#Bonus 1: Bub

**

Happy Easter Lovelies!

Enjoy the Bonus.

**

"Y-your breaking up with me?"

Blair's face contorted to agony when he said his cruel words.

In truth, the moment she texted him about her pregnancy, he presented divorce papers to Victoria in hopes of breaking off his loveless marriage, but to his surprise, she picked up his gun and pointed it at her head.

"You think Matteo will forgive you? If he knows I killed myself because of you, do you think your precious ‘family’ will stay intact?"

For a moment, Christopher was sure he was dreaming at the threat Victoria uttered.

A woman with only eyes for his brother should be happy with the divorce, but instead, she held a gun to her head with a threat that rocked him.

He loved Matteo more than anything, especially after Luca asked him to protect him and give him a sense of security that his parents stole from him.

They were three broken boys trying to find their hearts again, and they made so many mistakes along the way, too many, one would say. But their biggest mistake was Victoria, who could study a person's weakness with just a glance.

It was like they invited a viper into an already problematic forest, so, of course, it thrived until it started coiling itself around their necks.

"What do you want?"

That had been the only question he asked her, and she replied as he expected.

"Break up with your mistress."

So, he did. And that was the end.

But at the moment, Christopher would do anything, kill anyone, including himself, just to see Blair again.

"You are here again?"

A familiar voice asked him.

It was Elizabeth Caisey Lawson, the woman he had been talking to for the past three months.

At first, it was because he wanted to get information on Olivia for Matteo, who had grown entirely unrecognisable since she left three years ago, but now he had grown attached to Elizabeth’s bright and playful aura.

Christopher never really understood how Matteo, took women and dressed them up as the person he loved. He never understood that action, but seeing Elizabeth reminded him so much of Blair that he longed to force her to wear contacts to cover her cocoa brown eyes so they could be green and change her hair from black to brunette, like Blair.

But he couldn’t because Elizabeth was unfit to be ‘Blair’. She was too careless, too loud, too wild, too much for anyone. The times that she behaved like Blair were too few to make her a suitable replacement.

But it was only for the moments that her aura resembled Blair’s that he kept lingering around her.

"I am."

He finally answered, and she rolled her eyes.

"Come on then, let's go; today is my last day, by the way."

She said, but it was a warning that she had given yesterday as well.

The first time they met was on the bench that he currently sat on, which was opposite River Florence. She had told him that he looked like a man who was about to walk into the river.

But he couldn't do that. Luca would be upset, and he didn't want to face Blair because he had the courage to kill himself but not the courage to be with her.

Christopher stood and followed Elizabeth. It was a short walk to the run-down orphanage. While she encouraged him to volunteer to lift his mood, something Blair would insist on, Elizabeth was here for community service for drunken misconduct.

She and her friends were feeding the Koi in a public pond while singing ‘I Can’t Make You Love Me’ loudly at two a.m.; her defence: ‘Show me where in the law it says I can’t express my talent for heartbreak.’

It was stupid. She was stupid.

"Hi, Baby!"

She said instantly when she saw Wade, a black-haired five-year-old child with green eyes, standing idly outside the orphanage door. It was cold enough that mist came out when they breathed, even though it was not yet winter.

"I'm not a baby!"

He protested like he did every time, so she bent over, scooped him up, and spun him around, forcing laughter on the boy.

"Of course, you are not a baby; you are a helicopter!"

The sorrow that surrounded his chest parted like the Red Sea, and in Elizabeth’s soft and kind smile, he saw a glimpse of Blair.

It was for these moments that he stayed around her.

After she was done spinning the boy, she took off her scarf and wrapped it around his shoulders.

“Go help your brothers.”

She said, pushing the child outside now that he was warm enough.

“You know the older children will steal the scarf from him.”

Christopher didn’t know why he said that to her, maybe to punish her for her arrogance—how dare she try to brighten his day when that brightness is the same feeling that will make the disappear awaiting him stick out more.

“Hmm…but he felt its softness, its warmth, its smell even for a second.”

“So? That doesn’t mean anything!”

“Oh, you are saying you'd rather live in the darkness of not knowing love than to love and lose someone?”

He twitched at her response. It felt somehow pointed.

“Ca-”

“Ah, but you are right! I should ask for the scarf back. It's cashmere, you know. What would he do with cashmere?”

She added carelessly with a shrug and left him by the door.

It was during these moments that he hated her.

In one moment, she would say something that shook his heart, and then in the next, she would take it away by saying something crude, as if she wanted him to be ‘right’ or to see her as ‘stupid,’ which he already did, but such moments made him second-guess himself.

**

The rest of the day was easy; they read a few stories to the kids and helped with the chores before calling it a day.

"Do you think you'll adopt? I hear kids give you a sense of purpose. Maybe that will stop you from wanting to sleep with the fishes of river Florence?"

Wasn’t she speaking of suicide too casually?

"I'm too irresponsible."

He answered as he lifted the last desk out of the way to help the kids on mopping duty.

"Miss Elizabeth?"

The director of the orphanage called, and Elizabeth left him alone in the room.

Something buzzed at the corner, and he walked steadily to the source.

[Coming back next month, tell me you learned how to babysit three-year-olds? I need a break! Love you! Don't forget to reserve the Gilham Towers for the wedding and get at least three solid reporters]

It was a text from a contact saved as [O🥰]

Babysitting?

He frowned at the text that flickered before the screen went dark.

Could ‘O’ be Olivia?

It matched with his knowledge that she left Devnia pregnant.

He wasn’t sure whose child it was; anything Victoria was involved in was a mess, so he wanted to stay out of it. But for now, he shot a quick text to his brother.

"Are you snooping?"

Christopher froze.

"No, I-"

"Forget it."

Elizabeth said as she marched to him and grabbed her phone. She smelled like blueberries and sweat.

"Alright, bub! I guess this will be our last time together, so I'll see you around."

She said with a smile, and as she turned away from him, her pony-tailed hair swayed.

"Let me drop you home."

"No thanks, I'm hitting the club with a few of my friends."

"You mean the friends that left you at the pond alone?"

"I wasn't alone; I... was with the koi fish!"

"I'll drive you to the club."

At this, she stopped moving and turned sharply to him.

"Muscles aren't my type, bub."

Christopher rolled his eyes. 'Kit' was his nickname; why did she insist on calling him ‘Bub’ as if he were some petty lawbreaker?

"I'm not asking you on a date."

"No, you are snooping and throwing googly eyes at me every chance you get, and now you want to act like my chauffeur?"

She asked coldly.

But how could he not get attached? She was the first one who patted his hair and told him, 'Cry, I'll keep an eye out for you so other macho men can’t see you.' Of course, she had said it teasingly, but all the same, he wanted her to be safe.

"I don't think I will ever be with another woman again. Does that make you feel more comfortable?"

He asked, and she nodded.

"Okay. Fine, let's go."