It should have been like this episode 3

🤩 Kemmy B. Gabriel Present Another rom-nce Novel: 🤩

💔 It Should Have Been Like This 💔

(Sorry for the late update, I ran out of data, just used my sister’s Wi-Fi right now. Sorry)

👩‍💻 Book Three: and there it is 👩‍💻

🧡 Rominic’s viewpoint 🧡

I’ve seen people react to their love ones coming back from the dead, finding out their love ones didn’t die as they thought, and I thought it was ridiculous. Sitting there in my car, knuckles white from squeezing the steering wheel too hærd, I realize that I am the ridiculous one. Just one more turn and I’d be at the building they live, one more step to see her again.

But I couldn’t.

Firstly, she faked her death to get away from me, so she can live a new life. How would she feel if I return to the happy life she had created for herself? What will she do? What would be her reaction? I knew she hated me, before she could keep five children away from my knowledge, she must hate me with the deepest of passion. Secondly, the street they were living. I wasn’t an idiot, I knew what it meant and knew it was my fault. The place wasn’t proper for my children to grow, not when they could have been living in a mansion.

Different thoughts ran through my head, different playback of the day it all fell apart. Lavender never came to my office and when she did, she didn’t come unannounced, reasons why I wasn’t expecting her. Maybe she was coming to show me the pregnancy result, maybe, just maybe. But I couldn’t be sure. But sure or no sure, it didn’t change the fact that she suffered with five infants in her womb. I pictured the scenario of the pains, the loneliness, the amount of time she went in and out of the hospital without me or anyone to assist her. I thought about how she was able to push out five children, or maybe she undergo an operation, maybe.

Then thirdly, she raised them herself, all alone, three boys and two girls. She clothe them, feed them, provide everything for them and still manage to work so they’ll live.

How could I face her after that?

How can I face them after all these years?

Do they really want me back?

“F-ck this,” I cursed, running my hand over my face. It would be worse if I exceed the three days deadline I was given. What if they were moving out? I would have to find them, but then they might not really be open-minded.

I started the car to force myself to drive, at least take the next turn. I raised my head and saw a kid running into the street in tears. She stopped at a woman and held her knees, begging for something. The woman pushed her away and continued on her way. The girl turned to look for who next to beg…

Wait a minute, that’s my daughter!

I removed my seatbelt and got out of the car in a flash, not forgetting to pull down the hood of my pullover jacket. My legs literally ran towards her. She was trying to talk to another person.

“Can you just listen to the crying child here! Stop being an ass!”

Okay, what?

“Kid,” I called. She turned her head to look at me but couldn’t quite see my face because of the hood. She wasted no time in rushing towards me and holding my knees. “It’s okay, calm down, tell me what’s wrong,” I said softly, going down to her height.

“My sister, my sister, she’s dying…”

“Dying!”

“Her chest, she got another episode and collapsed, I can’t find my phone to call 911, Zach’s phone isn’t working, we can’t call mom…”

“Come,” I stood up, lifting her along with me. I carried her to my car, put her in the passenger seat and ran back to my seat. Since the engine was still running, I drove off with speed, ignoring the bumpy road.

Dying.

Episode.

Sick?

I chanted the words in my head, trying to piece two and two together. Slowly, I remembered the red slashes on the picture. Three children were sick, three are going to die and that is why they need me. They weren’t moving away, they had limited time. Lavender didn’t send me that message, the children did. Which mean she told them about me, she showed them who their father is and they hate me equally.

F-ck!

“There!” She shouted, pointing out of the window. I already knew the building, at least the address. The building was worse than I imagined it to be. I barely parked the car before she was jumping out and running in,side. I left the car running and ran after her.

To regular people, the house was okay, not as bad as I was seeing it. But to someone who grew up in money, who once swam in it or is still swimming in it, the place was trash. The paint was odd and some part of the walls had little h0les in it. The doors were quite old and I caught sight of the bad elevator. I ignored the funky way the building smelt, probably because I’d never been to a poor area.

I subjected her to this.

“Zach, I brought help!” She scre-med as she pushed the door open. The boy sat on the torn blue rollback sofa, a girl’s head on his laps as he fanned her with a book.

“It stopped, she breathe before it got worse. Thank goodness she knows how to hold her breath for as long as three minutes and forty seconds, I think she have been practicing.” The one with me sighed with relief before turning to face me.

“I’m so sorry, sir, for disturbing you. She’s fine now.” And I was suppose to leave just like that? After such close encounter?

“Where is your mother?”

“She went out to get groceries, we haven’t eaten since…”

“Shhh,” the boy shushed, “he doesn’t need to know that. Thank you, mister, but you can leave now,” he said rudely. I took in a deep breath to calm my heart. He was angry, bitter about something, probably me.

“I’m not leaving, we are taking her to the hospital,”

“Sir, what is wrong with my sister isn’t something you can pay for, people aren’t that nice,”

Okay, how old are these children?

“Don’t worry, sir, our pet parrot already went to get our mother, she’ll be…”

“Let me help you, please,”

“Sir…”

“Do you want your sister to live ot not?”

She pouted with disappointment. “But daddy is suppose to show up,”

“Face it, Sera, he’s not coming. He probably just trash the message before or after reading it,” the boy scoffed bitterly, “mom is right about him. He’s nothing but a selfish and greedy man,” if Lavender was the one who said that, it would have hurt but not as much as hearing the kid I never knew exist say it with such rage and hatred. The bitterness in his tone, the rage in his eyes, the way his body shook…

I was almost late.

“That’s not completely true,” I sighed, bringing my hand to my head. I pushed the hood off and forced a smile at the children, “sorry I’m late,”

“You came! You came! Zach, he came! Zayne and Zyaire would be okay now!” The boy didn’t show any sign of excitement, no sign that he had change his mind about me. I knew that moment that it would take a lot of effort to get his forgiveness.

~~~~~~

In my car, driving my children to the hospital I was told the other two were. I learnt the eldest was the girl looking for help, Serafina by name. I almost shed tears after learning their names. Laverne named them the way I planned to. She remembered the night she asked me about what I’d like to name my children if I ever got one. The memory was still fresh in my head.

(Flashback)

It was a Sunday night, I laid in my bed, one hand supporting the back of my head and the other placed over my forehead. I stared at the light, my mind calculating and trying to figure out the one formula stopping the new machine I was working on. I couldn’t come up with anything, not even after two hours of just laying there and thinking.

“Are you still thinking?” Her voice broke through the silent room. I ignored her, which was followed with a laugh, her annoying but yet amusing laugh. She flung herself on the bed, making me bounce, but it didn’t distract my calculation.

She laid on her stomach and hover her head over mine, her sandy brown hair falling down in a curtain to block my view of the lights. She giggled when I gro-ned and gently placed her palms on my cheeks. “You worry too much, Beau, give yourself a break,”

“I can’t give myself a break, not when it earns me more money,” I huffed, bringing my hand up to push her face away from mine.

“If you don’t think for three days, you won’t go poor overnight, stop worrying yourself so much, Beau,” she laughed, pushing my hand away, “you are rich already. And plus, don’t you think because you are stressing your brain it’s trying to frustrate you back? You calculate in your sleep,”

“No, I don’t,” I replied sharply.

“Really?” She asked, tilting her head in a way my l-ips brushed her nose. She was laying upside-down after all. She lifted her head higher so I could see her roll her eyes. “You speak binary in your sleep and when you are not speaking to the god of numbers, you are counting money. Even when you snore, you snore out money,”

“No, I don’t,”

She copied a snoring sound and murmured “money, money, money, money”. I chuckled. She squealed and jumped to sit on her legs, clapping like a child. “I did it! I did it! I made you chuckle!”

“Okay, you don’t see me giving you an award, do you?” I sneered.

“You’ll give me either way,” she said certainly, plopping herself back on the bed. She returned her head to mine with a toothy grin, “let’s get your mind off thinking for a while, shall we?”

“Good luck with that,”

“Talk to me about your future, how many children do you want?”

“Forty,” I blunted out without hesitation.

“Forty! Rominic!” I curled my legs up as I laughed, making her pout in annoyance. She didn’t want many kids, I knew that about her. “I’ll imagine you meant four… No, three. Now, what would you name your three children?”

“I want four, equal gender. I’ve always imagined having the boys first before the girls. The boys would be Zachary, Zyaire, Zander or Zayne…”

“Zyaire? You like that weird name?” She snorted.

“What’s so weird about the name?”

“Try everything, it sounds like a girl’s names,”

“And so what? Sounds pretty to me and I like it even more than I like Zander. You asked me what I want and I’ve told you, don’t argue,”

“Okay, okay,” she laughed, “proceed,”

“Thank you! Okay, so the boys first names will all start with Z and their middle names would start with S, Samir, Skyler, Seth or Shawn…”

“Samir? Isn’t that…” I growled warningly, “shutting up, okay,”

“The girls would be Seraline, Serafina or Serenity, I like those two last one better. The first daughter’s middle name would be Zelmira and the second, Zuma,” I explained with excitement, “makes sense, doesn’t it?”

“I don’t really care what I name the children, as long as I can identify them with something. I can even call them Sage, Storm, d-ck, Poppy or even Rice,”

“Name my son d-ck and I’ll kill you with mine,”

“You can try, Mr. Verlice, you can try,” she laughed.

“Challenge accepted,” I smirked. Her eyes w¡dened with horror. She jumped away from me.

“I was joking, I was joking!” I stood up on my knees, still maintaining my smirk. “Beau, kidding, I was kidding…” She scre-med as I launch myself forward to tinkle her. She tried to run out of the bed but I pinned her down before she got a chance to run off. “Beau, come on, cut it out,” she laughed, “no tickles, no tickles!”

“What’s the magic words?”

“I am never saying it! Ever!”

“Say it, say it,” I singsonged, turning my fingers to her stomach. She squealed, wiggling like a worm. The way she was moving reminded me of… “Yes! Yes! I’ve got it! I’ve got it! I know what might be missing!”

“Huh?” She laughed.

“Thank you, baby, you did it, you helped me figure it out,” I grabbed her face and k-ssed her cheeks, her nose, her forehead and l-ips. “Thank you!” I flew out of the bed, scre-ming in jubilation.

She was always helpful.

(End Of Flashback)

“Dad!” I snapped out of my thoughts. I noticed small body sitting on me and jumping.

“Serene, stop jumping on him before you get us killed!” Zachary shouted. Serenity was awake and almost sitting on me. She must have waken up and was told about who was driving her. This one didn’t have any rage or bitterness, she was happy to see me.

I put my hand under her arm and adjusted her properly on my laps, glancing at the road to make sure I don’t run into something. “Good afternoon, kiddo, you sure do look energetic for someone who just almost died,”

“Oh, that? It goes away as soon as it comes, I’m fine… I knew you would come back! I knew it! I knew it! Are you going to help mommy pay for Zayne’s and Zyaire’s surgery?”

“Even better, I’ll take them to a better hospital,”

“Yes!”

“Daddy has to drive, can you sit down there for now?” I asked, smiling down at her. She excitedly crawled over the console to the other chair and bounced on it.

“Daddy, is this your car?”

“Yes,” she squealed in excitement. I turned to look at the eldest two at the back. They had a nasty scowl on their faces, especially the boy.

“Apparently, they believe you and mother had a fight and went your separate ways before she knew she was pregnant and they believe you would come searching for them. Not that much of a rainbow idea but better than the real truth, huh, daddy?” Zachary hissed. I quietly turned my head back to the road to drive.

“What about mommy? Does she know where we are?”

“I left her a note, she’ll be at the hospital soon enough,”

I dread the moment.

💜 Lavender’s viewpoint 💜

“Took Serenity to the hospital, mom, a handsome stranger helped. We’ll be waiting for you. Love–Serafina.”

The note reverberated in my head over and over again as I impatiently tap my foot. The cabman was driving incredibly slow… Okay, he was driving as fast as he could but it was still too slow for me.

“I’m almost there, ma’am,” he said, like he had been saying for the pass thirty minutes. He didn’t know what it feels like to be losing a child. Maybe he does, but who cares! Certainly not the panicking me.

They had to hang on for me. I was already planning on how to find their father, to tell him. I thought about it carefully. I couldn’t downgrade myself in front of my children, couldn’t bear to bring myself to opening my legs for an old man. What if he ends up not choosing me? What would I do then? I couldn’t. Then, I thought about the fact that my children deserve a better life, one that belongs to them.

Rominic didn’t have any child yet, only the ones I bore for him. My sons are his heirs, my daughters are his successors. If I plan it well, he would give them the best education, raise them up like the princes and princesses they are. And at the end, Serafina and Zachary would take back what is mine and avenge me. I knew they would do it even without me asking. Why carry a child for someone and leave the child to hate me for the rest of my life? Why do that to myself when I can easily get money? I knew that if he rejected my kids, I’ll find his mother and tell her.

If he rejects them, his parents won’t.

Either way, they would live well, even if I don’t stay with them.

“We are here,” I didn’t wait for any more seconds, I opened the door and ran out, Perry flying out before me. “Madam, my money!” I ran back to the man, gave him everything in my wallet and ran out again. “Your change! You forgot your change!”

Who cares about that!

I ran into the hospital, running straight to the boys hospital ward where I knew Zach would be waiting for me. I barge into the room. I expected to see Zachary sitting on the bed with Zyaire and Zayne eating or drawing, but I saw someone else. I almost slipped and fell on my face.

He hadn’t change a bit. Sure, he was leaner, slightly older with a couple of early gray strands to his beautiful creamy blonde hair, but he remained the same. Still handsome, still breathtaking and abso-f-cking-lutely gorgeous. I thought I was over it, but his handsome face always brought tears to my eyes and it did that moment. He was just too beautiful and I always thought I was over lucky.

His winter grey eyes, the eyes I’ve stared into for years through my children, stared back into mine. His l-ips were slightly parted, those two red flesh I love most about his face, after his eyes. His eyes were a little bit dark, like he haven’t slept for years, just like me.

“Laverne,” he whispered. The only man who called me Laverne. I always thought of it as special but I grew to hate the name after finding out about everything.

“Beau,” I spat venomously. He smiled sadly, probably because of the name only I called him. I told him I didn’t like his actual middle name, so I gave him my own special name. He loved it, or maybe he was pretending.

Wait, what is he doing here?!

“What the… What the hell are you doing here!” Obvious answer, Zachary and Serafina.

“Laverne, I know…”

“Don’t! Don’t you dare call me that! My name is Jamila!”

“Mom,” I took in a deep breath, remembering Zayne and Serenity were in there too. I turned and walked out, expecting him to follow me and he did.

“Lavender, Lavender!” I ignored him until he caught up to me. He grabbed my hand to stop me from walking but I snatch my arm away from his grasp.

I’d never felt so much rage in my entire life. I knew I hated him, but I didn’t know how deep and intense it was until I was back in his presence. All the murderous thoughts I’d ever had, the seething disdain, the ugly scenarios, it all flooded me with an intense rush. It was so overwhelming it s₱0tted my vision with black.

“Lavender, please, let me talk, I beg you,”

“What do you want? Ask me what I want and I’ll say you crushed by a truck, buried under a skyscraper, boiled alive, buried alive, or made to suffer a painful and slow death!”

“Okay, okay, I get it, you hate me and I deserve it. But Laverne…”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Lavender…”

“Jamila!”

“Stop scre-ming in a hospital before you get yourself kicked out,” he said, his very gentle but teasing smirk on his face. He found it very amusing. He found my rage amusing!

I gritted my teeth together but I knew he was right, I shouldn’t so much. “Leave.”

“I would, I should, but I won’t. You wanna know why, Laverne… Sorry, Laven… Mila? Anyone,” he waved dismissively, “because those kids in there are mine as much as they are yours. I know I don’t deserve to call them mine or show my face, but please, let me help you take care of them. Laverne… Jamila, do you have any better option of providing money for their treatment?” I pinned my l-ips shut, though glaring at him. He had no idea what I was planning to do before.

“Then please, let me help. I already made plans to move Zyaire to a better hospital, and Zayne too. They would operate on him, he’ll be better before they are moved to my personal one in Chicago…”

“I am not going to Chicago with you!”

“The children needs it, please. After all three of them are fully on their feet, then we’ll talk about how I can assist you, or don’t you want them to live a better life?” Trust him to use weaknesses against someone. He was good at that, manipulating people. Somehow, he always knew what they wanted and what exact s₱0t to hit to get what he wants. Reasons why he easily got what he wanted from me. A trait Serafina held in her possession.

“This is emotional blackmail,”

“I’m sorry, I promise, I won’t take your right away from you,” he said carefully, which really surprised me, “they are your children, more of yours than mine, so I will never do anything to hurt their feelings by separating them from you.” I was expecting him to go all ‘they are mine, don’t dare me’, like an evil ex.

“And if I don’t agree?” I dared, folding my arms defiantly. He chuckled darkly, his eyes lighting up with mischief.

And there it is.

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To be continued.