“Very well. You?”
“Good, good. Where's Eddy?”
The little boy was tugging on Prue’s arm for them to leave. “The two of us snuck out of the house. She's taking a nap at the moment. Riley wanted some black licorice and I had promised him previously that we would get some.”
Black licorice? Interesting. I was the only person that I knew who actually enjoyed it. I had liked it since I was a kid.
“Is that right? Well, I happen to love black licorice,” I said looking down at the boy. He looked up at me grinning. He had blue eyes and red hair. The red hair was his mother's, definitely. I had seen some pictures of his father and, let's just say the boy was lucky he took after Eddy. Four years old, what was I like at that age?
A car coming down the road couldn't have hit me as hard as the realization that came looking at the boy. He was four years old. Eddy and I had had our first meeting five years ago. A sweat broke over my skin. No, it couldn't be.
“Mr. Niall? Are you all right?”
I cleared my throat. “Yes, yes fine. Come. I'll buy that licorice for you.” I followed them into the store, staring at the back of Riley's head, looking at the boy who could have been my son.
30
Edwina
I jumped myself awake. What time was it? I looked out the window. I had just intended to rest my eyes for a bit, but it looked like I had nodded off. I checked my phone for the time. It had almost been an hour. Well, we weren’t doing that again. I had had a rough time getting to sleep the night before but nothing to justify sleeping the day away. I had things to do.
I went downstairs looking for Prue and my son. Walking into the kitchen I found a note that they had gone into the village to get Riley some sweets. I pursed my lips. As long as he wasn’t spoiled for dinner in a couple of hours then I was okay with it. I went to the sitting room. It was bare save for a maroon Persian carpet. It was one of the furnishing pieces that I actually liked. The decorating in the house had been done before I moved in and was very old fashioned, but I was fond of the carpet. I had planned on keeping it for when things got better which was why I still had it.
Things, however, had not gotten better. The money from Niall was only going to get us so far and by that time, who knew what else would be happening. I wanted to say that I’d have a job by then. That I’d still have the estate as a home and still be in possession of most of my things but that might not be the case either. The carpet was going to be worth more to me elsewhere, having been exchanged for money than it would where it was. I started on one side and began rolling. When I could afford the expense, I would get another one. I felt l
ike Ben at the tavern might have some use for it. If he didn’t then he would at least know someone who would buy it off of me. Thinking about Ben at the tavern, I thought of Niall. He was likely on his way back to London now, if not there already.
Last night was awful. I wished that it never happened. It was the right thing in the long run but right now it just hurt so much. I tried not to think about it. I got the carpet rolled up and pulled it out of the sitting room. Standing in the entryway, I heard the sound of a car come up to the house. I looked over my shoulder at the door. Just then, someone pounded the other side, knocking. I paused. Who was that? I went and pulled it open, freezing to the spot.
Niall.
“Niall what are you…”
He didn’t let me finish, barging inside. “Niall, what on earth is going on?”
He stared me in the face. “Is Riley my son?”
I felt my knees go weak. “What?”
“You heard me. Stop playing games. It’s a yes or no question. Is Riley my son?”
I was just hanging on. With just that question, Niall pushed me off the ledge and I was in freefall. I didn’t know what to say. The answer was yes, of course, but my mind was still looking of ways to conceal the truth. I cleared my throat, the sound coming out like a strangled laugh.
“Why would you think such a thing?”
“I just saw them, Riley and Prue.”
“And that’s proof of what exactly?”
“Prue said she was buying him black licorice,” he said. “I loved black licorice at his age.”
“Is that supposed to be proof? So what?”
“It isn’t proof. It just made me think about how strangely, he looks just like I did when I was a child,” he said. His hand went into his pocket and then he was brandishing his phone at me. I took it and looked at the image displayed. I would have said it was a picture of my son if I didn’t know better. It was a picture of him at Riley’s age. My stomach dropped. I could say it was another coincidence but part of me didn’t want to. The lies were so tiring. I had been running from Naill all this time and he had never asked about the boy. I owed him this truth at the very least, if I wasn’t going to give him anything else.
“Fine,” I said. I handed the phone back to him. “He’s yours. I might have thought during the pregnancy that he wasn’t, but he is. Russell never knew.”
“How long have you known.”