Benjamin Johnson wished his stepdaughter goodbye and then went his way. He would have liked to accompany to see her safely home, but he had more than several times gotten the hint that she did not want him to know her residence. He had no choice but to respect her decision and let her do what she thought best for herself. At least, she was no longer the little Mara under his care. She was now an adult woman with a child and a job of her own. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t curious about her life. He would very much love to know if she was married yet and if her husband was a good man who took good care of her. But after what had happened between them, he felt he didn’t have the right to ask such questions. If only he knew that was how she also felt!When Mara got a cab, her stepfather went in search of a cab of his own. He had only stayed with her to see her get in a cab and wish her and Leo goodbye. Now that she was in the backseat of the cab all alone with her son who was as quiet as
“What on earth is going on here?”, Mara asked, her face reddening in anger.“W… what? I don’t understand,” Leo stuttered in evident confusion. Even the lawyer too seemed lost.“Who is she?”, Mara asked angrily, referring to the lawyer. It seemed that Leo was playing a prank on her. It was not enough that she had seen him hugging the woman, he was now bringing her home to rub it in her face!“She’s the divorce lawyer who helped me finalize the divorce. What’s wrong?”, Leo asked in surprise.“Divorce lawyer? Really?”, Mara questioned, her eyes filled with suspicion. If she was just a divorce lawyer, why had they been hugging so tightly??“Of course, yes. She’s a divorce lawyer. She doesn’t look it, right?”, Leo laughed. “I always tell her she looks more like a psychologist and she acts like it too. She always talks to me, advices me, consoles me… today, when everything was concluded and I… I… I’m ashamed to say it, but I broke down and cried. I can’t say I cried for joy, because I don’t
When they got back into the house, the lawyer had thought that Mara would take Leo aside and confront him concerning the issue of him letting his wife have everything that belonged to him. But to her surprise, Mara did nothing of the sort. Instead she acted like nothing was bothering her. So, the lawyer breathed a deep sigh of relief. She had been worried that she would be the cause of an argument, if not a quarrel, between the two.After having lunch with them and engaging in some entertaining discussions, it was finally time for the woman to take her leave, and Mara saw her to the door.“Thank you for telling me what you told me. Leo would never have told me,” she whispered to her, and the woman nodded in understanding. She knew how Mara felt and she also understood the reason for Leo’s decision.“Just remember that he loves you very much and he will do anything for you,” she admonished and Mara thanked her before wishing her goodbye.After seeing off the lawyer, she returned to mee
Leo was sitting on the balcony in the warm afternoon of a beautiful Saturday, playing with his little namesake. Mara had temporarily expelled them from the house since their play had been too noisy and distracting for her. But they had happily come out to continue from where they stopped.Little Leo had learned to walk by now and his feet were quite strong on the ground; strong enough run after the football he and Leo were playing. To say he was enjoying the game was certainly an understatement. He was running back and forth tirelessly, with a happy grin on his face as he retrieved each and every ball that went past him. But all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a shadowy figure rushed into the scene.Leo was startled for a split second, but there was no need to be alarmed since the figure had rushed up to him and not the child. He was taken aback though when the individual went down on his knees before. It was a man, there was no doubt about that. But when Leo looked down at the upturned
When Leo walked into the sitting room, he found Mara in the exact same position they had left her: hunched over her computer, working. But he was quite sure that she was not doing her normal company work. What he could glimpse on her computer screen looked like it had more to do with research than anything else, and her work had little or nothing to do with that.She had begun this new activity only recently and had been keeping at it almost every day. Leo had not asked her what it was about and neither had she volunteered to tell him about it. He was curious, of course, but he would give her all the time in the world. Whenever she was ready to tell him about it, she would. If she never did, then so be it. She was an adult and he would respect her as such.“Why are you guys back in?”, Mara asked, without looking at her Leos.“Something happened. I received something strange from someone we both know.”The tone of his voice and the manner in which he made the statement caught Mara’s ea
It was election season and the campaigns were in full swing. Even though the man she was looking for was no longer the governor of the state, he was still very much involved in the state politics. In fact, he was more like a political godfather nowadays and the de-facto leader of his party in the state. One of the candidates running for the office of governor was his anointed godson, so Mara was quite confident that she would find him at the campaign headquarters of the party on a day when they were holding an ex-co meeting. She made the half-hour journey to the place and alighted from the cab a few dozen metres from the campaign office. She had done a lot of research about political parties, this one in particular, and how things were run at a typical campaign office. But still, she was a bit nervous. She tried not to think of any expectations because she knew that would only scare her even further. The whole mission would depend on how confident she was. Any mistake would ruin ever
When Mara arrived home, the first thing she wanted to do was to squeal in joy and run into Leo’s arms and tell him that she had finally found her father. But she managed to check herself and her emotions. She was still not completely sure yet if that man was her father. It was only after conducting the DNA test they could be sure. Therefore, she decided to keep it a secret from Leo. This was the first time she was hiding something significant from him and it was making her feel weird. She had never even tried to hide her feelings for him. She felt like an idiot now. For someone who had vowed several times in the past to trust him, she was acting like someone who did not deserve to be trusted. How dare she trust him when she herself could not be trusted? No matter how many times she told herself that she won’t be keeping this secret for long, she still could not convince herself enough that she was being idiotic. She shook her head in a desperate attempt to knock the thoughts off her m
"Hush! Stop creating a scene. Aren't you ashamed, being pregnant at your age?", Rosa scolded in a series of harsh whispers as she hurried along beside the gurney on which Mara was being rushed off to the delivery room. But instead of keeping quiet, the girl only kept screaming in pain. On a normal day, such a scolding from her stepmother was enough to silence her, but this time, she couldn't help it. She was in serious pain and her stepmother had kept her too long at home when it all started, more concerned with dumping curses on her than anything else. It was only when she found that the baby could actually be on its way that she called her husband who angrily instructed her to call an ambulance immediately. Being childless and with absolutely no experience of pregnancy or childbirth, she had gone on to make things even more inconvenient for the 19-year old Mara. But now that they were here, she was relieved that it was out of her hands. Yet, her biggest worry was not for the girl'