-Chapter Five-

I would have kicked her out. 

I swear I would have. 

But how could I? She brought her cute little daughter with her. 

The pretty little thing has beautiful hair and wide green eyes like her dad's. She looks a lot like her dad, Warren. 

"Claire, meet my best friend, Camilla." 

The little girl looks up at me. 

I squat to talk to her. 

"Hallo there, Claire." 

She is a shy one. 

Her head falls then she mumbles. 

"Hi." 

Roy, Lumia and Renny are standing behind me, staring at the visitors. Renny shuffles towards Claire and touches her hand, 

"Come and play with us." 

I have never seen Renny so confident before. 

Roy pulls him back immediately and snaps.

"No don't touch her! Her mom was stalking us at night and my mommy said she's a-" 

I quickly cup Roy's mouth with my hand. He was about to say what I told him about Riana being a witch. I didn't know he would remember Riana. 

I had totally forgotten about that night I bumped into Riana. But my son has not. 

"No. She is a good person and she is my good friend. Okay, my boy?" 

Roy looks confused but nods reluctantly. 

"Claire, come play with us." 

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Our kids are playing upstairs in Roy's room as I pour Riana some cold mango juice. She quickly grabs the glass and gulps down the juice without a break. 

"Some more please?" 

I pour her some more without hesitation. This time she takes it sip by sip. 

I take a sip of my drink, staring sharply at her. 

"I thought I told you never to come back." 

"That was the plan." 

"Then?" 

"Warren and I decided to move to this town." 

I gasp. "What!" 

"Warren's dad gave him an abandoned beautiful bungalow which is now getting refurnished as we speak. It should be ready by the end of this week." 

No! 

"What the fuck Riana!" 

If she moves to this town, that means Karla will come visit. Then before you know it, the whole of Kingswood comes to visit and then they discover that I live here and I have a son. 

No! 

"What?" she asks obliviously. 

"You know I don't want that!!!" 

"Well, sorry about that..." 

"Sorry? How is sorry going to help!" 

"Camilla, Can i kindly remind you that this town is not yours and you don't get to live here alone. And, I am an adult. I can live anywhere I want to and I can make decisions on my own! Whether you like it or not! You don't get to decide that for me..." 

I scowl at her. 

"This is not about me, Riana! And you know that! This is about my son." 

" You are protecting your son? Protecting him from what exactly? I mean, Andrew died. Terrence died. All the bad guys died. So, who exactly are you protecting Roy from?" 

"Ramon!" I blurt out. 

"You are not protecting him from Ramon. You are hiding him from Ramon. We both know that." 

I rake back my hair in frustration. 

"Whatever! I just don't want him near my son." 

"Why?" 

"I don't want him to hurt my son!" 

She looks at me, confused. 

"Ramon would never hurt Roy." 

"I thought he would never hurt me too." 

"But Mila, this is not about you. It is about your son. You are being selfish by not letting Roy get to know his dad."

"He is dead. At least to him, he is."

Her jaw drops. "You told him his dad is dead?"

Roy comes running down the stairs and I quickly shush her.

"Mom, can Renny and I walk Lumia home?," he asks.

I shake my head. "No."

"Mooooom!" he looks at me with puppy eyes. "I promise to keep my room neat and not throw dirty socks under the bed. Pleeaaase mommyyyyyy!"

Riana laughs.

I shrug. "Fine."

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The following day at noon, I drive to Roy's school for the PTA meeting. 

I find the hall half full, with parents still sauntering in with their spouses. 

I see a couple sail swiftly past me and sit on the spot I wanted to sit on. They look very happy, holding each other's arms and giggling about something. 

This could have been Ramon and I but... He betrayed me. 

I sit at the furthest corner of the bench, a few inches away from the beautiful couple. When the hall is full and all the teachers and parents have settled down in their respective seats, the meeting immediately kicks off. 

The senior teacher stands at the podium and gives a welcoming speech. He proceeds to request us to applaud for a student reciting a poem as he comes on stage. 

A lively, tiny boy walks to the stage politely, hands on his back. 

Roy? 

Tears of joy sting my eyes, just seeing him standing fearlessly in front of all these people. He stands confidently with a wide grin on his face. 

His eyes roam around the crowd, as if looking for something... Someone... 

His eyes suddenly settle on me and he smiles even wider. 

"This is to my beautiful mother and all you lovely parents who are gathered here!" 

He winks at me and the crowd claps thunderously for him. I do not even have the strength to clap. I just watch as he starts the poem, his big beautiful brown eyes glued on me. 

The minute he comes to the end of his wonderful performance, I shoot up from the bench and clap so loudly like a proud mother. 

"That's my baby!" I shout blissfully. 

Everyone turns back to look at me as if I am crazy. I resume back to my seat and stretch my dress when I sit. I am still overjoyed due to my son's performance. 

Roy points at me from the stage and shouts joyously. 

"That's my mommy!" 

Everyone claps in awe as they look at my baby and me. 

The senior teacher sends Roy off the stage. He then calls the deputy head teacher, who gives a really short speech. The meeting is one big yawn the minute the deputy head teacher welcomes the head teacher on the stage. 

The head teacher, Mrs. Stephens (tall as a giraffe, skinny as a stick) talks non-stop for a whole sixty minutes about nothing new really... I think she just loves the attention she gets, just standing there all eyes glued on her. 

"And lastly," Thank God! "We have a couple of new teachers who recently joined our staff. You will all be interacting with them in a few. Sadly, Mrs. Morrell transfered and we brought in a new teacher, Lawrence Garfield to take her place," She takes a pause. "Thank you all for your time. Let us continue working towards the welfare of our children's future." 

With that, she puts a full stop to the meeting. 

Both parents and teachers walk towards the exit door when the meeting is over. 

The minute I step outside, my son scampers towards me and throws himself on me. I take him in my arms and lock him up in a warm hug. 

I congratulate him on his poem. 

"I did it for you," he tells me. 

I hear a man clear his throat behind me. 

I quickly turn back to see Eric carrying Renny in his arms. 

"Hey," he says calmly. 

I smile broadly.

"Hey... You made it!" 

He sighs. "Luckily. I couldn't miss another PTA meeting." 

His son grins widely at his dad. 

"Dad, can we please all go for some ice cream today. You, me, Roy and his mom?" 

Eric nods. "That is actually a great idea! Mila? Roy?" 

I have not even responded when my son makes the decision for the both of us. 

He shrieks in delight. "Yes! Sure!" 

"I would love to but... There is a lot of stuff I should finish up at home immediately." 

I am not going anywhere with this man and just end up disappointing him. This will be like a date and I am sure things will be awkward. I don't want to lead him on. And I also don't want to make him feel like I'm leading him on. 

Eric looks at me in despair. "Writing?" 

"What?" I am startled. "How did you know that I write?" 

I never told him that I am a writer! 

Renny smiles. "I told him." 

"I would love to read your books," says Eric. 

"No don't!" I chuckle, blushing. 

"Why not? I am sure they are amazing!" 

I roll my eyes. "No they are not!" 

"Mom! Let us go have ice cream, pleeeaaase!" 

I shake my head. "No, Roy!" 

He's about to continue grumbling when something suddenly catches his eye. He immediately points to the direction. 

"My teacher, Mr. Lawrence, you should go greet him!" 

From afar, I see a man in glasses, his brown hair slicked back. He turns back to talk to some cute copper-haired petite teacher. 

"Roy, your teacher is talking to a teacher." 

Roy groans. "Ms. Allison has been following him around ever since he came to this school. She is nuts about him and it is starting to really look creepy." 

Eric laughs. 

I shush Roy. "That is not right, Roy. Kids do NOT talk about adults like that." 

Roy groans under his breathe. His face lights up. 

"There! He is all alone finally..."

Roy literally drags me to his teacher. 

"Wait here," I tell Eric as the little demon drags my hand. 

We finally get to Mr. Lawrence who spins around when I touch his shoulder. Just one look into his brown eyes and my immediately sinks. 

No!

Ramon Darke.

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