Chapter 5: Five Years Later

Kiera's POV 

"Jayden, shoes."

"I can't find the left one..."

"It's where you left it last night which is where I told you not to leave it." I sighed.

"I don't remember where that is." He appeared in the hallway doorway, one shoe one, one shoe off, his hair not done, looking at me with those ice-blue eyes completely unbothered by the fact that we were already eleven minutes late.

I pointed at the couch, he looked at the couch. The shoe was on the floor directly in front of the couch.

He put it on without a word.

I was already moving, bag over my shoulder, checking my phone, three emails since seven AM, the Sanderson Corp walkthrough was at ten and the florist for the Olivers wedding had texted at six in the morning. I had four missed calls from my venue coordinator and a reminder that the linen order needed final confirmation by noon.

Jayden grabbed his backpack. "Mama, can we..."

"Jayden, we're late."

"I know, I know." He followed me to the door. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine, just..."

"I'm sorry for stressing you out." He stopped at the doorway. I turned to look at him, he was staring at his shoes. "Every morning. I know I make us late a lot."

The rushing stopped. I crouched down in front of him.

"Hey." I held his face in both hands. "You don't stress me out. Life stresses me out. You're the best part of the morning. Okay?"

He thought for awhile. "Okay."

"Okay." I kissed his forehead and stood up. "Now let's go."

"You know," he said, following me out and down the hallway. "If I had a dad, you probably wouldn't be this stressed."

I kept walking. "Is that right?"

"Yeah, because..." he hoped over the step at the bottom of the stairs, landed with a thud. "...he could stay home with me, while you went to work. So you wouldn't have to bring me with you every day." He paused. "Not that I don't like coming."

"I know you do." I said.

"But still." He fell into step beside me on the pavement, reaching up to take my hand. "It would help. Right?"

"It would help," I said quietly.

"Mama." His hand tightened in mine slightly. "Why don't I have a dad?'"

"It's complicated, baby." I felt my chest tightened.

"But why is it complicated?" He asked.

"Because some things just are." I said.

He frowned. "Where is he?"

"I'm not sure." I said.

"You don't know where he lives?" His voice pitched up slightly, genuinely surprised. "Who is he? What's his name?"

The question landed. I looked at my son's face. His ice blue eyes, that I'd spent five years looking at and still not knowing. The stranger from the bar had those eyes and my father also had the same eyes. The universe, really didn't want me to know the answer to that question.

"I don't know, baby." I said finally.

"What does he do for work? Is he nice?" He tugged my hand. "Does he even know about me? Why isn't he with us, did something happen to him, is he..."

"Jayden." I crouched down again, right there on the pavement and held both his hands. "I need you to listen to me."

He went still, watching me.

"Some questions," I said carefully. "don't have answers yet and that's not because I'm hiding something from you or because something bad happened. It's just... complicated in a way I promise I will explain properly when you're older."

"But I want to know now." He groaned.

"I know you do." My voice was soft. "But right now the only thing I can tell you is that you are so loved by me, by bailey, by very single person in that office who lets you rearrange their furniture, and that is enough for now. Yeah?"

He pressed his lips together, thinking.

"Fine," he said finally. "But I'm asking again when I'm older."

"I know you will." I stood up.

"Probably when I'm six." He said.

"Probably," I agreed and took his hand again.

We walked in silence. The office was already running by the time we arrived.

K & Co lived on the second and third floors of a converted building on Bermondsey Street, with clean lines, good lighting, a space that looked effortless and had cost me six years to build.

We ran corporate events and private functions, mostly. High-end weddings when the right client came along. I'd started with weddings, women are good to weddings, and shifted to corporate two years in because corporate paid better and had never once cried to me about centrepiece colours.

Jayden went straight to his corner, with his back, drawing supplies, books, with the ease of a child who'd grown up in this building and half the staff adored him. Michael, my lead coordinator, had once asked Jayden's opinion on a setting arrangement and then actually used it and it actually worked.

Bailey appeared at the door with two coffees and the expression that meant she had something to say and was deciding how hard to deliver them.

"Good morning," she said, handing me mine.

"What happened?" I took the cup.

"Nothing happened." She said. "The Ashford account moved their date three weeks earlier."

I stared at her.

"I've already called the venue," she said quickly. "I handled it. I'm telling you so you don't find out from someone else."

I exhaled. "What would I do without you?"

"Go down, honestly." She sat across from my desk and crossed her legs. "How's my favorite tiny human?"

"He asked about his father this morning." I said.

"What did you say?" She asked.

"That it's complicated." I pulled up my emails. "He accepted that. For now."

"He's five, Kiera." She said. "He's going to keep asking."

"I know." I said.

"Eventually complicated isn't going to be enough." Her voice was low.

"I know." I said again.

"Kiera." She set coffee down. "You know does eyes of his. I look at him and think..."

"I know what you're thinking." I cut her off. "I've been thinking it for five years." I looked down at my desk. "The stranger had the same eyes and his grandfather had the same eyes too. The universe decided that was funny apparently."

"You could find out, properly." She said quietly. "If you wanted to."

"And then what?" I asked. "What happens after?"

She didn't have an answer for that, neither did I.

"The Ashford floor plan." I said. "Let me see what we're working with."

She pulled it out and we worked.

The day moved the wsy it always did, emails, client call, lunch eaten standing up, Jayden appearing at my elbow at some point to show me a drawing of what he said was a dragon bit looked more like a shoe. The afternoon light came through the windows and hit the sample boards and made everything look better than it was.

I was finishing up at my desk when my phone rang.

It was an international number with a country I hadn't recognized but hadn't thought about in six years.

New York City. I stared at it for two rings then I picked it up.

"Am I speaking with Kiera Griffin?" A man's voice came through.

"Yes, you are." I said.

"Ms. Griffin, my name is Spencer Thompson, I'm a senior partner at Bryce and Calloway Attorneys at Law." He paused. "I'm calling regarding Henry Carrington."

The name landed like a stone in my chest. My father.

"I'm sorry to inform you that Henry Carrington passed away three days ago." His voice was careful. "Per the terms of his will, you are named as his sole heir."

The studio hummed around me, everything completely normal except from what I was hearing.

"We'll need you you to come to New York," he said. "As soon as possible to begin proceedings."