A Son for A Son

Hesitantly, he walked closer to me, and leaned closer to my cheeks to place a kiss. But, I layed down, not letting him touch my cheeks.

“I’m feeling tired, Edan. I want to sleep now.” I said. He smiled and immediately added, “You should take a rest then. I’ll soon be back to take care of you.”

After throwing out these words, he left our room. But, we both knew he wasn't coming back any sooner.

Soon my phone buzzed with several notifications. It was Lyra who was posting pictures with her son on a social media app.

One of the pictures caught my attention. In the picture, Lyra was holding the baby in her womb while a hand rested on her shoulder.

It was Edan’s hands. I could recognise the watch he was wearing in the picture. It was the limited edition watch that I gifted him on our anniversary. The caption of the picture read

[I just gave birth to a healthy baby! All thanks to this guardian angel who always accompanied me to the regular checkup and has taken care of me during these nine months.]

I scrolled down to look at her older posts that I never bothered to spare a glance before. Almost all her posts were the updates of her maternal checkup, carrying pictures with Edan.

He had accompanied her throughout her pregnancy. He took her to the hospital regularly, prepared nutritious dishes for her, and fulfilled her midnight cravings. He did everything a father of an unborn child would do for his baby’s Mom.

But, for me, he did nothing!

Despite my continuous begging to do a maternal checkup in the clinic, he insisted not to go out of the castle. He scared me by mentioning his rivals lurking behind to hurt our child.

He said if they got to know he was becoming a father, they would come for his son. So, he wanted to keep it a secret.

But it was only a facade. The truth was he couldn't care any less about my child. During the nine months of pregnancy, he wouldn't have stayed with me more than a few weeks.

Be it the heavy vomiting or the morning sickness, or the false pain, I suffered all alone. I had no one to be taken care of while he was doing everything himself for Lyra.

She had posted a picture of a man’s back, cooking healthy porridge for her. I recognised him at one glance. It was Edan. She also wrote a caption.

[I could hire a cook, but he insisted on doing everything for me personally. My baby is going to have the best Godfather in the world.]

I couldn't remember the last time Edan had done anything as extravagant as this for me. Oh, well I remember. Never!

I shut the phone off and threw it aside. After a long hour, I hear a knock at the door of my room.

“Mrs Knight, can I come in?”

It was our butler’s voice.

“Come in,” I said, sitting up on the bed. He walked inside.

His expression filled with guilt as he said in a low voice, “Mrs Knight, Mr Knight called me and said he had to leave for an urgent trip. He can't return for a week. In the meantime, I’ll be taking care of you.”

“And yeah! Mr Knight said that he was really apologetic to leave you in this condition,” he added these words of his own.

It wasn't the first time I was listening to him saying this. He had delivered the same message several times during this year of my marriage. That was why he seemed disheartened saying those lines. Even he was tired of pretending his boss cared about me.

“Alright Robin, you can leave now.” I asked him to leave and laid down on my bed. My phone again buzzed with a notification. It was again Lyra’s post.

[He left all his work aside and insisted on taking care of me during my postpartum period. My baby and I, we both are so lucky to have him by my side. My guardian angel!]

During the next two weeks, I didn't receive a call or message from him. Robin kept telling me that his boss called him and reminded him to prepare nutritious meals for me along with giving me medicine on time.

But, I knew he was lying just to ease my heart. He didn't know that I no longer cared about Edan’s care or love.

In the meantime, Lyra kept posting pictures with Edan taking care of her and the baby. Every picture was a clear depiction of a happy family of three.

I was done with looking at how happy they were after my child’s death. So, I blocked Lyra’s number and decided not to think about them.

Just when I thought about moving on, my phone rang. It was Edan's call. He looked desperate as he kept calling me despite my ignorance to receive it. He usually didn't call back if I missed a call from him. But, this time he called me five times before I finally picked up.

“Ramona…” he called my name, his voice laced with panic and anxiety, “Thank God! You picked it up.”