Chapter 22

The next morning when I woke up I felt the similar warmth around me like my own personal comforter. I smiled remembering that I was wrapped in Ethan's arms. I lazily opened my eyes to see Ethan's  sleeping face. I tried to free myself from his grasp but my movements must've woken him up since he opened his eyes and smiled at me.

"Good Morning." I spoke softly.

"Hmm". He again closed his eyes and murmured sleepily. He tightened his hold on me and pulled me more closer if that was even possible since I was plastered to him like a climber.

"I hate to tell you but we have to go to office." I spoke since today he had one of his important meetings with Caleb. He told me last night, and to top it all I had to be a part of it. He was very apologetic and told me that if I didn't want to be a part of it then he wouldn't force me but I agreed to attend the meeting. I was a professional and I wouldn't let my personal problems mar my work.

"Let's skip work." He brought me out of my trance.

I sighed and almost agreed with him but decided against. "Come on, get off me, I have to go home and get ready. " I pushed his hands away.

"Fine. My driver will drop you."  He reluctantly let me free and went to the washroom to get ready. I reached the ground floor where his driver was waiting for me near his car. I self consciously fixed my hair and tried to smoothen my clothes which I changed earlier. He wished me good morning  and opened the door for me. I quickly got in and in no time I reached home.

I quickly got ready and left for the office. When I reached office I saw that Ethan was already present there in the conference hall along with Caleb and my few other office colleagues. Ethan's PA Miss Jones still gave me a bitter look. I mentally rolled my eyes at her silly actions. Poor girl, little did she know that we were in a relationship now. I couldn't care less about her now. My entire attention was on Caleb now. I tried to make it less awkward and wished every person there including him a good morning. They all wished me back.

Caleb spoke, "How are you Erica?"

I replied, "I am good. Yeah good."

He nodded and kept quiet since he understood that I didn't want to continue the conversation. Ethan must have sensed the tension in the air since he ordered the meeting to start and for the next hour the meeting continued. When meting was over and everyone left Ethan told me to wait. His PA was still there collecting notes and Ethan told her to leave too. This felt like a deja vu. After the room was completely empty Ethan held my hand and spoke, "Are you Okay?"  It was true I was  a little distracted but I couldn't help it, whenever there was something related to dad's other family my mood instantly turned foul. I remembered the years of pain that me and my mom had to suffer. Sure, we never had any financial problems but money couldn't solve all problems nor it could take away the pain.

"Yes. What happened to me? I am okay." I lied.

"You seemed upset. Is it because of Caleb?" He asked holding my face in his hands.

"I just can't forget about all those times whenever I see them. I can't digest the fact that instead of including me in his family dad kept me away from him. Like he was ashamed of me, like he was ashamed of his other family. He used to come visit us like twice or thrice in a months. I remember asking him to stay with us and he used to feed me lies about being busy and all. Mom knew about it. She knew about his other family. Still they kept hiding everything from me. You know, how it feels to be remembered that your entire existence is a mistake. That you were never meant to happen but one mistake ruined it. If I wasn't born then no one would ever find out about mom and Dad's affair. And that women, Caleb's mother, she has not left a single chance to humiliate me. " I remembered the incident during my college days, she left no chance to humiliate me. One mistake on my part and she hasn't forgotten that mistake and nor allowed me to forget it. She kept on humiliating me for it. I wish I could turn back time and erase it forever or stop myself from commiting that mistake. But it was too late now to regret it.I wasn't ready to tell Ethan about that mistake just yet. I knew for a fact that it would change his attitude towards me and I wasn't ready to face that.

I didn't know when I began sobbing but the next thing I knew Ethan was rubbing my back to soothe me and showering kisses on my face. I felt all my pain go away and felt light. I wiped my tears with the back of my hand. He kissed my forehead and hugged me tightly. When I came back to my senses I pulled away, he wasn't willing to let go of me but when I assured him that I was fine he left my hand. As I was about to turn back to go to my office the door to the conference room opened revealing a lady, who was probably in her fifties, walk in. She had dark brown hair graying at some places but perfectly combed in a bun. Her makeup was minimal and she looked good for her age. She smiled at Ethan and came to hug him. Ethan gladly hugged her back and kissed her cheek.

"Mom, what are you doing here? Not that you can't come here but all of a sudden?" Oh! So she was his mom. I realized that her smile was similar to Ethan and they both had the same  face structure.

"I missed you honey." She spoke in an all motherly tone.

"Mom, I come every Sunday to meet you." Ethan spoke like an irritated kid.

"You didn't come this time and the last time you came you just met your father and left."  She complained.

"Really, I don't remember." It was a clear lie which I'm sure his mother must've also understood. What she didn't know was Ethan used to spend every weekend at my place.

When his mother turned to me, I realized that I was unnecessarily intruding their private conversation. I immediately grabbed my belongings and apologized for my lack of manners.

"I am sorry, I think I should leave." As I began to leave Ethan stopped me.

"Wait. Mom, meet Erica Williams our CA." I extended my hand and introduced myself,"Nice to meet you Mrs. Monroe."  She accepted my hand and smiled politely. There was a tiny part of my heart that ached. Maybe because I was expecting him to introduce me as his girlfriend. But covered up my tiny heartbreak with a smile.

"Nice to meet you too."

"I think I should leave you too. Bye" I told Ethan. He nodded and I left.

Ethan

To say that I was surprised seeing mom here would be an understatement. I had being avoiding going to her, because whenever I would go there she would start discussing my marriage. I had been tired of telling her that I wasn't ready for marriage yet. But mom being mom she began telling me how she got married when she was younger than me and had me when she was of my age. So me avoiding her brought her to my office.

After Erica left I took mom to my office and sat next to her in the couch. "You know why I came here, right?"  She began.

"No, I don't. Its nice you came, I missed you so much. We can go out for lunch if you want." I began the good kid play.

"Ethan. Don't try that on me. I am your mother." She always did that.

"What am I trying?" I asked as if clueless.

"You are avoiding it deliberately, I know that. How much are you going to trouble your poor mother?" Mom always did that whenever I refused to obey her. She knew that I couldn't refuse her in this way. She used to tell me that how my siblings never listened to her and me being the eldest one I used to always listen to her. She knew how exactly to get me do something.

"Okay fine, but I already told you that I want time. I can't marry someone I don't know. "

"You know her, your father and me, we want you to marry your uncle Richard's daughter. You two have grown up together, she will be the perfect wife for you." That felt like a punch to my guts. Oh mother! If only I could tell you that I love her stepsister and want to spend my entire life with only her.

"Never. I won't marry her. She may be the perfect wife but not for me. You know I don't like her. "

"Is it because you like someone else? Tell me is there someone else? If it is then that's fine with me, I'll tell your father, I'm sure he won't mind. As long as you are happy we do not have any problem."

"No. There is no one. " I hate to lie to my mother but I couldn't tell her about Erica because first I would have to ask her if she was okay with being public with me. If mom would come to know about her then she would definitely ask about her parents and family and I couldn't tell her that, not because I was ashamed of her but because Mom knew uncle Richard and his family well. We have been family friends since a long time. If Erica was okay with the idea of telling everything to my family then I would have no problem. Speaking of which I remembered that I had to ask mom if she knew about Uncle Richard's affair.

"Mom I wanted to ask you something about the Taylor's." I asked her.

"Hmm?"

"Did you know that uncle Richard has another family." I went straight to the point. Mom's expression suddenly changed. That meant she definitely knew something.

"Who told you?" She asked. I couldn't say about Erica so I told her a second lie.

"Caleb. Caleb told me."

"Oh." Was all she said.

"Tell me did you know about them?" I asked again.

"Yes, Its a long story son, why do you ask about them?"

I couldn't tell mom, not when I didn't have any clue whether Erica will like that or not. "I am just surprised. I never knew about it. Its surprising that you'll have been able to hide it from me for so long." I wanted to know everything about her past but not from anyone else. I wanted her to trust me enough to share her sorrows, her pain with me.

"We didn't want you to worry about it. I now how much you care about them." She spoke apologetically.

I gave her a tight lipped smile. I decided to keep things as they were. I decided to change the topic of conversation since mom's face instantly saddened probably from remembering those times.

"How about we go for lunch? "

"Sure." I took her hand her and led her out of the office towards the nearby restaurant. After lunch, mom left and I returned back to my office. Before heading to my office I went to Erica to see if she was alright. I knocked on her office door and went in. She was sitting on her usual chair and when she saw me her face instantly lit up.

"Hey. " She got up and came in my arms.

I hugged her tightly and when she pulled apart I could see the smile on her face which told me that she was fine and that was enough for me.

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Tell me what do you think about think about Erica's past. What do you think was the incident? What mistake could it be, that she refused to tell Ethan? Comment your opinions.

Do let me know how are you liking it so far. I want to know whether you guys like the plot so far.

With this said I have reached the 2000 words mark for this chapter and perhaps the longest chapter so far for this story. Tell me if I should reduce the length of the chapter or keep the same.

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