CHAPTER 3: WE CAN FIX THIS

Andrew’s POV

I couldn’t have children. It was impossible. I had azoospermia, a medical condition where a man's ejaculate contains no sperm, causing male infertility. It’s why I didn’t believe Nancy when she barged into my company screaming about a son.

I found out about this two years ago. I had already come to the terms with the fact that I would never have children, at least not by the natural process. I followed Nancy to this hospital out of mere curiosity. I hadn’t seen her for four years. Four whole years and seeing her face again did something to me. I had forced myself to stop thinking about her, to forget about her.

There were times when I didn’t even think of her, but when I did, it always came with a desperate pang of pain in my chest. I stopped myself from seeking her out because she had made it very clear to me she wanted nothing to do with me anymore.

The doctor had already run a DNA test and the results were positive. It was a miracle. Maybe my infertility issue was not as bad when I was with Nancy. I was angry with her. She left me, took our son away, kept him from me. Nancy and I had only known each other for two months but those two months had been the best of my life.

I kept myself awake for countless nights beating myself up. Wondering what I did wrong. Wondering why she just up and left me. She succeeded in making me get obsessed with her in such a small amount of time and now that she’s next to me again after all these years, I have to resist a primal urge to take her in my arms and show her just how much I missed her.

“Would you have ever told me anything if this didn’t happen? If you didn’t need my blood.” I asked Nancy. She was quiet next to me, as if all she wanted was for me to get out of her sight now that she had my blood.

She let out a deep breath. “Honestly, no. I was already out of your life. There was no reason for me to get back in it and there’s no reason for you to stay in mine, okay?”

I stood up in a fit of rage. “How the hell can you even say that to me right now? I just found out I have a son! A son who almost died because of your negligence…”

I regretted the words as soon as it came out of my mouth. I had no right to say that to her but the atmosphere was charged and I couldn’t think. There was so much tension between us

Her eyes widened and she poured her anger and frustration on me.

“Negligence? For four years I have been the one taking care of him. For four years all he has needed is me! You weren’t there when I had to change his diapers. You weren’t there when he took his first step! When he said his first word…”

“Yeah? And whose fucking fault was that, Nancy!? Whose fault was it that he grew up without a father? You kept him for me and now you want me to stay away? He’s my son! And I still haven’t received an explanation from you. Why the hell did you leave Nancy? Why did you push me away? Just tell me!”  

“Why don’t you ask your mother?!” She said and I froze.

We were both standing up now, her back was pressed to the wall. Hazel eyes looking up at me with waves of blonde hair flowing down her shoulders. For a second, I got distracted. God, I missed her and I wanted to kiss her. She was beautiful as ever. Still the same feisty goddess I knew her to be.

“What do you mean by that?” I demanded.

“She hated me, Andrew.” She blurted out.

I frowned. “That’s not true.”

She scoffed. “Of course, you don’t believe me. You’re still mommy’s little boy like you’ve always been. You know this is why I didn’t say anything back then because I knew you wouldn’t believe me if I told you your mother was a raging bitch!”  

Her words were like a slap across my face. No one talked about my mother like this. No one. But I could see the sincerity in her eyes I could feel the truth behind her words even though every thing in me was fighting against it. I didn’t want to believe her. Didn’t want to believe that it’s because of my mother that I never got to know my son.

“What exactly are you saying, Nancy?” I questioned with a raise of my brows.

“She threatened me, Andrew.” Tears started falling down her face as she explained. “My brother lost his job and damn near got blacklisted. My mother also got fired. I couldn’t risk it. I couldn’t risk something worse happening to the people I care about.”

I stared at her, my mind struggling to catch up with her words.

“She… what?”

Nancy wiped her cheeks roughly with the back of her hand. “I didn’t have a choice, Andrew. She made it impossible for me to stay.”

My blood ran cold. “You’re lying,” I said automatically, but my voice lacked conviction.

She laughed bitterly. “You think I wanted to disappear from the man I loved? The man I wanted to build a life with. You think I enjoyed raising a child alone? You think I like being a single mother at twenty-seven struggling to pay rent every damn month?”

“Stop,” I said, my throat tight.

But Nancy didn’t stop. She just kept going, showing me a side of my mother I didn’t even know existed.

“You want to know what hurt the most, Andrew? Watching my son ask every night why he didn’t have a daddy. Explaining to a child why his father wasn’t there for him.” Her voice cracked.

I looked away, clenching my fists so hard my knuckles went white. The truth was stabbing through the walls I’d built for years.

Could my mother have done that?

Would she have really gone that far? I knew Nancy wasn’t of the same social standing as me but I had never cared about that and I thought it was the same for my mother. I never thought she would stoop so low.

When I looked back at Nancy, her shoulders were shaking. I felt something inside me unravel. Anger, guilt and regret all tangled into one unbearable knot.

I took a step closer. “We can still fix this.”

Her brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I mean I’m not walking away from my son again,” I said firmly.

Nancy crossed her arms defensively. “You can’t just barge in after four years and play father of the year.”

“Watch me.”

Her mouth fell open. “Andrew…”

“I missed everything,” I cut her off, voice cracking with the anger I’d buried. “His first steps, his first words… But I’ll be damned if I miss anything else. I’m his father whether you like it or not and I want to be in his life.”

She laughed bitterly. “Good luck explaining that to your mother.”

I seethed. “Leave my mother to me.”