Chapter 12
Celine’s POV
Sitting beside Bryan a few distances away is something I never thought would happen again after what I did to ensure that we don’t meet again.
His quiet composure and the dangerous aura he emits still scares the shit out of me. I don’t even know what to be fearful of now, whether his close presence to me or to worry about my poor child.
I try to silently pray for my son’s survival because of how worried I am but I can’t even concentrate on praying in his presence.
My eagerness vanishes all of a sudden when I see the mansion in view. I can pray now. I close my eyes and mutter a few prayers as the car drives in and stops right in the parking lot.
I flutter my eyes open and find Bryan still sitting down with a serious countenance and looking straight ahead without attempting to go out. I don’t know what to do either so I sit still, patiently waiting for his orders since the driver is also not coming out.
When he tilt his head to gaze at me, a cold shiver runs down my spine and I look away, feeling flushed that he caught me staring at him.
Words get stuck in my throat and I am finding it hard to swallow the lump. My hands tremble and I completely forget the reason why I am here.
“What are you doing?” His deep voice asks, with a frown.
“What….. att?” I stutter shamelessly, wiping my sweaty palms on my dress.
“Are you going to come down or continue to sit in here?” He snaps at me. The lump goes down the pit of my stomach immediately and I find my voice.
“The car”, I manage to say. His frown deepens and he look towards the door. I follow his gaze to realize that the door has been opened by the driver.
A gush of breeze hits my face as I step out, looking around the compound with a sense of familiarity.
As soon as I see the fountain in the middle, I smile unconsciously. Whenever Bryan was out of the country for a business purpose, I feel more at home than whenever he is around.
I spend most of my time staring at and admiring the fountain, asking myself why and how a person can think of such a structure. It amazed me and it still does.
I am jerked back to reality when Bryan walks past me, purposely bumping into my shoulder. I snap my head back immediately and follow him inside.
The other car drives in and the bodyguards are all dressed in black too. Most of their faces are unfamiliar, except for Maxwell. I hated him when I was here and now that our paths have crossed again, I still hate him.
He was the one who restricted me from going after Bryan when he came to take my baby away from me. If he hadn’t stopped me, maybe I would have succeeded in stopping Bryan from taking my child.
Our eyes meet when I snap my head back to look at him. He glares at me and I turn back to my front. The butler opens the large door and we enter.
I try to hasten my pace to catch up with Bryan because the mansion has changed a lot and I can’t remember which room is which.
I don’t know if asking him questions about where my baby is a nice idea but I know he might not answer or just reply with a grumble.
I trudge behind him as we venture into another area of the house. I notice it is the other living room, right below the staircase that leads to his bedroom. I wonder if Jason is in there or somewhere else.
Some maids walk out with dishes and I look around. I almost bump into someone and I bite my lips in worry that Bryan will think I am still clumsy. I quickly retrace my step.
“Sorry”, I apologize to the woman who suddenly yelps when she sees my face.
“Camilla?” I call out the familiar woman, wondering if she is the one or not. She looks different and I wouldn’t have recognized her if she didn’t have a look of recognition on her face. She nods and pulls me into a tight hug.
“Celine”, she calls and I wrap my hands around her too with a wide smile on my face.
Camila was my only companion when I was here. Bryan doesn’t allow me to associate with anyone. I loved interacting with his domestic staff, including the drivers and the bodyguards but he stopped me.
He told them not to answer me unless it is urgent and asked me never to speak to any of them again.
But Camila didn’t stop talking to me. She stood by me, encouraged me, and told me everything will fall into place someday. She knows about my fears but I didn’t tell her when I was leaving.
She releases me from her embrace. “Don’t tell me Jason is your son.”
I smile and give a nod. She gasp and hug me again as she sobs. “I miss you, my child. I am so happy to see you again.”
“Same here, Camila. How have you been?” I ask her, watching her face after pulling away from the hug. A feeling of satisfaction and relief engulfs me when I realize my son is in safe hands as long as Camila is here.
“I’m good”, she nods, examining me carefully. She is still teary.
I scan the entire place and it dawns on me that I have lost Bryan. He will be so mad at me if he knows I am far behind chatting with Camila again.
But I guess I can do whatever I want since I am no longer under his roof and no longer his wife.
“Where is his room?” I question her. She is still staring at me intensely, probably trying to find out if I am doing well or not. I don’t want to think about it because my dress is totally out of it. I didn’t bother to go back inside to remove my dress.
“Jason?” I nod. She holds my hand and turns to go, dragging me with her.
I have a lot I want to ask her. A lot I want to say to her. I know she has a lot to question me about too.
But today is definitely not a good day and timing. If Camila and I can ever meet outside the confines of Bryan’s home, we sure have a lot of catching up to do.
I have a lot of questions to answer and she has a lot of things to hear from me, especially about my child and how to take care of him. I still want my baby back but if Bryan doesn’t let me have my way, then I will resign to fate since Camila is still here. I only hope she has forgiven me for what I did to her.
We walk towards a door and I keep trying to remember if it’s one of the rooms that I have been to in the mansion or not. A lot has changed and I can’t remember some things.
Without uttering a word to each other till we get there, she turns the doorknob to enter and gives me a nod before entering.
I follow meekly, feeling excited that I would be seeing my son tonight. I am sure I will have a good night’s sleep, despite everything that happened today.
I close the door quietly behind me and my gaze falls on Bryan immediately. He is sitting close to the bed.
He raises his head and our eyes meet. He has an angry expression on his face and I look away, biting my lips.
The boy on the bed turns slowly to glance at Camila and me and I see him. My baby boy. Jason. He looks good, apart from his tired eyes.
My face breaks into a smile as he sits up and shouts. “Mommy!”