Maeve’s POV

I gripped on the steering wheel tightly, my heart still racing from the little incident that just occurred.

How was I supposed to tell my son that the man who spoke to us right now was his biological father?

I shut my eyes tightly, letting the tears roll down my cheeks. I stole a glance at Rory through the mirror and caught him starring at me very closely, “Mommy, are you okay?”

“Yeah…” I sniffled and instantly wiped my tears with one hand while the other handled the steering, “Yes honey, I’m very fine.”

In no time, we had already made it to the house. I made dinner and plated Rory’s meal, while he was eating, “Mommy, who was that man, also did he hurt you? did that man hurt you?” Rory asked with a mouth full of chicken peas.

I forced a smile at him and cupped his cheeks in my hands, “No honey, he didn’t hurt me. Eat up, you have school tomorrow.” I selectively responded.

~~~~

The next morning, I had no other choice than to gather the strength to prepare Rory for school and even drop him off. After all, I’ve seen days that were as bad as yesterday so definitely I could grout it.

“Do you have your bag?” I asked him while he slammed the door shut, “Yes mommy, of course I do.” He chuckled softly.

“Okay hun, have a great day okay?”

He waved at me, “Bye mommy!” I watched him run towards his friends and they started talking before a teacher came and led them inside the school.

Afterwards, I drove myself straight to the hospital. Just like every other morning, the place was busy, with staff running up and down the halls coupled with patient relatives too.

“Hi girl!” I turned around and noticed Sabrina approaching me with a broad smile on her face. “Hey…” I smiled back as she enveloped me in a tight hug. “How are you? I tried calling yesterday but there was no response, I hope you and Rory got home safely?”

“Yeah we did…. I was so tired, immediately we came home we just had dinner and went to bed, you know we returned a bit late plus there was traffic.” I lied to Sabrina as I hung my bag on the shelf in the nurses station.

I felt horrible for lying considering the fact that she was a very good friend, we’ve only know each other for about two years. She’s so kind to Rory and I and she’s the sweetest. She even helped me get a job here but I had no other choice because I definitely wasn’t going to tell her Landon and I used to have a relationship.

“Oh don’t worry you don’t need to explain,” Sabrina chuckled. “I hope you had a good time yesterday?” I asked.

“Err… yeah I did, except I didn’t get to meet Landon Sullivan.”

Hearing the sound of his name made my heart sink deep in my stomach and jump back into my chest, “W—why I thought you wanted to meet him after the speech.”

“Yeah i did, but then he was no where to be found, immediately he was done he scurried away… People thought maybe there was an emergency or something, we’re actually still waiting to find out if something happened.”

“Oh —“ she placed her arm on my shoulder, “I have to run along now, I have to get back to work. How about we grab coffee or something after work?” She beamed a smile at me.

“Oh sure, that’ll be nice but I have to pick Rory up.”

“That’s alright, he can come with us.”

A few hours had gone by and I was already exhausted. I stole a glance at my wristwatch and figured my shift ended about ten minutes ago That was usually my best part of the day.

After filling in some patient records into the computer and handing over to the next nurse in charge I grabbed my bag and drove straight to Rory’s school.

By the time I got to the spot where I usually wait for him and pick him up just right in front of his school, I noticed he wasn’t there. Although I was a bit late, the place wasn’t completely empty which meant Rory was probably still inside. I got out of the car and went to meet his teacher Ms. Ruby.

“Hi,” I smiled at her while I approached her, the wind pushing through my hair and dress.

“Ms. O’Brien what are you doing here? Did Rory forget something ?” She asked while I had confusion written all over my face because I had no idea what she was talking about.

I chuckled softly, “What do you mean? I came to pick him up, have you seen him?” The moment her smile disappeared into a narrow one I knew something was wrong, “Didn’t his father call you? He said he was going to. Anyways he picked Rory up today.”

“His father?!” I breathed in shock, hearing everything she said made me feel as though I heard a wall talk, I couldn’t believe it, “What do you mean by his father —“

“The tall man… dark hair and eyes… Ms. O’Brien, I just have to say this, you have really good taste, your husband is really good looking.”

I tried to put all the pieces of everything she said together, “Tall … dark hair handsome — Landon?!” I muttered under my breath.

“Ms. O’Brien, is everything okay?” Ruby asked.

I could believe this was happening, I was too busy thinking about how angry I was at Landon I paid no more attention to Ruby and then ran off to the car.

I couldn’t comprehend the sheer audacity it took for Landon to try to steal Rory from me. My hands trembled on the steering wheel as panic made its way up my chest. I didn’t even know where to start looking — I had no idea where he lived, at some point I began to wonder maybe Landon wasn’t the one who took Rory except Ruby’s descriptions matched Landon spot on!

The thought that my worst fear might already be happening made my stomach twist. I felt even more horrible when I thought of how Rory had always longed for a father figure in his life and I couldn’t bear the idea of Landon reaching that part of him before I did who knew what he was gonna tell him. I felt beads of sweat form like a necklace around my neck and my forehead too.

The first place I drove to was the park, it was close to Rory’s school, and he loved spending time there after school and on weekends. My eyes swept across the playground as I drove slowly past, searching for any sign of him.

Then I saw him or at least a figure similar to his standing near the ice cream truck, laughing about something. Relief flooded through me… until I noticed the two men beside him. From this distance, I couldn’t make out their faces. If my son was being kidnapped I just prayed I had run into him and his kidnappers.

Heart pounding, I slammed the car door shut and headed toward them.

But just as I reached the edge of the playground, Rory turned and the man standing beside him did too.

I caught my breath, when I found out it was Landon. As I got closer, I was ready to expel all the anger and fury boiling inside me onto him.

Landon’s pov

I spotted Maeve crossing the road from a distance dressed in a nurses’ uniform.

The wind came swooping through her red hair. I watched as she tried to get hair out of her face by tucking it behind her ears.

Judging from the look on her face she had already seen me and she didn’t seem too happy to see me. I took a step closer to her while Rory was seated on the bench.

Once he spotted her, he got off immediately and ran towards her, “Mommy! Mommy!” He squealed, his arms stretched out, expecting to receive a hug from her. He was careful enough not to mistakenly ruin his ice cream.

She raised Rory off the ground, wrapping her hands around him and enveloping him in a big hug. Afterwards, she dropped him on the ground.

I pulled my hand out of my pocket, hoping to get at least a handshake, it was the perfect opportunity to feel her palms, after five years of no contact but she blatantly ignored my hanging hand.

I assumed she was pissed, I mean I didn’t pick her son from school without her permission and then got him some ice cream. She was probably very worried.

"Honey, come on, we need to go." She said as she gently grabbed Rory’s arm.

Rory refused her grip and turned to me, "mommy hang on." He said.

It seemed like she didn’t want to waste any time having any interactions with me or even talking to me. She seemed really nervous and couldn’t even look at me let alone maintain eye contact.

"Mommy, do you remember this uncle from yesterday?" Rory said, stealing glances at me and then Maeve. He grabbed my hand and pulled me closer to Maeve while smiling at me.

"Yes, I remember him but I think we should be on our way now—“ She said with her gaze still on Rory. She grabbed his arm and tried to pull him away but Rory wasn’t interested in leaving yet.

I wouldn’t blame the kid, he wasn’t getting the message. This was probably a very awkward interaction for her but Rory just kept speaking and interrupting her.

"—Mommy, my friends at school wouldn’t stop teasing me but uncle made them stop.” As he spoke, a wide grin appeared on his face and he stop it at me.

"Honey, that's really nice of him, isn’t it?” I could see how forced that smile she shot at him was. “Right now we need to get going before it starts raining, okay?"

Once again he tried to pull Rory to come with her but unfortunately for her, Rory was hellbent I’m telling her how I saved him from the claws of the taunting bullies at his school whom he called friends.

"Mommy, they kept saying I don’t have a daddy.” The smile on his face disappeared while he slid his tongue against the ice cream on a cone.

I turned to Maeve and noticed how her facial expression changed too, she didn’t looked pleased to hear that.

“When uncle Landon showed up, they all backed away.” Once again his grim reappeared when he continued speaking.

He raised his ice cream closer to Maeve’s face, “See mommy, he even got me my favorite ice cream mommy, do you want a taste?"

"N- no, no, honey, I hope you said thank you to him?" She asked him and he turned to me beaming a broad smile at me, "Yes mommy I did."

"Come on, we should get going so you can get washed up and do your home work, okay? She spoke nicely to him still ignoring my presence. I silently began to wonder how she felt each time Rory raised the topic about having a dad. This meant she never told him anything about me. The thought of this only raised my curiosity higher. I'm even more curious to find out if he's mine or maybe if something happened to his biological father.

"Okay mommy, but can uncle Landon come with us?" Rory asked, from the way he looked at her, he was hoping to get a positive response from her.

Maeve let out a deep exhale. We both already knew what the answer to that question was, "Honey, I think--" before she could finish her statement, Rory tugged her trousers "Mommy please!" Rory pleaded.

She exhaled sharply and glared at me, “Rory I can’t come with you …” I said to him, he turned to me, “How come?! I can show you my toy train collection.”

I smiled at Rory and squatted to his level after brushing my hands through his hair and sneakily pulling a strand off it. I mean there was only one way to find out the truth about whether he’s my biological son on not.

"Your mom is right, you do need to go freshen up." Charlie kicked the air and folded his arms at his chest in disappointment, "I guess you’ve missed the chance of seeing all my toys." He grumbled.

“There’s always next time okay?”

He nodded in response. Maeve held his hand as they crossed the road and headed back to his car. Rory smiled at me, the sides of his eyes crinkling as he waved goodbye to me.

With one hand buried in my pocket, I waved back at him and patiently watched her drive away. After I made sure they were long gone, I pulled my other hand out of my pocket.

Carefully held in my grip, was a strand of Charlie's jet black hair. I carefully held it up to look at it. I turned around to face Ezra, one of my assistants. He held a transparent disposable bag open in his hands while I gently placed the strand of hair inside it and he sealed it shut.

"I'm sure you know what to do with this." I questioned staring firmly at them. This was my one shot of finding out of that little child is mine.

"The lab, for a DNA test." He responded.

"Exactly. Get the results to me untouched. Also, get me basic information about that woman; where she lives and where she works together with the DNA results, later today."

“Yes sir.”

Once again, Maeve had no idea that no matter how much she tried to ignore or walk away from me, I have my ways to get whatever information I want.