Chapter 6

"Come on Nick let's go." Nedia said as she put Nick in the back seat of her small car. She was really late. It's already 9 am and she's got a lot of work today

"Okay mommy." Nick answered.

Nedia couldn't wake up early as she had a very bad night, she spent hours tossing and turning, thinking about Noah's reaction when she told him about Jessy's phone call. It seemed as if he was surprised. "But didn't he ask her to call me?? Off course he did. That explained why he didn't call himself after our date." she spent the whole night like that talking to herself, asking questions without knowing the answers. Finally she fell asleep at around 5 am. 3 hours later she opened her eyes and looked quickly at the clock beside her bed to find that it's 8. She got up quickly, woke Nick up and after 15 minutes she was driving her car heading straight to her work.

Nedia parked her car. She carried Nick and ran to the day-care as fast as she could.

"Kate!!" she called out.

"Hey Nedia I thought you weren't going come." Kate said as she picked Sally up and walked to where Nedia was standing trying to fix her clothes.

"What's wrong?? You look strange." She said pointing at her brown skirt and black jacket. "You got dressed in the dark or what?" she asked trying not to laugh.

"What?" Nedia asked then looked down at her skirt "oh, I thought it was black!!"

"Black? It's brown Nedia"

"You know what; I don't care wearing the wrong color. I was so late I didn't notice." Nedia was talking quickly as she wanted to leave.

"Okay. Come here Nicky I have a surprise for you." She took Nick's hand and started walking to where all the kids were playing. She stopped in the middle and turned to look at Nedia "By the way, I love your hair cut!!"

"Yeah?? I forgot all about that." She breathed deeply then continued "well after what happened 3 days ago I forgot everything else. Thanks anyway. I better go now Kate. See you at lunch."

Nedia entered her office 10 minutes later. The second she sat down, her boss called her. She spent the next 2 hours in his office. The first half hour he gave her a lecture about being late and that she was too good to destroy her career by being late and stuff like that. "I 'm so not in a good mood for that." She thought while he was continuing his speech.

She spent the rest of her day working. She didn't even go to lunch with Kate; instead she stayed in her office and continued what she was doing.

Nedia was reaching for the last paper in the file she was working on when the phone rang.

"Nedia Adams."

"Hey honey, how are you?"

"Hi mom, I'm fine. Look can you call me later, I'm so sorry but I'm really busy today." She said trying to concentrate on her work while talking.

"It's okay Nedia. I just called to ask you about Noah Mathew. He is such a great guy. I'm so happy you finally went out with someone." Her mom said quickly "but that's okay we'll talk later."

"No, no wait!" Nedia screamed. "Who said I'm going out with Noah??" she asked carefully.

"He did" her mom said simply as if it's not a strange thing.

"He what?? When did that happen? Did he call you? Oh mom did you tell him anything about Nick?" Nedia was asking so many questions that her mom had to stop her.

"No. he didn't call me. He visited us yesterday and I thought you two were going out together, he at least said so. And we didn't talk about Nick a lot; he only asked me some questions about him."

Nedia's face turned white "what questions??"

"Nedia what's wrong with you? I told him what I usually tell anybody. I said he is a beautiful and wonderful three year old kid and..."

"No" Nedia whispered as she heard what her mother said "No" she said again but this time louder "why mom? Why did you do that?"

"Nedia. Is there something wrong? I mean Noah is a good guy, why are you making it such a bi... wait a second..." there was silence for a while then Lisa spoke slowly "... Oh Nedia. Is he Ni... ?"

"Yes mom." She said finally telling her something she swore never to tell anyone about.

"Honey. I'm sorry. I didn't know, you never said anything." she stopped again. "Nedia. You didn't tell Noah about Nick?" her mom asked in horror.

"No mom I didn't" she answered in a low voice knowing exactly what's coming next.

"Nedia Adams are you out of your mind?" her mom shouted. "He is Nick's father. How can you do this to him? How can you do this to Nick?"

"Mom, I don't think it's a big deal." She said "tell me mom, what happened after you talked about Nick?" she was afraid to even ask.

"Nothing, we talked about you for a while. Then he said he had to leave and that he'll come visit me soon."

"You talked about me? Mom what did you tell him? I just don't understand what he wanted from you?"

"Nedia I have to go now. Your father is searching for something and he can't find it so I have to go help. We'll talk later honey, bye"

"Wait mo..." but Lisa hung up. "Oh what now?? I can't take this anymore." She said out loud.

She looked again at the paper in front of her. "I can't do this." Nedia got up, grabbed her bag and walked to the elevator.

She got out of the elevator and walked directly to the day-care. Nedia stood there staring at Nick who was playing with Sally and three other kids. She felt as if her life was falling apart. the world she built only for her and Nick is now falling apart and it's all because of her stupid idea.

"Nedia" Kate put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yes" she said not taking her eyes off her son.

"Come on lets go somewhere quite, I'm sure something else happened." Kate said kindly. They entered Kate's office and Nedia sat on the nearest chair.

"He visited mom yesterday." Nedia said staring up at the ceiling.

"Noah visited your mom??" Kate asked "but... oh, come on. Tell me what happened Nedia."

Nedia got home an hour later. She stepped out of the car and opened the back seat's door to get Nick out but she found him sleeping peacefully in his chair.

She stood there looking at him sleeping, "Oh Nick, what do you think I should do?"

Nedia carried Nick inside the house. She put him in bed and turned to leave quietly. She was in her bedroom taking off her clothes when she heard knocking on the door. She quickly put her clothes back on and headed for the door.

"Yes. I'm coming." She said in a loud voice.

"Who could that be?" she asked as she stood in front of the door.

Nedia could see a figure standing behind the door. It was a female figure. It must be Kate. She thought.

"Kate, I didn't know you were co..." she froze when she saw who was standing there.

"Hi Nedia. I'm sorry for coming suddenly like that but... can I talk to you?"

Nedia stood there wondering if it's possible to hate someone as much as she hates this woman.

"Ah-... I know you really hate me. But please I want to tell you something. It's extremely important Nedia." Jessy said.

Nedia stepped back to let her in.

"Come in Jessy." She said wondering what brought her here.

"Thanks." Jessy answered smiling as she stepped inside the house.

Nedia noticed something; Jessy looked strange, she looked sort of sad, not the old happy blond cheerleader. Off course she's sad because of the divorce, Nedia knew she loved Noah but she never thought Jessy would look so sad because of anyone.

"Please sit down." Nedia pointed for Jessy to sit.

"Look Nedia, I know you hate." Jessy said simply "well, I deserve it believe me. Anyway there's something I need to tell you." Jessy looked down at the floor for a while. "It's about Noah. I... I tricked him into marrying me."

"What??"

"I tricked him, I lied to him! I said I was pregnant because I wanted him to marry me. I even said I would take the child away." Jessy looked up at Nedia with tears in her eyes.

Tears?? That's really strange. Nedia thought.