17
Aurielo
The kid looks exactly like I did when I was five. Well, maybe not exactly. But the resemblance is uncanny. Light brown hair, long thick eye lashes, a small button nose, and thin delicate lips.
It’s a coincidence. Right?
He’s not my son.
Karina would have told me that I have a kid. She’d have come back to the mansion of the party that she’d crashed and would have tried to track me down.
Unless she wanted nothing to do with me.
It wasn’t like we were anything more than a one-night stand.
I’m standing in the kitchen, barefoot. I threw on a pair of blue jeans and a black t-shirt. I’ll shower and get dressed after breakfast.
Alessandro is out for the morning, which gives me an extra hour to make sure things are going smoothly with Karina and the boy, Ashton.
The soft patter of footsteps tromps through the open kitchen door.
The sunlight casts across him as he stands beside Karina. “Come, have a seat,” she instructs, bringing him to the counter where there’s a stool to sit.
“Ashton, I’d like you to meet Aurielo,” Karina introduces us.
I wipe the flour from my hands on my pants. Not my best move. My blue jeans have a nice coating of white on them with handprints.
He scrunches his nose and smiles at my gesture. He’s all grins and sunshine. This place will darken him.
I’ll darken him.
Not that I want to, but everything I touch turns to darkness.
Happiness is fleeting.
I hold out my hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Ashton.”
Ashton stares at my hand. I don’t know if he has an aversion to shaking hands or just doesn’t know what to do.
I close my fist and offer a fist bump.
His eyes narrow, and he lifts his hand into a fist and bumps my knuckles with his.
Progress.
Baby steps. I’ll take it.
Ashton is likely as stubborn as his mother.
Why do I bother trying? Because I take marriage seriously. Maybe this isn’t how I imagined I’d meet my wife, marry, and start a family.
But I won’t accept her in the arms of any other man.
She’s mine.
Until death do us part.
That’s the vows that we took, making her my wife. And I intend to honor those vows, commitment, and all.