“Mr. Stuart, are you so confident that Ayaan is your child? What if he isn’t?” Ranita snarled and kicked his hand away. “I need to rest.”
Brendon grabbed her foot again, cute with round toes. “Ayaan’s nose, eyes, mouth – where doesn’t he look like me? Besides being my child, who else could he be?”
When Ayaan was younger, his eyes were more like Ranita’s but as he grew older they became more like Brendon’s. It was like they were made from the same mold. Ranita had to admit that their genes were strong.
“That may not necessarily be true,” Ranita retorted stubbornly. She didn’t want to admit Brendon’s position.
Brendon got angry and pressed down hard on the sole of her foot.
Ranita groaned in pain and pleasure at the same time, “Brendon, don’t be so childish! Ayaan has been living with me since childhood; in his mind, his father is no longer here.”
“So if you can’t guarantee him the responsibilities of a father, then please don’t let him know,” she added coolly while putting on socks. “I don’t want things to get ugly.”
“I also don’t want Ayaan to get hurt.”
“Go wash your hands and rest!”
Brendon went to wash his hands and saw Steve still standing outside; they went out together for a smoke.
“Brendon, how have these past few years been for you?” Steve left Kurima three years ago but kept in touch with Brenden without mentioning anything about Ranita.
Brendon held the cigarette delicately between his slender fingers, motionless, his voice cold and icy in the chilly wind. “Steve, you knew all along that I’ve been searching for Ranita, yet you never told me… Do you even consider me a friend?”
“Even if I told you, so what? Besides, Ranita doesn’t want to see you. Even if you find her, what can you do other than apologize? Can you completely let go of Shannon and take good care of her and the child?”
Steve glanced at Brendon with an indifferent look, took a drag from his cigarette, and sneered softly. “You can’t do anything. At most, you’ll just let Ayaan know that he has divorced parents.”
“But things are different now. Ayaan admires his firefighting hero father the most. He even says he wants to become a firefighter and save lives when he grows up.”
These words left Brendon speechless and unable to refute.
Steve stared straight at Brendon and said, “I’m sorry for keeping it from you all these years!” He paused and continued, “Brendon, I can’t disclose the private matters between you and Ranita, but I hope you won’t be so cruel to her.”
“Go rest! I’ll leave first.”
Brendon threw the extinguished cigarette into the trash and dispersed the smell of smoke in the cold wind before returning to the hospital room.
Ranita huddled up, curled to one side, wrapped in only a thin blanket.
He took off his coat and lay down beside her.
“Brendon… Why do you smell like smoke…” Perhaps half-asleep, Ranita murmured with closed eyes.
Disgusted, yet she still rubbed against him.
“Somebody was smoking outside, and the smell stuck to me,” Brendon explained gently. The woman’s head had already nuzzled into his chest.
Brendon reached out and embraced her.
Warmth enveloped them both, and Ranita, almost too tired to keep her eyes open, faintly heard Brendon asking her, “Ranita… Why do you like someone else… and not me?”