Love At Last

I’M SORRY

*CAYDEN’S POV*

Eliana and I had been in and out of the hospital a couple of times as her EDD – Estimated Due Date – was very close. She had a couple of false labor, which made us run in and out of the hospital on several occasions. Owing to the doctor’s note, we weren’t allowed to ignore her labor pains anytime she experienced them. I assumed the responsibility of taking her to the hospital and made sure she was well taken care of.

“Aaahhhhh!,” I heard Eliana screaming in her room from the living room where I sat down to relax. ‘another false alarm?’ I thought.

Without dragging my feet, I dashed off to her bedroom to see what happened and found her on the floor close to her bed groaning in serious pain in a pool of water; apparently her water broke. I then helped her up after what seemed like forever as she was in serious pain to even move.

I held her by the waist to provide support and led her to the living room, from where we can exit the building and head to the hospital.

Still holding on to her waist while she held tightly on to me to ease her pain, I opened the door that led outside the house and helped her out. On getting out of the house, I saw someone I hadn’t seen in what felt like forever – Lily.Belonging © NôvelDram/a.Org.

She stood a few inches away from us, close to where I parked my car. When our eyes met, she turned around and started walking away. Of course I just couldn’t let her leave after months of being apart, so I helped Eliana up to the car and placed her comfortably in it.

“I’ll be right back, okay? Just a minute,” I said and dashed out to catch up to Lily.

*LILY’S POV*

On getting to the address the lady gave me, I saw something that immediately switched my emotions from ‘excited and hopeful’ to distraught; it was Cayden who had his arms wrapped around Eliana’s waist as he provided her support. The scene instantly reminded me of all the incidents that kept us apart and subconsciously, my feet turned around and started walking away.

“Lily hol’up,” Cayden ran up to me and held me back from behind. Without uttering a word , he kissed me gently and affectionately, after which he pulled me into his bosom; I missed that feeling so much.

“I’ve missed you, Lily. I’ve missed you so much,” he cuddled me tightly but stopped when he heard me sobbing. “Are you okay?” he held me out to stare at my face.

“I’m sorry Cayden,” I cried out. “I am really sorry for the way I treated you.”

“You don’t have to cry, Lily,” he wiped my tears.

“I came over to New York to say sorry to you Cayden. I’m sorry!” I kept wailing.

“It’s okay Lily. You know I hate to see you cry.” He pulled me into his bosom again. “It’s okay Lily. You really are hurting me right now with those tears,” he patted the back of my head with care.

I pulled myself back a bit. “I now know you were telling the truth. I also forgive you for what you did to me years ago, so don’t let it burden you, ok?” I placed my petite palm on his face. “I love you,” I caressed his face.

“I love you more, Lily,” he held my hand firmly to his face.

“I’ll leave you now,” I withdrew my hand from his face slowly.

“Lily you can’t just leave like that. It’s been months , Lily.”

“Have a nice and guilt-free life, Cayden,” I said and started walking out hurriedly.

“Lily? Lily?” he called out to me several times but I didn’t turn around once to look back. I just kept wiping my eyes continuously as they kept on producing tears.

I went straight to the airport to book a flight ticket back to Nedford as I didn’t see any other reason to remain in New York.

The very next day, I got on my flight heading back to Nedford.

“Lily it’s been days already,” nana spoke with concern as she saw me laying on my bed. “You’ve been holed up in your room for three days now, Lily.”

Yes, three days. It’s been three days since I arrived from New York and fell into depression. Nana would come into my room occasionally to check on me, feed me and do little chores for me as I wasn’t in the mood to get off bed, talk more of do anything around the house and that included feeding myself breakfast, lunch and dinner respectively. Nana assumed full responsibility in taking care of me through these turbulent times and I couldn’t be more grateful for having such an angel as a grandmother and supporter.

“Lily?” she called out gently as she sat on my bed and caressed my arm. “Don’t you think it’s time to get up and shrug off whatever has left you in this state?”

“Nana,” I called out in a pretty low tone; I was too tired to even speak!

“Yes love. What do you want? Just name it and it’s done.”

“Can we all leave Nedford? I’m tired of this place , nana. I want us to leave,” I sat up. I spoke with difficulty as the fatigue that overwhelmed me was on a whole new level.

“You want to leave Nedford?”

“Yes nana. I can’t breathe properly in this place, nana. I’m tired.”

“It’s okay honey,” she hugged me and rubbed my back. “It’s okay. Get better first and then we can all leave, okay?”

I held her back and nodded, resting my head on her shoulder.

A few days later, I was back on my feet thanks to my sweet loving grandmother. Following my recovery, I started making plans to move my family to a new environment entirely – another state. I chose California as a new state of residence.

In no time, we all moved out of Nedford to grace California with our presence!

*TWO YEARS LATER*

“Ok sir, the pleasure is all mine, sir. Thank you so much,” I hung up.

“Who was that?” nana asked.

“One of the judges for the competition I’d be hosting in New York, nana. I called to tell him of when I’d come back officially to host the competition.”

“Interesting. So when is that?”

“In two weeks, nana.”

“You have another article on you, Lily.” She gave me her phone to see for myself. “‘The best female baker’ in the whole of California, that’s what everyone knows you as, Lily.” I chuckled.

“That reminds me nana, I’d be appearing live on a cooking show tomorrow evening. You’d be able to handle Jacek, right?”

“You never have to make special requests for that, Lily.”

“Thank you so much Nana,” I pecked her.

Yes , I’d become a hotshot baker with a lot of attention in California. I started my business after settling down in my new city and started taking advantage of digitalization to make my business boom. I started with making videos of myself cooking, making tutorial clips and all that. I never thought taking my business online would work out the way it did.

Getting the whole world to know me was done in no time. I applied for a huge cooking contest and won the prize money which was no joke. Owing to the fame that very competition got me, I got orders from hotshot bakers all around the world, contracts to bake and deliver wedding cakes of public figures in the society, handled birthday parties’ cakes for celebrities’ children and in no time, I was already a celebrity myself –’The Best female baker’ in the whole of California.

Dealing with fame was no child’s play; there was no place to hide as I was in the spotlight. Not only was I in the spotlight, so were my granny and my son for being my direct family; I remained unmarried, unable to get Cayden off my mind. After years of hard work, I reaped its fruit and made a name for myself!

I had a passion for seeing young talents bloom and so decided to host the biggest baking competition in the whole of US in New York. The competition was in three weeks, I planned to travel in two weeks to oversee how far my workers over there had gone with their work.

It’s already been three weeks. I and Jacek were in the venue for the competition. I watched the organizers give subtle orders here and there to get the venue ready for the competition that was in fifteen minutes time. The guests and spectators were already present and chattering could be heard from every corner of the large hall.

“Lily?” a familiar voice called from behind me.

I turned around to see who had called me. Giving off a broad smile, I called out “Cayden?”