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“Valentina, I thought we were moving ahead. I thought we had put all of this weird energy behind us. You don’t know how happy I was to run into you after all this time. Life rarely gives people second chances like this and I believe we should make good use of this chance.”
She shook her head, “Leon, you don’t understand. I’m no longer the woman you met three years ago. I’m different.”
“How so? What has changed?” I asked.
When she didn’t respond, I walked over to the bed and sat on it, looking at her.
“Leon, there’s something I have to tell you.” She said in almost a whisper. I was nervous about what she wanted to say.
“I’m listening.”
She played with her fingers nervously. “Uhmm… Ava, you know her. My daughter.”
I nodded, “Yes, I remember her.”
“Well, remember that night we spent together in New York. It was careless, no protection,” she said.
My heart started racing. What was she going to say?
“Ava is your daughter.” She finally said and the room became quiet.. There was a dull headache beginning to throb at the back of my head.
“I uhm… I discovered I was pregnant a few weeks after Vivian and I moved to Chicago. There was no way to contact you because all I knew was your first name. I wanted to search for you online, but I didn’t know what to even type. It was a really confusing time for me, but with the support I had from Vivian and my Aunt, I did well.” She exhaled loudly as she intertwined her fingers.
I remained quiet, trying to process what I had just heard. That was impossible. How did I have a daughter? It was really difficult for me to accept this information.
“Leon, please say something.”
“What do you want me to say?” I asked in a harsh tone.
“Are you mad at me?” she asked.
“Of course I am!”
“Why?”
“What do you mean why? If that’s your question, then I don’t think you are as smart as I thought you were.” I said.
“Leon!” she screamed. “What is wrong with you?”
“Are you joking? You keep something this sensitive from me and you are asking me what is wrong with me? How dare you? What gave you the right to withhold this from me?” I was shouting at this point.
“What did you expect me to do Leon? How did you expect me to tell you? How should I have brought it up? Should I have brought it up on the first day I saw you in that hall or at my exhibition? Should I have said, ‘Hey, so I got knocked up after we had a one-night stand and now, here’s your three-year-old daughter?’ What did you want me to do?” she screamed back at me.
“What do you expect from me right now? So, just because you were a coward and didn’t know how to handle your emotions, you kept this away from me?” I said, rage filling me.
“I don’t care what you think I am. I did the best I could to protect myself and my child.”
“Protect yourself and your child? From what? Did you think of me as a monster?”
“I didn’t know you well enough. I didn’t know who you were or what you were going to do, so I protected my child.”
I chuckled angrily.
“Listen, Leon.” She said, squaring up to my face. “My daughter and I are doing just fine. We don’t need anything from you. In fact, the only reason I told you about her tonight was because I’m not a heartless person.”
“What?” I mouthed without making any sounds. I could still not wrap my head around this whole thing and she was making it worse with all the things she was saying. What did she mean by saying she was protecting her child from me? The headache had become more pronounced and I could feel it everywhere around my head.
“I don’t need your support, don’t start treating me and my child like a charity case,” she said and stormed out. This time, I didn’t stop her. The words ‘My Child’ kept ringing in my ears. I had a child all this time and didn’t know. It was difficult to believe.
