Distress

I almost collapsed to the floor when we heard their trucks starting up outside.

My legs shook.

Kan pulled me up and held me to himself tightly, “Oliver is OK.”

“He is not here. I don’t know where he is.”

“Your father took him. He could not call you since you were with the officers, so he called me.”

“Kan.” I said in distress, stepping out of his arms and just then a knock came on the door. 

Kan’s assistant, Ren, politely poked his head around the door, “Should I bring them in now?”

“Who?” I asked anxiously. “Is Oliver around the mansion?”

“No,” Kan said, looking at Ren. "Wait sometime, you don’t know who might still be lurking around.” 

“No. I cannot have our son exposed like that outside,” I was already headed toward the door. “If he cannot come in yet, I will go to him.”

“Ariel!” Kan said with force and gripped my hand. 

Ren bowed quickly, moving away and closing the door behind him.

“You can’t keep acting this way if you want Oliver safe. You are logical, but that goes out the window as soon as it concerns Oliver.”

I wrested my arm out of his grip. “Don’t insult me.” I looked away with a frown, my chest burning even though I knew he was saying the truth. “Do you know how scared he must be now out there all alone?”

“Sweetheart..” Kan cooed gently and reached out to rub my arms down soothingly. “Your father is with him. That’s the last person Oliver would feel alone around.”

I looked up into his eyes, even as mine began to feel misty, “I am rarely home with him, always out and about, and others have to care for him. What if he forgets me, what if one day he sees me and cries because I am now a stranger?”

Kan looked at me incredulously, and then his frown brightened into a full smile. 

“Aren’t you just cute?” He pulled me into a hug and kissed my shoulder. “None of that will happen. And you cannot protect him against the Tuckers by staying home all day.”

I said nothing, thinking of all the horrible things I could do to Ophelia for all the trouble she'd caused me in the last few days. 

I have barely gotten a break from her.

One assault barely ended before she hit me with another. 

As Kan’s hands that had been caressing my back in soothing motions began to progress downward, I moved away.

He stared into my eyes, then he smiled sadly. 

I looked away and walked towards the window. “If Akira succeeds, Ophelia is cooked.”

“But this is all Tucker.”

I whirled around to look at him. “You say that with such certainty.”

“Come on, sweetheart. You have seen how desperate he is to find his son. Who else would do this except him.”

“But he could have done this the first day I showed up,” I said, unconvinced. "And this is not his style. He would come here to shout and raise hell. He is not sneaky.”

“Why does it sound like you are complimenting him?” Kan sunk his hands in his pockets, and looked away. 

My eyes widened.

“What did you say?”

He said nothing, just kept staring at the mirror shaped like a half moon on the opposite wall.

“Did something happen that you are not telling me?” I asked, staring at Kan.

He had been exhibiting jealous traits since I woke up from my unconsciousness at the hospital. 

Or was his guilty conscience working overtime since the incident with his unknown woman?

He thought I was capable of doing the same thing?

He turned his eyes to me and, not for the first time in a few days, I saw the old Kan staring at me.

It shook me a little that he still had the ability to be this sort of man. He had not truly changed. 

“Nothing happened.” He covered the ground towards me and took me in his arm, “Don’t let us fight. All our ammunition should be saved for the real enemy.”

“I was not fighting, I was only..”

“Shhh.” He said gently, combing my hair away with his fingers, and then moved his head to kiss me. 

I stood frozen at the intensity and the randomness. 

Something seemed to have shifted after I woke up at the hospital. It seemed my near-death experience had washed away all our unspoken rules.

We were only ever affectionate in public, just for show. 

But now he was kissing me, touching me, even when what we had was not defined.

I returned his kiss weakly, not because I hated kissing this handsome man, but because my mind was in a million different places.

He finally pulled away, pecked me once on the lips, and then my forehead. 

I gave him a small, shy smile, and he took my hand in his.

“Let’s go get our son,” he said as he led me out of the nursery. 

As soon as we stepped into the living room, a woman ran in, her hair disheveled. 

She was dressed in our household staff uniform, her eyes wide, scared, and had a baby that could not be more than eight months old in her arms.

As soon as she saw us, she fell to her knees, holding her child tightly.

Kan quickly pulled me back to himself, protectively. 

“Please leave.” The housekeeper and guard appeared, attempting to pull her away.

I stared at the woman, getting over my initial shock. This had to be the woman the police had raided our home for.

How had they not seen her? Where had she been hiding?

“Help me. Please help me.” She pleaded, shrugging their hands away, and then as she touched her head to the ground over and over, her baby began to cry.

“What’s your name?” I walked towards her, stretching my hand out. 

I could feel the heat of Kan’s angry disapproval behind me, but he said nothing.

The housekeeper and security officer stepped back.

“Elora,” the woman replied, looking up to meet my eyes, and I realized she was not from here. She was a foreigner like me, and she was terrified.

I could see clearly that I was her last resort.