Se connecter“What are you talking about?” Serene’s voice came out controlled, but only just. She looked at Victor with the expression of someone who has prepared for many outcomes and is scrambling to locate this one. “She owns a company,” Victor said simply. “That’s what I’m talking about.” He looked at her with the particular calm of a man who has run out of patience so completely that anger is no longer necessary. “Stop sizing people up the moment they walk into a room. It’s not a good look and it’s not okay.” He turned away from Serene. Stepped to Elara’s side. “And she is the mother of my son,” he said, to the room as much as to Serene. Clearly. Without hesitation. “I won’t sit quietly while anyone disrespects her. Not here. Not anywhere.” The room absorbed this in collective silence. Then the murmuring began — low and immediate, the sound of a crowd processing something they hadn’t expected. His son. Mother of his son. Elara stood very still beside him, aware of every eye in the ro
Victor appeared in her doorway with Daniel on his hip and the particular expression of a man who had decided, this morning, to act like nothing had happened.Elara opened the door and felt her face do something she couldn’t fully control.“You left early,” he said.“I had things to do at home.” She kept her voice even. “Good morning things. Early things.”He looked at her for exactly one second longer than necessary.“Good morning, Mummy!” Daniel reached for her from Victor’s arms.She took him gratefully. “Good morning, baby. Did you sleep well?”“So well,” he announced. “Dad Twin’s bed is very comfortable.”Elara did not look at Victor.“I came to drop him off,” Victor said.“Have you eaten?”“Not yet.”“Maya’s already made breakfast. Come inside.”They sat at the table — Daniel between them, cheerful and entirely unbothered by the particular quality of the silence the adults were maintaining — and ate. Maya had made more than enough, as she always did, with the quiet instinct of s
He crouched in front of her and looked up. “Can you walk?”Elara tested her weight carefully, one hand on the bedpost. “I think I can manage.”“I could carry you again—”“Victor.” She gave him a look. “You’ve done enough. I’ll walk.”He straightened and said nothing further, just fell into step behind her as she made her way down the stairs — close enough to catch her if she needed it, far enough back to give her the dignity of not needing it.Daniel appeared at the bottom of the stairs the moment he heard them.“Mum.” He rushed forward. “Are you okay?”“I’m fine, baby.” She touched his face. “I’m perfectly fine.”She reached for her bag from the sofa and straightened. “I should head back. It’s getting late.” She opened her arms. “Come give Mum a kiss.”He came to her obediently, kissed her cheek, then stepped back with the ease of a child who knows a goodnight is not a goodbye.She looked at Victor. “Goodnight.”He opened his mouth to reply.And the sky opened.Rain hit the windows a
Elara came through the front door wearing a smile she hadn’t entirely intended to bring home with her.She sat on the sofa and looked at it from the inside — examined it, tried to account for it — and couldn’t quite manage to make it go away.She heard Daniel on the stairs before she saw him.“Mum.”“Hey, baby.” She opened her arms and he came and leaned against her, warm and solid and smelling faintly of hospital soap. “How are you feeling? I’m sorry I couldn’t be there this morning — are you okay?”“I’m fine.” He settled against her. “Atleast I was with Uncle Twin.” He paused, then corrected himself: “I mean—”“It’s okay.” She kissed the top of his head. “You can call him whatever feels right. There are no rules.”He looked up at her with those serious eyes. “Mum?”“Mm?”“Don’t get angry.”She pulled back slightly to look at him properly. “Why would I get angry?”He took a small preparatory breath. “I want to sleep at Daddy’s tonight.”Elara looked at him.He watched her carefully,
The ward door opened and Serene walked in like she owned the room.Victor looked up from the bed where he and Daniel had been mid-competition over something on the tablet — and his expression shifted immediately from relaxed to guarded.“What are you doing here?”Serene smiled the smile she used when she wanted to appear unbothered. “I went to your house. You weren’t there.” She glanced around the room with theatrical curiosity. “Your neighbour’s maid mentioned you were here — with Elara’s son.” She turned toward Daniel with a softness that didn’t reach her eyes. “Hello there. What’s your name?”Daniel looked at her the way children look at strangers who smile too deliberately. “Daniel,” he said carefully.“Daniel.” She repeated it warmly. Then looked around the room again — at the tablet, at the way Victor was sitting, at the easy familiarity of the scene. “Elara’s son “ “He’s not Elara’s son,” Victor said flatly. “He’s my son.”Serene’s smile stayed in place.But something behind i
Elara slipped off the bed and crossed to the doorway where Julian stood.“You came.” She kept her voice warm, careful. “How did you know we were here?”“Maya told me.” His eyes moved past her to the bed, to Daniel, to Victor sitting on the edge of it. “I came to see how he was doing.”“He’s okay now. He’s much better.” She touched Julian’s arm lightly. “Thank you for coming.”“What is he doing here?”The question came out cold and flat. Not loud Julian was never loud but with an edge underneath it that cut.Victor looked up from the bed.“I’d be the one asking you that question,” he said evenly. “Considering this is my son.”The words landed in the room like something dropped from a height.Julian’s eyes moved to Daniel. To Victor. Back to Daniel. The pieces assembled themselves in his face whether he wanted them to or not.His son.Said plainly. In front of the boy.He looked at Daniel at the child who had just, moments ago, called Victor Dad with the easy certainty of someone say







