to speak because it was her problem and her past.
A few minutes went by in the silence that Nathalie broke the ice with some courage, while Lucas stared at the young boy in front of them from some distance.
“His name is Khal, he recently turned four a month ago.”
Nathalie paused for a moment as a tear crawled down on her cheek and she avoided Lucas’s eyes. The man held her hand and squeezed it to show that he still believed in her and nothing had been changed.
“H…. he is mine and Diego’s sin, from that night.”
Somehow she managed to utter the truth which no one knew around the world, Lucas’s secretary had gotten the picture of Khal from the orphanage and the birth certificates.
Yes! Those were the things messaged to him in the morning.
“I did not know about my pregnancy when I went back home, but soon the symptoms began to appear and I visited a gynecologist,”
She could not speak any more and stared at the young boy with tears on her cheeks catching a pace. Lucas was the one to resume her speech by putting things into two and two.
“And when you realized you were pregnant you took a tour to Hawaii where he was born, without anyone’s knowledge and away from the headlines, right?”
Nathalie moved her face towards him and felt like swallowing a hard lump as she crept closer to Lucas. She could not let Lucas had a change of heart that soon and definitely not without listening to her side.
“Yes but I didn’t intend to hide this from you at all, I…. I could not tell about him to grandpa because he already was worried about me. And you popped up in my life out of nowhere. How could I trust a stranger that much and tell him everything about me?”
“Even the little boy does not know his both parents are alive and yet he is living here like an orphan, oh dear please forgive me.”
She moved her face towards Khal who was busy in his drawing.
Whereas Lucas took a few moments to figure out the things before he could place his questions in front of her.
“Does Diego know about him?”
Of course! That was the main question now.
“He didn’t know before, all these years we never met since there was nothing which could bind us together. But recently he came back to meet Khal, somebody must have informed him about his existence.”
No wonder he was suddenly back and was persistent to meet Nathalie Lancaster, Diego knew he had a son with her, an heir finally! But Nathalie denied any such thing back on that day, she did not want Diego to snatch away her son.
“Mm. And he could not find out about him, so he went back.”
Lucas completed his search and by now he had found all the answers to his questions, which had been troubling him.
“I… I will accept whatever you decide, Lucas. I mean if you want us to get separated or divorced I will not keep you confined.”
She immediately seized the opportunity to pour out her heart.
Whereas Lucas jerked off her hand, stood up and headed towards the exit of the orphanage. Nathalie felt her heart pierced into two as she saw his silhouette going away from her.
But somehow she couldn’t stop him from leaving her!