When Mara arrived at her workplace, she couldn't find her immediate superior, but from the presence of her bag on her desk and her computer being on sleep mode, it was clear that she had come to work and may have left to go do something or the other. With a sigh, she dropped her bag and phone on her desk and instantly, the phone lit up, showing the beautiful smiles of her two Leos.Mara couldn't help but smile too and bring the phone up to kiss the background picture. She loved the way she had become so close to Leo nowadays and her heart filled with joy whenever she remembered the moment he offered to look after little Leo. Since the day he picked her up from the streets till this day, never for once had he judged her or looked down on her. He had accepted her and her son with open arms without second thought and with no discrimination whatsoever. Till this day, she still had not told him anything about her history and neither had he asked nor hinted at it in any way.She loved him,
When Mara got back home, she had hardly stepped past the front door when she perceived the sweet aroma wafting from the kitchen. Hmmm, seems we're in for a wonderful supper, she thought.Getting rid of her bag and overcoat, she made her way over to the kitchen only to find the two Leos having fun. They were splashing drops of water on each other's faces and laughing happily as they both tried to outdo each other. They had no clue of her presence, so Mara took the opportunity to just stand there and watch them. They looked so perfect together!Not wanting to waste the precious moment, she brought out her phone and took a quick picture of the playing duo. It was the flash and the shutter sound that alerted the boys to her presence. Little Leo squealed in joy, stretching out his arms to demand an embrace. Mara swooped in and picked him up from the table, showering him with kisses."You guys have been having fun without me, eh?", she said in a mock accusing tone."Oh no, no. We were just p
Clad in just her nightgown, seated cross-legged at the dining table and chewing on her pen's cover, Dalia sat thinking. She had only one thing on her mind – the exact same thing she had had since early Tuesday morning at work.She kept replaying the incident over and over in her head. But no matter how many times she thought about it, she still couldn't make anything of it. It was nothing short of a mystery and God knows she had no liking for mysteries, no matter how harmless they were. But this one was clearly far from being harmless. That was the biggest problem – the fact that it looked so threatening. What could have given her such high level of audacity?? What could have made her so fearless and confident? There were only a few possible reasons and only one was topmost on Dalia's mind, that was why she was so scared."Hey, don't you ever quit thinking?" Marks breathed into her ear as he came up behind her wrapping his arms around her neck."My thinking was what got us everything
The next day, when Marks arrived at work, the first thing he did, after going through the pending appointments which his secretary had submitted, was to send for Angela, and within minutes, he heard a knock on the door."Come in!" He called, after properly positioning himself to look like he was hard at work.The door opened and Angela entered."You called for me, sir," she said and walked up to his table."Yes, I did. Sit," he ordered without looking at her.She sat down on the sofa in his office and he went on turning pages and scribbling meaningless things, just to prove that he was busy.When he had acted to his complete satisfaction, he sighed and put the papers away. "You can see I'm very busy, but I had to call you and let you know about this as quickly as possible."Angela nodded, more out of the need to please than anything else. She really didn't understand what he meant, but she didn't want to risk losing her job and he knew it."First, I want to start by asking you a few q
When Mara got home from work, her two Leos were there at the front porch to welcome her. Little Leo was so overjoyed and kicked happily with arms outstretched, demanding to be in mummy's arms. If he could he would have flown the distance, he would have done it without thinking twice. Mara grabbed him and bathed his face with kisses, calling him all the sweet memes she was never called as a child and he laughed and clapped in joy as if he understood the full meaning of the names she was calling him.When she had exhausted her store of names, she tried to hand him back to Leo, but he protested the change, instead clinging tightly to her."Whoa! That's a strange new one. You're rejecting your favourite?", Mara said in astonishment, but Leo was chuckling."I scolded him earlier when he did something wrong," he explained."Oh! So, you're looking for someone soft who's going to give you all the petting and spoiling you want, eh? Well, you're in the wrong place, boy."Saying that, she handed
It was Saturday. On the previous day, they had taken the opportunity of it being a weekend to sleep long and uninterrupted as they usually did on most Friday nights. When they woke up on Saturday morning, it was 9 a.m. before they sat for breakfast, and from the beginning even before they sat at the table, it was clear to Leo that Mara was not in the best of moods.She seemed dull and sometimes deep in thought. He wondered if she had had nightmares during the night. Even though she was so young and looked soft and vulnerable on the outside, she was one of the strongest women he knew. She did not act her age at all and he wondered how she would be in about a decade. As far as he was concerned, any man that married her would be a very lucky man. And her son too was one lucky boy to have such a mother. He wished he had married someone like her in the first place, but instead he had been fooled by Dalia's beauty and "gentleness". It was only after the wedding that he began to get a hint o
She had read not more than a few dozen lines when her phone suddenly started ringing. She glanced at the screen immediately and was surprised to find the name of her boss at the office, Angela, staring back at her.Angela had never called her before when she was at home or on weekends. What exactly could have happened? She picked up the phone and answered the call."Hello... Hello. Can you hear me? Mara, can you hear me?""Yes, yes. I'm here. I can hear you," Mara replied, still not fully recovered from the shock of hearing the breathless and worried voice of her colleague. "Is everything ok? You sound... different?""No, don't worry. I'm fine. But I need to see you right now. Can you please come see me?"Mara was taken aback. Come see her? How? Why? Where?"But how? Is the office open today?""No, no, no. I'm not at the office. I'm near your place. Do you...""What! How do you know my place?" Mara asked in alarm, jumping to her feet immediately."Don't worry. I'll explain when you co
They stayed in each other's arms for what seemed like forever until Mara remembered that her man was waiting and broke the embrace."Look," she said taking Angela's hands in hers. "I'm all confused now and I just can't think of anything, but I will surely come up with something as soon as possible... before Monday. Don't worry, boss. Everything will be okay. We'll get out of this together and you'll be stronger for it." And then she hugged her again and held her even tighter than she had done before. From the way her shoulders were shaking, she knew her boss was crying and she couldn't help but shed a few tears herself as she felt the older woman cry on her shoulder."I'll get in touch, okay?", Mara said when they'd finally dried their eyes and recovered their composure. Angela nodded in understanding. Her heart was full with gratitude, but she just couldn't voice it out. All she could do was grab Mara once more for a tight hug.After they had hugged and assured each other as many tim
With her head down, Mara paced up and down in her room, wringing her hands from time to time, showing how helpless she was. She just did not know what to do to get herself a perfect solution for this issue. She had not told Leo anything about what her father had told her. And she had no intention to do so. If she was to tell him about it, she would also have to let him know her decision, and right now, she had not decided anything and neither could she imagine herself even telling Leo that she could never be his wife. It was absolutely impossible! Even she could not imagine a world where she would not be his lovely wedded wife. Since the day she met him, she had been consistently dreaming of this, and now that the opportunity had finally come, would she just sit down and let it fly past her just like that? Without fighting hard for it? The thought of another woman getting married to Leo and raising kids with him nearly made her run mad with anger. Impossible! She would never sit back
"Dad," Mara gasped in disbelief. She had not expected her father to react in such a manner at all.But Caulden ignored her and kept his unwavering gaze on Leo. "A Stanson, right?", he asked."Yes, sir. Leonard Stanson is my name.""A Stanson from the North side."Hearing those words, Leo took a deep breath and drew up his body involuntarily. "If you had any business with my father or grandfather, I can assure you that I have no knowledge of it whatsoever and neither am I involved in it.""Humph," Caulden scoffed as if to say, 'who do you think you're trying to fool'.For a split second there, Mara almost forgot that he was her father and was just about to give him a tongue-lash. But she managed to hold herself in check."I don't know what you want me to say, sir," Leo said in all honesty. "I don't understand what you're trying to imply h...""You know very well what I mean," Caulden shot back. "You are a Stanson from the North side and you're no baby, so you must know the despicable
"So, this individual, how long have you known him, you say?", Caulden asked after a moment of silence.Mara racked her brain, trying to remember when exactly she had first met Leo, but she just couldn't recall the exact date. So she gave up and simply shrugged. "I've known him for about two years or so. I can't remember when we first met, but he's been the most important person in my life and we love each other very much with all our hearts," she said with conviction. She was absolutely sure that her father would love Leo too. They were seated in his car now, heading over to the house for the men to meet each other formally."What did you say is his name again?", Caulden asked. His face seemed not so bright, but then, he was not known for smiling. A stoic man at best."Leonard Stanson. He's a very wonderful person." Mara never missed any opportunity to praise her sweetheart."I'm wondering if it's the South side Stanson or those despicable North side ones," Caulden murmured thoughtful
“Welcome home. How was your day? Did everything turn out okay?”, Leo asked as Mara walked into the living room.“Um… yes,” she replied with a weak smile and sat down heavily beside him on the couch.“What happened? What’s wrong?”, he asked in concern, sensing that she was not feeling very great.“Nothing much really, but it seems like a lot,” Mara murmured, placing her head on his shoulder. She still had not told him anything about the fact that she had met the man who was her father. In fact, she had planned to tell him everything after getting the result of the test. Now that the test result was known, she was ready to tell her story from start to finish. “It’s a bit of a long story, but I’ll just make it brief. I found my dad.”As she had expected, Leo was taken aback by the statement.“What? I don’t understand. How?”, he asked in surprise.“It was something my mom s…,” Mara stopped there when she remembered that she had not yet told him anything about the fact that the man whose n
Sitting beside Caulden in the white office in front of the imposing desk that had a computer and several files and papers, Mara didn’t know exactly how to feel. Anytime she was around him, she always felt almost as if she was a child in a principal’s office. There was this aura around him that smelled of nothing but dominance and demanded respect from everyone who met him.“Where on Earth is this doctor now?”, he suddenly grumbled, bringing her back to the present.They had met the doctor in the hallway when they arrived at the hospital, but he had told them to wait for him in his office for only. And here he was.“I’m very sorry, sir and ma’am. Something unexpected came up. But I have your result here with me now,” the doctor, a tall young fellow, said as he sat down on his seat across from them.“It’s okay,” Caulden said impatiently. “Here’s here what it has to say. We don’t have all day.”The doctor nodded and began to open the envelope that contained the test result. As he pulled
When Mara arrived home, the first thing she wanted to do was to squeal in joy and run into Leo’s arms and tell him that she had finally found her father. But she managed to check herself and her emotions. She was still not completely sure yet if that man was her father. It was only after conducting the DNA test they could be sure. Therefore, she decided to keep it a secret from Leo. This was the first time she was hiding something significant from him and it was making her feel weird. She had never even tried to hide her feelings for him. She felt like an idiot now. For someone who had vowed several times in the past to trust him, she was acting like someone who did not deserve to be trusted. How dare she trust him when she herself could not be trusted? No matter how many times she told herself that she won’t be keeping this secret for long, she still could not convince herself enough that she was being idiotic. She shook her head in a desperate attempt to knock the thoughts off her m
It was election season and the campaigns were in full swing. Even though the man she was looking for was no longer the governor of the state, he was still very much involved in the state politics. In fact, he was more like a political godfather nowadays and the de-facto leader of his party in the state. One of the candidates running for the office of governor was his anointed godson, so Mara was quite confident that she would find him at the campaign headquarters of the party on a day when they were holding an ex-co meeting. She made the half-hour journey to the place and alighted from the cab a few dozen metres from the campaign office. She had done a lot of research about political parties, this one in particular, and how things were run at a typical campaign office. But still, she was a bit nervous. She tried not to think of any expectations because she knew that would only scare her even further. The whole mission would depend on how confident she was. Any mistake would ruin ever
When Leo walked into the sitting room, he found Mara in the exact same position they had left her: hunched over her computer, working. But he was quite sure that she was not doing her normal company work. What he could glimpse on her computer screen looked like it had more to do with research than anything else, and her work had little or nothing to do with that.She had begun this new activity only recently and had been keeping at it almost every day. Leo had not asked her what it was about and neither had she volunteered to tell him about it. He was curious, of course, but he would give her all the time in the world. Whenever she was ready to tell him about it, she would. If she never did, then so be it. She was an adult and he would respect her as such.“Why are you guys back in?”, Mara asked, without looking at her Leos.“Something happened. I received something strange from someone we both know.”The tone of his voice and the manner in which he made the statement caught Mara’s ea
Leo was sitting on the balcony in the warm afternoon of a beautiful Saturday, playing with his little namesake. Mara had temporarily expelled them from the house since their play had been too noisy and distracting for her. But they had happily come out to continue from where they stopped.Little Leo had learned to walk by now and his feet were quite strong on the ground; strong enough run after the football he and Leo were playing. To say he was enjoying the game was certainly an understatement. He was running back and forth tirelessly, with a happy grin on his face as he retrieved each and every ball that went past him. But all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a shadowy figure rushed into the scene.Leo was startled for a split second, but there was no need to be alarmed since the figure had rushed up to him and not the child. He was taken aback though when the individual went down on his knees before. It was a man, there was no doubt about that. But when Leo looked down at the upturned