Fifth

Linna felt her body heavier, blinked her eyes and felt a strong light that made her close her eyes for a while until she got used to it. She moved her arms and noticed a thin sheet over her body, opened her eyes again, sighing deeply and seeing a hospital room. It wasn't the hospital she usually went to, but it was also one of the more expensive ones.

- Daughter!

Her mother suddenly approached the bed, Linna felt her touch, her hands rough and wrinkled. Suddenly her mother's figure took her field of vision, she looked very worried.

- Mom, where's Matt? - He shook his head, observing the whole room and seeing that there was only his mother there with him. And well, it was that man who had taken her there, her son was with her. So Matt should be there.

- Calm down, he's with Robert in the eating area.

- Oh, shit. - I was still trying to understand what exactly he wanted, what his family wanted. Because that hadn't been the deal.

- Calm down sweetheart. - Daise stared at her hands, after all she could totally understand her daughter's attitude, she understood why she didn't want to let her son get close to his father. Even though she understood that this was necessary. As someone who has seen her suffering for years, a post-birth depression, a reversal of feelings, it was a lot of information and melancholy. - Apparently he takes very good care of my grandson.

- What I don't understand is why he does this! - The tone of voice gradually increased. - He didn't tell me anything! He picked Matt up from school without telling me, the feeling that my son could have been kidnapped was too much for me. The elevator in the building was taking too long and I decided to take the stairs, and that's when this happened. - She huffed, running her hand across her forehead and feeling the stitches.

- I understand your despair, daughter...

- No mother, you don't understand. Because this man is the one who ruined our lives and now he wants to take my son away from me! - Linna felt an enormous anguish inside her, the feeling she felt was really that this was going to happen. That the Scully family was going to try to take away her son's custody. And the problem was not the grandparents, but the father. She wanted to cry, the lump in her throat growing immensely like a damn cancer.

- Linna, he doesn't want to take your son away from you. - Daise let go of her daughter's hand and ran her hand through her hair, as straight and short as her daughter's.

- Why is that? You didn't even like him, and now...

- He talked to me. - Linna felt her body lock up and tremble at the same time for a few minutes, it was as if her heart skipped a beat. - He said he is willing to do whatever it takes to be a part of his son's life. Robert seems different, Linna. Maybe you should give him a chance.

- Have you forgotten the things he said to me? In front of all those people? - It was unbelievable for the daughter to see her mother practically defend that man.

- Linna, you can't remember this all your life. You won't be able to live if you don't forgive him. This is for your sake, for your son's future. Matt wants to know his father, he is a child and has a desire like any other who doesn't have a father or a mother. You can't take that right away from him. Linna, live your life, and let your son have his.

It was too hard for Linna to understand this. Forgive? For her the apology was over, I mean, she had already forgiven him. But deep down she knew she had not. She knew that she relived it every day, when she woke up, when she went to sleep. And even if she tried to say no, it was just a lie. That's because deep inside I knew that even with all this dream life, something was missing.

Forgiveness and love.

- He seems to admire my grandson, when I arrived he was lying on that couch with Matt and telling a tale he made up himself because I never heard of it. - He laughed weakly. - Let him play the father role.

- It's so hard. - Linna was crestfallen and Daise came over and hugged her daughter and kissed her hair.

- Yes, but to be happy, to learn, to mature, pain is necessary. Suffering. I just want you to be happy.

- All right, I'll text you about a dinner party at my house with the Scully family so we can talk.

- I'll be proud of you.

The door was opened and a doctor came in, a doctor she didn't know either. He scratched his throat and stared at the prescription before speaking to his patient.

- Good evening, Miss Linna. You must be wondering what happened, the discomfort was caused by the lack of food and the impact on your forehead was strong, it made you dizzy and consequently caused you to faint. I will give you some medicine for headache and nausea, the stitches will fall in about a week, there is no need to come to the hospital.

. . .

DING DONG!

The doorbell rang, Linna wiped her hands on the tea towel, feeling her hands sweaty rather than wet from the vegetable water. Her son was reading Grimm's tales on the table. She went to the gate and opened it. The first figure she saw was Robert, she looked up because of his size and swallowed dryly noticing the most comfortable clothes. A gray jacket, black shorts, and white sneakers. The unbearable thing was his smell, different from years ago and delicious.

- Good evening. - Linna answered him low and smiled at the older man.

- Good night, dear. - Everyone entered the house quite politely, Linna opened the curtains and let the breeze in.

- Dinner is ready, I'm not the best in the kitchen but I hope you like it. I preferred to make something natural and lighter. Have a seat. - Linna went to her son, touching his shoulder and then he understood that it was to put the book away and introduce himself to the guests.

- Good evening. - Barbara felt love at first sight when she saw her grandson. He looked so much like Robert when he was little, the hair, even the shape of his teeth. But there was also a lot of resemblance to his mother.

- Good night, dear. - Everyone sat down at the table, Linna stood thinking about how to say that and start that conversation but she preferred to be direct.

- Son. All these years you have been asking me about your father and that is why I called this meeting. These people are also your family. - Matt frowned, wiggled his feet and stood up. - Those are your grandparents and Robert...

- That's my father! - Matthew didn't wait for his mother to finish and ran over to Robert hugging him as hard as he could, his father hugged him, lifting his thirty-six pound little body off the ground. - Dad! - Robert put his face in his son's neck feeling that smell up close for the first time and letting tears fall. Barbara didn't stay behind and cried too, Roney also looked emotional but didn't show it as much.

- It's me, son. - This word was new and strange in his vocabulary. But it was a unique feeling of happiness and vulnerability. Robert put him down and ran his hand over his face disguising it, which was a little difficult because of his pale skin.

- Come here honey, hug your grandma! - Matt shyly approached her, he found her very pretty and elegant, she looked a little different from his grandmother Daise. His body was pulled in and she hugged him while Roney stroked Matt's back smiling. - Oh you look so grown up and beautiful.

- Mom, wasn't Robert your friend? That's why I called him Uncle. - She pulled away, and it was her turn to face her father. - And Dad... Why did you always travel and never call me? - Linna took a deep breath feeling a pain in her heart, she was a child, of course she would say what she had always heard.

- Travel? - Robert stared at Linna. - That's what your mother told you. Because I've known about you for less than a month, Matthew. - With her hands resting on her small shoulder she noticed how upset he looked.

- Mom... Is this true? - Linna came to the two of them and touched her son's hair.

- Yes, son. But I did it to protect you.

- How can I protect myself, Mom? I used to go to school and always see the parents leaving my classmates, the Father's Day parties... only I was the one who went with my mother! Why did you lie to me? Telling me that he traveled too much, that he worked too much and that's why he never had time to get to know me!

As a mother she collapsed. Tears began to fall. Linna expected this, even if it was from a pre-teen. Matthew is too smart a boy, in fact she knew there was a lot he didn't even know because he kept to himself.

- I did it because his father was an inconsequential person! Robert wasn't in town when I found out about the pregnancy, and he wasn't in town when you were born.

- But if you had told me, I would have come back. - Robert retorted.

- No, I wouldn't have. One way or another I would have had to bear all the costs myself. - He snorted. - Son, your father left me at the altar, dressed as a bride, and ran off with another woman. - Robert frowned, feeling his nostrils flare at the very mention of the subject, that forbidden subject for his own good. Or for the good of his attitudes.

- Why did you do it, Dad? - Matthew was completely confused in the middle of this adult discussion.

- Because our marriage was nothing more than an agreement between our families. There was no love. So I had no reason to marry her. - Linna saw that same look he saw at the altar. That damned day.

- Oh, God. Mother, did you honestly think that I never thought that all this nonsense was a lie? - She was startled by her son's language. - I knew there was something wrong. Isn't hiding for ten years from my father too cruel for you? Isn't that the selfishness you always told me about? - She tried to approach her son, but he took two steps back. - I don't want to eat. - Matthew walked across the hall and slammed the door into his room. As Linna collapsed onto the sofa the elders got up from their cushioned chairs.

- We'll go talk to him. - Roney whispered.

The silence in the room became disturbing. 

I mean, the silence mixed with the sobs of a mother hurt by her own attitudes. She never imagined that her son could have this reaction because she wasn't going to tell him about the fake marriage and what happened to him, he wouldn't understand. He is just a child. But this child has just met his father, the father who supposedly never cared about him.

Who supposedly traveled too much and didn't have mere minutes to get to know someone of his own gene.

Robert approached, staring at the woman who was shaking her body trembling with anxiety and crying as if everything was falling apart. Deep down he felt very happy to finally be able to have the fun he has in mind with his own son, after all he has no friends but mere work colleagues and his family has ignored him for quite some time. At least Matt won't judge her for something she did. He couldn't say that he thought his son's attitude was right when he found out about everything, because he didn't want any more suffering for anyone, much less for that little woman.

- I'm sorry, I'll try to talk to him later. It's a lot for a child. - she said in a low tone. Linna raised her face and Robert's eyes widened, her face was very red, very red. Revealing her pain. There he knew she would do anything for that child. - Linna, I'm sorry for everything. I know I was immature, I caused you a lot of pain, it's not up to me to forgive. It's up to you. It's hard to forgive something like that. But I have changed. And I'm not proud of the person I was.

- In that marriage I thought that there might be a chance. That we could have a healthy marriage, I thought we could be friends. - She stood up in stride, mere inches away from him, feeling the heavy, guilty breath beat against her face. - You took away all my honor that day. To say that you love another woman, that you would run away with her, that the night we had was terrible... if it were the other way around would you accept it?

- I would never accept it. I would...

- Exactly Robert. This shit has been plaguing me for ten years. Every single day. And maybe it's because now for the rest of my life I'm going to be tied to you. Matt was the best thing that could have happened and I'm honestly afraid of what's going to happen now.

- It's going to be okay. - Robert brought his finger up to her chin and Linna lost herself for a second in his honey-colored eyes. - Forgive me. I can spend the rest of my life asking for forgiveness, but until you do, you won't be able to move on, and neither will I, and it's going to get harder and harder because of Matthew. Believe me, I am a mature man, I know what I am doing, if I chose to have him as a son I will not fail. And I won't fail his mother either.