"Why didn't you tell me?"
Yuffie swallowed audibly as she smoothed her son's ebony hair back from his forehead. "I didn't know where you were."
"Did you try to find me?" Vincent's tone was laced with depression and anger.
"Of course I did. What kind of cold hearted bitch do you think I am?" Quickly, she checked to be certain that Val was, in fact, asleep. "We've had Reno and the Turks on retainer looking for you for two years.
"I wanted you to know that you had a son. You were just being too hard to find."
Vincent didn't reply as he looked at the boy sleeping in Yuffie's arms.
They sat in silence then, the way they had the previous half-hour before, while waiting for Val to fall asleep. It was tense and uncomfortable as it could possibly be with out Atnum choosing this moment to check up on his wife.
Nearly twenty minutes later, Vincent broke the silence. "Your husband knows Val isn't his, doesn't he?"
Yuffie nodded. "Yeah. But he was so glad that I was pregnant that I didn't matter. Atnum is sterile, so I saved him the dishonor of having no children. I was the only one who knew about that."
"I see."
"He'll want to meet you, since you're here. He's always wanted to meet the man who gave him his son."
"I don't think I can do that."
"Please, Vincent."
"I cannot. I cannot meet the man who replaced me." Vincent looked broken—like all the life had been beaten out of him by this night.
"He isn't your replacement," she said. "It was an arranged marriage."
"Do you love him?" The gunman's gaze was hard as steel.
"No. I love you."
"At least you gave me that much more than Lucrecia." With that, he rose from his chair and left the room.
Oh, Leviathan. What have I done to him?
And that's that kiddies! Look for a companion piece soon, Vincent's POV. But not too soon, as I have other projects that I need to work on first! ;-)
Eerian