Chapter 3: Uninvited Memories

Ava knew she should have been over it by now.

She had spent the last five years convincing herself that what she and Dominic had was temporary—a fling born from chance, not fate. But his sudden reappearance had unraveled everything she worked so hard to bury.

And now, he wasn’t just in her thoughts. He was everywhere.

It started small. A sleek black car she noticed idling across from Liam’s school. A familiar figure in a crowd near the park. A man in the corner of the bookstore café, reading but always looking up when she passed.

He wasn’t confronting her again. Not yet. But he wasn’t hiding either.

He was waiting.

“Someone sent these flowers for you,” Jill, her manager, said as she walked into the back room holding a bouquet of white tulips.

Ava froze.

“No card?” she asked, though she already knew.

Jill smirked. “Nope. Secret admirer?”

Ava forced a smile. “Not exactly.”

She waited until Jill left before tossing the bouquet in the break room trash.

Later that day, she picked Liam up from school, gripping his hand a little tighter than usual. Her eyes scanned the street like a hawk. Just in case.

“Can we go to the park, Mommy?” Liam asked, pointing toward the playground nearby.

She hesitated.

Then nodded.

“Just for a little while, okay?”

Liam ran ahead, his tiny backpack bouncing as he chased after a soccer ball a few kids were kicking around. Ava sat on a bench, keeping her eyes locked on him.

She barely noticed the man sitting on the opposite bench until he cleared his throat.

Dominic.

Wearing jeans and a casual jacket, looking frustratingly out of place in the chaos of soccer balls, juice boxes, and squealing kids.

“You’ve been following me,” she said without turning her head.

“Not following,” he said, “just… observing.”

“Sounds creepier when you say it like that.”

He let out a dry chuckle. “I just wanted to see him. I’ve missed five years. I needed to know what kind of life you’ve given him.”

“And?”

“He’s perfect. You did that.”

Ava exhaled. “Don’t do this, Dominic.”

“I’m not here to fight you. I just want to know him.”

Her eyes remained on Liam, who was now giggling as he climbed the jungle gym. “You think showing up in a park makes it okay?”

“No. I think showing up is the least I can do.”

His voice was gentler now. And she hated how it made her heart ache.

“I don’t know how to do this,” she said quietly. “How to let you in without losing everything I’ve built.”

Dominic leaned forward, elbows on knees. “Then let’s take it slow. Let me earn it.”

She turned to look at him. “Why now? After all this time?”

His jaw clenched. “Because I didn’t know, Ava. And because the moment I saw his face, I knew I couldn’t keep living like I never had a son.”

There it was. The truth laid bare.

She didn’t respond. Couldn’t.

A gust of wind rustled the trees, and Liam came running up, cheeks flushed and eyes wide.

“Mommy! Can we get ice cream?”

Dominic stood, hesitated.

Ava looked at him, then at Liam.

“Why don’t you go ask…” she paused, heart in her throat, “the man over there if he wants to join us?”

Liam blinked. “Who is he?”

Ava gave a soft smile. “Just someone Mommy used to know.”

Liam’s feet shuffled toward Dominic slowly, uncertainly. Dominic knelt to meet him at eye level.

“Hi,” he said softly. “I’m Dominic.”

Liam tilted his head. “That’s a grown-up name.”

Dominic laughed. “I suppose it is.”

“You want to come get ice cream with me and Mommy?”

Dominic looked up at Ava.

She nodded once.

“I’d love to,” he said, standing beside the boy—his boy—and walking beside Ava like they hadn’t spent the last five years on different planets.

They didn’t talk much at the ice cream shop. Liam babbled about school and cartoons, occasionally offering Dominic a bite of his cone like they’d been friends forever.

Ava watched in silence, a strange warmth blooming in her chest.

She should have felt terrified.

But she didn’t.

Not yet.

Back at her apartment, Ava tucked Liam into bed. He was asleep within minutes.

When she stepped back into the hallway, she found Dominic still standing by the door, hands in his coat pockets, eyes distant.

“You should go,” she said gently.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

But he didn’t move.

She opened the door, waiting.

He turned to her, voice low. “Thank you… for today.”

“Don’t thank me yet.”

He looked at her then, really looked, like he was trying to memorize her all over again.

“I’m not walking away this time,” he said. “I’ll be here. Whether you want me to or not.”

Ava didn’t respond.

She closed the door behind him and leaned against it, heart racing.

Dominic was back.

But what scared her most wasn’t the past repeating itself.

It was the tiny voice in her heart whispering that maybe—just maybe—she wanted him to stay.