"Nicholas Kirk." I muttered underneath my breath when our eyes met and locked. I ran over to Nicholas and slapped his across the cheek, hearing the big skin slap and leaving his cheek red. My eyes widened from what I've done. I only saw my anger toward him, but I didn't regret it… After what he has done to me.

"Ha…" He winced, looking up at me with a cheeky smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Claire." He bowed, only to make a joke out from me.

"Nicholas Kirk…. The man who stole my child away from me!" I yelled at him, not caring if people around us could hear. My little boy is hearing this too, but he should know what really happened when I was absent from his whole life.

"Hey hey hey!" He moved in close to clasp his hand over my loud, exposing mouth. I was still rambling even under his hand. "Claire, if you love your son this much then be quiet. I'll discuss this topic with you when we go back to my house." His brown eyes pleaded at mine. He had a serious, yet wanting-forgiveness face.

With much force I had, I managed to push his hand back from my mouth. "Fine…" I glared up at him, still not willing to forgive what his family and him did to me.

Then I turned to face Henry with a loving, warm smiling, switching my feelings from vexation to happiness. "Mommy's hungry. I'm going to buy myself some food." I kneeled in front of him, bundling his hands together.

"What kind of food do you want, Mommy?!" He yelped in curiosity. He was a jumping puppy that wanted my love and attention. I pulled him into a hug, arms wrapping around his big boy body.

"Whatever you suggest that I should eat." I brushed his honey brown hair away from his face that he inherited from his father.

"At home!"

"Okay, let's eat at home." I stood up straight and tall and stuck my hand out for him to take. "Let's go home?" I kept on my smile to him and he nodded.

"Yes, let's go home!" Henry enthusiastically said, grinning brightly like the sun. Henry must be loved by his father and family. I hoped he had a great and happy life when he was growing up. I wonder when did he start to take noticed that I was not there in his life?

And the both of us started to walk. "Oh!" I gasped, eyes flickering to see Nicholas' hand intertwining with my freed hand. "Nicol…." He hushed me with his finger before I could yank it away from his hold.

"Let's act like a perfect happy family for once." He whispered into my ear. "Let's make our son happy."

I wish Nicholas could've held Henry's other hand than mine. I didn't want to feel his touch again.

We were now sitting in the carriage and Nicholas sat across from me and Henry. None of us spoke. I couldn't even see myself being with Nicholas or even in the same roof as him.

Nicholas cleared his throat. "Claire, so how has life been?" He hunched over, clasping his hands together, looking at me in the eyes.

I shifted my eyes to the scenery instead. "Life…could've been better." The conversion was dry. I didn't want to even hint my life to him.

"You look bigger now. Your face gain some weight and your stomach has….a little bump…." He mumbled off, staring at me like a complete idiot.

"Pregnant is the word. I was living with my fiancé… But not anymore since things happened between us."

"What happened-"

"I don't want to talk about my matters unless I eat first." I properly demanded, holding Henry in my arms.

"I see. After dinner, we shall catch up." He nervously chuckled due to the fact that I wasn't the same girl from twelve years ago.

"We'll see, Nicholas."

On the ride back to his estate, it was the same as ever. The outside didn't change, same color with the same people greeting us. "Good to see you back home, master. I see that you also brought home a woman…." The greeter trailed off as he remembered me. "Miss Claire!" He quickly bowed to me.

"Don't." I raised a hand up, feeling resentful and angered. Memories were flooding back to the surface to where it all began.

"Let us go, Claire." Nicholas pulled me along and I entered his estate. Same old everything. The nostalgic feeling unsettled my heart. "Henry, your mommy and I need to talk, okay? And when we're done, you can play with her all you want." He ruffled our son's hair and Henry ran off somewhere.

"I said-" I was going to remind him what I told him in the carriage.

"I don't want to wait that long, Claire. I need to know what happened after the birth of our child." Nicholas gripped my wrist and pulled me into a room and locked the door.

"Nicholas!" I yelled, running up to him and he took the opportunity to grab me into his arms.

"Claire-"

"Elena. I don't go by that name no more. I like 'Elena' better than 'Claire'." My hands on his chest to push him back from how close we were touching.

"Fine, Elena. So you ran away from me for twelve years? How uncaring are you to leave us?!" I was utterly confused on his wordings.

"What?! I didn't run away! I was kicked out, not allowed to see my baby! I was only there to give birth to the heir of this household, you asshole!" I didn't know who was right or wrong because I was told a different story as well as he was, too.

"My mother told me that you ran away and that you didn't want the child no more..." He steadily told me, settling down in the chairs.

"Your mother kicked me out after delivery, Nicholas."

"We were both lied then." He sighed out. "I guess it was true that my mother never liked you. She made you do a lot of work during your pregnancy."

I stood up from my chair to stretch. "Yeah, I know. Torturous it was for me to handle it all."

"You're lucky that my mother is dead, because if she was here, she wouldn't be happy to see you in my house at all." He chuckled lightly.

"Haha… Funny, Nicholas." I sarcastically said, rolling my eyes around.

"Stop calling me by my full first name. Call me 'Nick' like those good old days, Clai- Elena…!" He quickly corrected himself, standing up to put out a hand to me. "Let's go to see if dinner is ready." My hand hesitated to grab his, so he pulled my hand for me.

We held hands as we walked down the hall to the dining room. "I won't be staying here long, Nick. I can't freelance here." I cast my head down.

"Don't you want to be with Henry? He has been looking for you for years, Elena. You can't just abandon him after he found you." He stopped walking and he looked over at me, pulling my face up with his hand. "You saw the love in his eyes, Elena. It's the eyes of wanting a mother. Every time I tried to showed Henry a woman to be his mother, he refused to spend anytime with them. He said he only wanted his real birth mother, so he went on a hunt to find you. I didn't want to help him because of what my mother said to me before I knew what she said to you."

I inhaled heavily. "Nick, I don't know. Just staying here won't be good for me. I'm having a child and will give birth soon. I'm only going to cause you problems." I ripped my hand out of his.

"Well, then...let's go to the dining room."

Henry sat next to me since he really wanted to, and again Nick sat across from us. We were served many dishes by Nick's command. I watched his every movement as he picked up his food with his fork or spoon.

Nick was another man that I fell in love with by living with him. Nick's appearance was honey brown hair, brown eyes, and tall, slim figure. Nick has a cute smile that Henry inherited. Henry has his looks and I bet Henry took my personality.

"You're such a big boy." I pinched his cheek softly. "You're all grown up and you're going to become a fine man just like your father." I teased Henry and he blushed from the compliment.

"Dad looks mad." Henry pointed at Nick, and we both started to pick on Nick for being fuming red.

I playfully smiled and leaned into my son's ear to whisper, "You look even more handsome than your father. Don't tell him that." I winked at him so he could keep the secret shut before retracting my face from Henry's.

"I see…" Nick chuckled. "Already hiding secrets from your old man." Then he stood up and called everyone in the house to come into the dining room.

"What is your father doing, Henry?" I whispered to him.

"I don't know…" He muttered, eyes locking on his father.

There was a lot of chattering coming from the servants' mouth, unknowingly we didn't know what was going to come out from Nick's mouth. "Attention, you all!" His booming voice quiet down the little chatter amongst the servants. "I have a big announcement to tell my works." Nick walked around the long table to me and Henry. "You all know that my son, Henry has been searching for his biological mother for years." The servants nodded, acknowledging when Henry did started his quest. "I am proud to say that she is back!" Nick pulled me up from my chair and raised my hand up high to show the crowd that I'm back. The crowd gasped, remembering my face. Some remembered me, some didn't. "She did not run away, and I know some of the maids knew that my mother kicked her out of the family in the room where Elena gave birth in. I ask you that you treat Elena kindly because she will soon be wed to me."

My jaw dropped from the fact that he announced that without my consent. "Nick…" I lowly said, staring up at him, arm still in the air by his holding. "I can't...and you know that already."

"Elena, you are back where you belong in the first place." He turned to cup my face. "You can finally be in Henry's life now. We can be a happy family that he yearned for."

"But my child inside of me. I don't think your family would approve of it that it's not yours." I whispered, for the workers to not hear.

"We'll discuss of it later. I'll figure things out, don't worry." He tucked the strands of hair away from my face behind my ears. Then he turned around to face the workers again. "This is the end of my announcement. You are dismissed." The workers scatter out to their orderly work.