Chapter 2

   There was light, plenty of it, shining through the dark that had blanketed Damien for the past couple of months. The moment their skin touched he sighed in relief, it was like he could breathe again. He finally put his arms around her, he was finally home but only for a short moment.

     “What are you doing here?” she asked after detaching herself from him. He craved her warmth the moment he put space between them, watching as she put her guards back up.

     “This is my home Lauren, why won’t I be here?” he asked, slowly becoming angry when the memory of her asking him to leave start seeping back into his head.

    “You left,” She said, in an accusing tone, looking at him with so much disdain. Damien didn’t understand why she was angry when it was her that had pushed him away.

     “You asked me to leave” he reminded her before going back to sit at the table. His parents looked at both of them as Lauren took the empty seat beside him. They had not been expecting Damien or they would’ve told Lauren to come.

     “What are you talking about?” Lauren whispered to Damien, so his parents wouldn’t hear.

     “I’m not going over this with you Lauren,” he said simply, he wanted to dive head in first and ask how his child was doing but he didn’t want to ruin the mood at the table for his parents. No one spoke after that, each to their own meal while his parents chatted with each other.

     After the meal, Lauren helped Paula, Damien’s mother clean up. She was humming to herself as Lauren dried off the dishes. Lauren knew Paula was stalling, she wanted to say something to her concerning Damien, and she didn’t know what to expect of the woman she’d known since she was a kid.

     She and Damien had been childhood sweethearts up until a couple years ago when he broke up with her. The memory of it hurt but she consoled herself every night with Harry in her arms. That was the last gift Damien gave her even though he wasn’t aware of it. She couldn’t tell him for the fear that he would take Harry away from her forever.

     “Will you tell him?” Paula asked as if reading her mind.

     Lauren looked outside where Damien was talking with his father. He suddenly turned, their gazes clashing as he looked inside the house. She looked away. “I can’t tell him,” She said, gripping the counter.

     “You have to dear,” Paula said, placing a hand on her shoulder “He has the right to know, you can’t hide it forever”.

     Lauren looked at her, tears gathering at the corner of her eyes, “What if he takes Harry away, and I never get to see him again?”

     “We both know Damien is anything but cruel, he wouldn’t do anything that would intentionally hurt you, you have to give him that”.

     What Lauren wanted to say was that Damien was indeed cruel. For leaving her when she needed him the most, he was cruel. She had cried every night and day at the hospital with his name on her lips, wishing to wake up in his arms, wishing that him leaving her was a dream.

      Eventually, she had learned to live without him, she put all her focus on raising Harry, their son. There were days she couldn’t bear to look at the little boy without remembering Damien and everything they could have been, a family. He threw all that away only to get engaged to some other girl. The anger she felt towards him was back and she was grateful for fear that all the love she had for him would come back.

     “Go and talk to him, you both should resolve your issues. It’ll make you feel better, I promise”. Paula left after that, as she went to meet her husband so they could give the former lovebirds space to talk.

     Lauren walked slowly towards Damien as he stood looking at her. She dreaded every step that she took that brought her closer to him and the truth.

     “We need to talk,” She said, once she was in hearing distance.

     “Clearly” Damien mused. He didn’t know how to address the issue to her. Her husband trying to kill him or her keeping his child away from him.

     “How’s your child doing?” He asked carefully, watching for her reaction, he got none.

     “He’s fine” She answered in a voice that couldn’t give away whatever she was thinking. He sat down and patted the empty space beside him. After several seconds Lauren finally sat beside him, so close that she could feel the heat that was radiating from him.

    “I didn’t know you were pregnant,” he said, whispering the last word as if he was afraid of it and the effect it would have on her.

     “Well, yeah. You left so I didn’t think it was necessary”.

     Damien turned to ger causing his thigh to brush against hers, “I didn’t leave on my own, you asked me to” he said.

     Lauren turned to him confused “I would never ask you to leave Damien, I love you…why would I want you to leave? At the hospital…”

     “You said you didn’t want to see me, ever again” he finished for her “You asked them to throw me out of the hospital, that you never wanted to see my face again”.

     “What are you talking about? I never said that”

     “Yes, you did, Nathan wouldn’t even let me see you for the last time, I deserved that at the very least,” Damien said, unable to stop the tear that had escaped from his eye.

     “I don’t know who told you that, there has to be a mix-up somewhere. I love you with all my heart Damien, I cried for you every time I woke up on that hospital bed”

     He laughed but it held no humor, it was nothing but pain “Nathan told me…”

     “I don’t know what Nathan told you!” She finally screamed, there was so much confusion in her head, that day was hazy, but she remembered parts of it anyway.

     “When I woke up and asked for you, you weren’t there. I didn’t know how long I’d been in a coma for after the accident. All I recall was screaming for you and you weren’t there”.

     “Lauren…”

     “After weeks of endless torture you finally came but something was wrong, even I could feel it. You broke up with me Damien” She was crying now, the tears flowing in a steady motion from her eyes “I didn’t understand what I did wrong, but you ended it with me and now you’re back telling me that I pushed you away?” she was hitting his chest now, hating the fact that she was reliving that cold day in her head.

     Damien sat there and let her hit him, she finally fell to his chest sobbing and he held her, gently stroking her hair like he always did.

     “Something is not right here,” he said, “It’s not possible that we both remember that day differently,” He said, trying to find reason in all the mess “I could never break up with you Lauren,” he said, wiping the tears away from her face.

     “Is that why you married Nathan?” he asked. She nodded.

     “When I came to see you that day, what was I wearing?” He asked suddenly.

     Lauren sniffed before answering “It was a white shirt and pink pants. I thought it was odd because you hated pink”.

     “That wasn’t me,” he said, suddenly realizing it as he spoke aloud.

     “What?”

     “That couldn’t have been me. I hate pink Lauren, I would never wear pink” he said, his head whirling with unanswered questions.

    Lauren sat up, realizing that this just changed a lot between them “Then who was that?”

     “Nathan” he answered, realization suddenly dawning on him “That was my clone that day Lauren?”

     “Clone? That shit doesn’t exist Damien!”

     “It does,” He said, his tone turning serious “Back when we were in college, Nathan was messing around in his lab and made a clone of me, he could’ve done the same again, there’s no telling with him.”

      “Why would he go through all that trouble?” she asked.

     “He has always loved you, Lauren, surely you’re not that oblivious. He must’ve wanted me out of the picture”

     “That’s unbelievable, Nathan would never do that,” She said, her husband would never intentionally hurt someone. Not the kind quiet man that Lauren had come to care for during their marriage.

     “How did he propose to you?” Damien asked out of the blue.

     Lauren thought hard about the answer but couldn’t come up with any. All she remembered when she woke up was that she was married to Nathan, she couldn’t even remember the wedding-if there was any. Everything surrounding the time she got together with Nathan was hazy, she was beginning to see the truth in what Damien was saying.

     “He just got on his knee…”

     “You’re lying” Damien cut her off “You’re twirling your hair around your finger and you look so unsure of what you’re saying,” he said. He wasn’t sure if he should let her know the husband, she trusted so much killed his fiancée.

     “I don’t know what you want me to say, Damien, we’re already married, there’s nothing any of us can do about it now,” she said, avoiding eye contact with him.

     “This changes a lot! You married him against your own will. If he hadn’t pulled that stunt of me breaking up with you, you wouldn’t be married to him, ever!” he said, losing his temper, he stood up pacing the soft grass.

     “We can’t change anything, we’re legally married, Nathan and me. You can’t expect me to just pack up and follow you”

     “I expect you to do just that!” Damien yelled, he couldn’t understand how she could remain with Nathan after what they just found out. If Nathan could go through the trouble of making a clone and trying to kill him, he couldn’t imagine what he would do to Lauren if he found out she knew what he did. Maybe it was best she remained with him.

    “What of you?” Lauren asked, “What of the girl you so readily got engaged to?” She asked out of anger.

     Damien didn’t answer, he couldn’t. How would he explain to her that her husband killed his fiancée in an attempt to get rid of him?

     “Can’t answer now, can you?”

     “She’s dead” he finally said, forcing the words out of his lips with so much disdain.

     “What?” Lauren asked, unable to process what he just said.

     “She’s dead Lauren” the words were even more painful than when he’d first uttered them.

     “I’m sorry…I didn’t know” She said, suddenly regretting why she had asked him. She shouldn’t have lashed out at him, but she couldn’t also do what he wanted. Yes, she still loved Damien deeply like she always had but now she was married and had a duty to her husband and family.

     “What if my son?” Damien asked, using the last card he could get her back. He couldn’t lose both of them to Nathan, he had to use his son to get Lauren back. That was the only way, especially now he knew that Lauren had always wanted him.

     “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” She said, looking away so Damien wouldn’t notice the tremble of her lips as the lie slipped out of her lips. She wouldn’t let Damien take Harry away because he couldn’t have her.

     “Don’t lie to me Lauren”

     “I really don’t know what you’re talking about”

     “How then do you explain your son’s green eyes. Neither you nor Nathan have green eyes and the hair Lauren. Even a blind man can see the resemblance”

     “That does not make him your son! Is that why you’re here? To take him away?”

     Damien turned and looked her dead in the eyes “If that is what it takes to have you back then yes!”