Tracy's POV “It is nice to meet you, miss TRACIAN,” the host welcomed me with a smile. "It is my pleasure to be here," I said, equally smiling at her. "And it is even more thrilling that you opted to show up here without a mask, so tell us what prompted you to appear without a mask finally.?" She asked, her eyes flicking with enthusiasm. "Well, I thought it was finally the time to show the world who I am, don't you think?". I shrugged. She nodded knowingly. "Miss TRACIAN, I am sure it is such an honor to your fans to see the face behind the beloved brand finally. And you know, know you on a whole new level." She winked. "Everyone, this..this is me". I said with a nervous laugh. "So what inspired you to become who you are today? Her question sent me into a trance, and I suddenly asked what inspired me to become the person I am today. I thought of some template answers, but I did not want to go with template answers. I wanted an answer that would inspire people as well. "Miss
Tracy's POV I smiled at her, looking around the room to ensure that we were still alive. "I am sorry If I took long." "Oh my goodness, you look way more beautiful without makeup. When you walked in here earlier, I thought you were stunning, but now, girl, you look downright gorgeous." She squealed, "And your skin, girl! What is your skincare routine," she said, reaching to touch my face. A warm feeling filled my heart because I thought it was a horrible idea for me to walk back in there without makeup, but I am glad and thankful for her reaction. "I do not really have a routine", I chuckled. "What dahhh fuck! Do you not have a skincare routine? How is your skin this glorious?" She yelled, momentarily startling me. I nodded shyly, not knowing if I was right to have admitted to not owning a skincare routine. "Alright, let us get right back into the interview," she said, suddenly turning serious. "I like your serious face. It is adorable," I remarked, suddenly feeling comfort
Tracy's POV"I will take that as a compliment then""You know it is, girl. Now, to the last question for today. She said tapping the top of her microphone lightly. "What was it like being anonymous?"'well I was not entirely ready for the paparazzi with media and I really just wanted to live like everyother young girl."Stelle dabbed her eyes again, but this time, there were actual tears; my words brought her to tears!I reached over to her and enveloped her in a tight embrace."It was really lovely to have you here Miss TRACIAN, she said as she reached over to me for yet another hiug.After she released me, I was contemplating on getting her contact info right after the interview, but on a second thought, it might be considered and seen as being unprofessional, so I swept off the thought.&n
Tracy's POV"Momma, who is my dad?" Kian's question hovered above my head. This can not be happening. Kian can not start looking for his dad all of a sudden. 'what if one day he begins to look for his dad?' I remember the day Garvin threw that question at me. I had been too tongue-tied to answer it because I thought I would make sure to shower my boy with enough love that he would not feel the absence of his father. Now he is here barely three years later, looking for his Dad."Um..ki.. Kian, why are you suddenly asking me that?""Because momma, I did not want to mention it earlier, but we were asked to bring our parents for career day. I knew that if I had told you, you would ask Uncle Garvin to go along with me, and my friends already teased me that I forced Uncle Garvin to take me everywhere. I do not want that, momma. So," he said, sniffing his nose, "I did not mention it to anyone but momma", he said, looking at me with tear-filled eyes. The look he gave me alone was enough to b
Tracy's POV "You say you have not noticed any symptoms of high temperature or headaches?" She asked once again, looking at me. I gave her a long look; this was the second time she was asking me this same question, and my response should be the same as the one I gave earlier. "No, ma'am, I have not- "Actually, I have", Garvin said, cutting me short. “And you did not bother letting me know? In case you have forgotten, I have Kian's mom, and I have every right to know what is going on with my son," I said, raising my voice at Garvin for the first time since the three years we have been living together. It's a good thing Garvin gave me an apologetic look before proceeding to Talk to the doctor. "Ma'am, it was about earlier this week, on our way back from school. Kian complained about having a headache, You know how these kids are?" he asked no one in particular, "So I thought, hey, maybe he played a lot and got a headache from all the schoolwork." "So what did you do when he comp
Tracy's POV I definitely knew why the doctor was requesting my presence. I glanced at Garvin; from the look on his face, I think he equally knew why the doctor was requesting me. Since the mild outburst in the doctor's office, communication between us has been strained. I know I was definitely wrong to get upset unreasonably, but it is my child we are talking about here. He would have, at the least, informed me about the headache. He nodded, "you can go, I will look after the lad," he said before moving his chair to Kian's bedside With that, I followed the nurse outside the room, taking one final look at my son. Soon, we were in another ward, with IV strips hanging on bed poles. "Get settled in one of the beds", the doctor announced, momentarily startling me. "Oh, alright, ma'am." "I believe you went through the pamphlet handed to you?" "Yes, ma'am, yes I did." "Alright" A needle was pierced into my skin, drawing a pint of blood From me. I prayed and hoped that my blood w
Tracy's POV"You know her already? The doctor smiled."Yes, yes, I know her". I managed to say."Wonderful, now we can proceed with signing the documents needed." She said, obviously beaming with joy to Begin treatment."Um, ma'am, there is no need for signing any documents. Tracy and I go way back. Kian is practically my child." Lisa said, her voice filled with emotions.I looked at Lisa and then the doctor, unable to understand what was going on,"Lisa, when you took the excuse, did you leave to go to the doctor's office?" "Yes, Miss Tracy. She said, not daring to look at my face, "Please do not try to stop me". Turning to the doctor, "Ma'am, did you give out information about Kian? What happened to the patient-doctor confidentiality agreement?""I did not give out any information; she walked into my office and talked about being a donor. I asked for her blood type, and upon mention, it matched that of your son, that of Kian.""Lisa... How did you know that your blood would match
Tracy's POVKian was soon asleep right after eating, and the energy in the room had gone back to zero. Everyone was trying so hard to act like they were engrossed in one activity or another. I glanced over at Garvin. He looked absent-minded, staring into space and taping his foot repeatedly. I used this opportunity to take in his facial features. His black hair fell over his face as it usually did, his jaw was tensed, and his eyebrows furrowed. He turned his face to meet mine, and I immediately broke my state."I will be leaving now", he said, standing up to leave."You are leaving? What about the test results? I asked, desperate to look for a reason to make him stay back"You said it yourself, and you are Kian's Mom after, so I guess you can handle it yourself. " He shrugged, "Garvin, I am sorry, okay? I know I have not said the nicest things in the last twelve hours, and I am really sorry. I... I can not say what came over me, and I am really sorry." I apologised."There is no nee
Kia's POVThe elders were still very much in shock that I had a son."Honestly, exactly how long is it going to take them to get used to it?""We have to run a DNA test immediately," one of them said."Get on with it already! How many times have you said that?" I asked. "Or are you scared of finding out the truth?"He bared his teeth at me, but I smiled smoothly. I had nothing to fear since I had done all my preparations and I knew the truth.My confidence was probably disarming to them, but they still went ahead with the DNA test."Come along, boy," one of them said to Kian.I looked to my side at him. "Go on now. They won't hurt you. You'll be back with us before you know it." He nodded silently and went along with the elder."Are you sure this is not a bit too rushed?" Tracy asked."I'm sure," I said. "I guess what, I've never been happier in my life." I leaned in and kissed her on her cheek.She seemed a little nervous accepting the kiss from me. I could see clearly in her look th
Kia's POVEven after waiting for someone, he did not show up, and I began to wonder whether something was wrong. The boy had finished telling me his story, and now it was my turn. He looked at me expectantly."Before we have this very serious conversation," I said, "since he is not here, I think we would just do it without him."I looked at him seriously. "Now, are we going to have to do it a second time because he is not here? Because you have two people to apologize to.""No," she said. "Never mind that.""All right," I said."I'm sorry," she said."Sorry for what?" Kian asked her.A single tear streamed down her cheek as she spoke. "Your father is Kia here," she pointed a finger at me. "I've kept the two of you separated for so long now, and I'm very sorry about it."He looked stunned, but I wasn't surprised at all. After all, I had figured it out myself.She looked at me, her eyes pleading. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I am ready to accept whatever punishment you have for me," she s
Garvin's POVArriving at the hospital, I found myself walking straight towards Tracy's ward. Right now, I hardly knew what I wanted or why I was here. What I did know was that I had only an hour to spend. After that, I'll go back to the office to see how far we are with the documents and the secretary.I felt really excited to give the secretary the job of spying on the elders because I knew that it would surely be very fun."Yes, and then I will order her to deny any connections with me immediately if she gets caught," I thought, the plan making more and more sense in my mind. The more I thought about it, the more excited I became."Who knows? They might have information about who sent her to them," I thought. The thoughts were very exciting to me.Shaking all of them out of my mind, I focused on the task at hand. Right now, I was in the hospital to find Tracy, wasn't I? To confront her about the life-changing news that she had hidden from me for so long.She was going to pay for it
Kia's POVI kept on checking my watch, waiting for Garvin to come before I broached the subject with her. After all, it would not be a bad idea for me to finish the topic once and for all when he was here. It was going to be a very nice party, and I was probably going to enjoy it.No, I realized, looking at her face. I was not going to enjoy anything about the Great reveal. It was going to hurt to hear it from her that I was the father of the boy. And him coming here could make the environment a lot more tense than it should be.Tracy was looking at me. I could feel her eyes. I wondered whether I should glance up to meet them and whether she would see the betrayal in mine. I had been waiting to confront the topic ever since, but now I found myself backing out. Later, there was no rush, after all.She was looking at me, staring intently, so much that I had to look up at her.Our eyes met, and I couldn't help but feel a crushing sorrow mixed with disappointment at the crimes she had com
Garvin's POVI tried to collect my thoughts and keep my composure while sitting in the office. The files that I had to keep on signing were a consistent source of annoyance, especially now that my mind was in another place. Now, I had a lot of things to worry about apart from the inconsequential office work."What are those elders up to?" I thought, knowing that they would not come here for something as trivial as Tracy. Last I checked, they did not really care.The door opened, making me really consider getting another secretary for myself. Somebody that was more docile, somebody that was polite and cautious enough to freaking knock on the door before entering."Yes, do you want anything?" I asked, not in any way hiding the irritation in my voice."There are a few more documents for you," she said in a little voice, as if that would pacify me."Are they for me to sign again?" I asked."No," she said, "they are for you to read."My eyes narrowed as I observed her. "Are you seriously go
Kia's POVI waited patiently for the boy to begin telling us what he had in mind. Maybe it had to do with what he said, that he would rather talk to his mommy about.He hesitated, looking at me, feeling his eyes resting on me. I looked away for a while, wondering about the best way to deal with the situation. I was definitely going to hear what he wanted to say, even if I had decided to let them have their peaceful private conversation. Now that I knew I was his father, I couldn't keep myself out of his life for much longer."I should stop pretending," I thought, looking at them, and showing that I knew he was looking at me."Oh, is it a private conversation?" I asked."I told you before, I want to talk to only mommy about it," he said."Fair enough," I said, "after all, I am just a distant relative." I zeroed my eyes in on Tracy, and as she opened her mouth, not waiting for her to say anything, I got up and walked out of the room. Calmly, I would just have to listen from outside the
Kia's POVWhen she gave me the confirmation that she was able to finish her food, I found myself relaxing. Well, that meant that she'd gain a lot of strength and then I could ask her a lot of questions, didn't it?He ate calmly, and I watched her intently, not knowing what I was looking for. Soon, all of a sudden, she started to choke."Dammit, I should have thought about that," I thought, getting up immediately, looking around for water. Surely, there was a sink in here.After scanning the entire room with my eyes, I found out that there was none."I'm pretty sure that hospital wards are supposed to contain sinks for water," I said, even as I stormed out of the room in search. "Like, what are they supposed to do if the patient suddenly wanted to vomit or to clean up his face? There needed to be a sink in it.""Or is this place a very cheap one?" I asked, trying to figure it out. "If it was cheap, then it made sense why they were not able to provide all the rooms with all the necessar
Kia's PovEntering the room, I immediately fixed my gaze on her. I wanted to know whether she was awake or asleep. Honestly, I did not know which one I wanted more at this point. I definitely wanted to talk to her and pour out my frustration, but at the same time, I wanted to run away from that conversation as far as possible. Kian jumped on her bed with a happy expression on his face. 'No boy, you don't want to wake her up if she is still sleeping.' I said in my head, the words refusing to come out. Maybe I wanted her to wake up after all. She did not react, meaning that she was still sleeping. At least I had some time to prepare my mind.I looked down at the bag in my hand. It contained the food I had bought from the restaurant. It is sure to calm me down, I thought. I came nearer and sat on her bed, observing her as she slept just as I had done for the past couple of days. Shaking my head in disappointment, I left and pulled out a chair from a corner of the ward. I looked aroun
Kia's POVEven I couldn't figure out the reason why I was on my way to get every pasta by myself instead of just ordering it online. Or maybe I should give it to a servant to get it; any one of those options will do, but I found myself going personally."Do I just want to get out of our presence for a while?" I asked, featuring her face, my mind stuck on the face that had hidden away so many secrets from me. Who knew how many were still hidden?"Uncle, you're not focusing on your driving," Kian said. I noticed that the car was driving slower and slower because I was applying pressure to the brakes subconsciously. In addition, the car was already turning towards a gutter."I'm sorry," I said sheepishly as I adjusted the car. "Maybe I just need a little rest.""Not just rest, you need plenty of rest," he said, his voice cheerful. The joy in his voice almost made me happy. Almost."I think that is the restaurant we are looking for," he said, pointing.Through the rearview mirror, I could