(Full chap)
[Edward POV]
I walked to a coffee shop with Heidi. She was sleeping in my arms, resting her fat cheek on my shoulder, adding pattern to my shirt with her drool.
I wore a tank top and sunglasses to cover up my identity.
"Oh, that's so cute. Is she your daughter?" A random lady asked me while I ordered my food from the counter.
"She's my sister." I replied with a British accent.
"The two of you are very good looking." The old lady complimented us.
I chuckled, grabbed my food and turned, scanning the restaurant. Then, I saw my target and walked straight to the table.
"Excuse me Miss, is this seat taken?" I asked the tanned girl wearing sunglasses to hide her identity.
"Eddy?" Haley was surprised when she saw me. "W-W-What are you doing here?"
"I had to resort to underhanded methods now that you're actively avoiding me." I replied casually, and gave Heidi to her. "Can you hold her for a second? I need to go to the toilet."
I left the table on purpose as I knew what would happen when Heidi's sleep was interrupted.
"Huh?" She was confused, but she still did it. Heidi immediately woke up as she wasn't being held by me anymore. She pursed her lips, and her eyes became teary.
"No– No, don't cry." Haley said nervously.
Heidi bawled instantly and loudly, attracting attention from everyone at the cafe.
Tears were streaming from her cheek.
"Heidi. I'm Haley. You met me a lot of times!" Haley tried to calm her down, but was unsuccessful.
The people in the restaurant were giving Haley dirty looks, which added to her anxiety.
I came back in five minutes and took Heidi from Haley. The little girl calmed down instantly, grabbing my shirt as she laid on my chest, shooting dirty looks at Haley at the same time.
"You… You did that on purpose!" Haley said with frustration and annoyance. Her hair was disheveled as Heidi accidentally pulled on it with her bracelet. I came back at this time to help instead of letting the situation grow worse.
I shrugged, "You cancelled our dinner." My right hand was patting Heidi's head, and she sniffled slightly. Then, she got mad and hit me in the chest with her baby arm.
Haley grimaced and said, "So you came here to punish me?"
"Yes." I replied confidently, which made her confused. "That's only the beginning, and I'll do much worse than that if you keep running."
"This– You're unbelievable." She threw her hands up, grabbed her purse and stood up.
I said loudly, fabricating an intricate backstory to shame her, "So, you didn't even want to meet your own child? After running away from your family to be with another guy?"
Everyone in the cafe was turning their heads to enjoy the drama.
Haley blushed from embarrassment. Heidi was really clever. She reached out to Haley and called. "Mamma."
People in the cafe gasped.
Haley said instantly, "No girl. I'm not your mama." She touched Haley's face slightly, and said with a hidden hostility behind her giggle, "I'm Haley. Your neighbor. I'm not even married yet."
But the more she tried to resist, the dirtier the looks she was getting. I smiled and told her, "Why don't you have a seat, 'Mama?'"
"You're a dirty son of a… gun." Haley censored herself as Heidi was around. "What do you think you're doing?"
"Using public pressure and your own anxiety to force you to have a conversation with me." I replied as I sipped my coffee. "Cronuts?" I offered her some of my pastry easily.
Haley sighed and sat there with embarrassment. "You… You locked me here without cuff. I should've known how manipulative you are." She said with gritted teeth.
It was quite disheartening to sense the hostility coming from her, especially since she was once the most important person in my life.
"Can I ask you a question?"
She replied sarcastically, "Sure you can. You already got what you wanted, so why not take more from me?"
"I don't really understand why you're hating on me. I mean, sure, I want to date Alex. But we were over. It's been 4 years since I last hung out with you."
Haley's eyes widened, and she became incredibly angry.
"Four years? FOUR YEARS!?" She shouted, not caring about the public eye anymore. "You really don't get what you've done to me, do you?"
"Huh?" I looked at her with confusion. "What are you talking about?"
Her face became red with anger. She took her purse and walked away. Suddenly, she shouted, "I wouldn't have left the family if you weren't sleeping with my mother!"
The cafe people gasped again. Haley had diverted the attention to me by fabricating another lie, and left in a hurry. It was quite clever to be honest.
I laughed in amazement and turned to everyone else. Then, I took off my sunglasses.
They immediately recognized me. "Sorry for disturbing your breakfast time, everyone. My friend and I were betting on how nosy strangers are when you serve them with nice, juicy gossip. It's clear that, she won the game."
Everyone laughed in embarrassment. I left quickly before I was swarmed with the fans.
I went back to Alex after the cafe meeting.
"She stood up and left again?" Alex was confused. "Even though you trapped her?"
"Yeah. Whatever I've done to her, it's not an old wound. It's a new one." I replied with a sigh.
"And you have no idea what you have done?" Alex asked.
"No. I really don't." I replied. Heidi went to Alex on her own and hugged her. Then, she covered her face in between Alex's cleavage.
"Oi, that's my girlfriend's boobs." I pulled her away. She protested and said, "Eddie's a meanie!"
Alex laughed and took Heidi back. She cradled her in her arms and said, "Don't bother Heidi, you meanie."
I rolled my eyes in disbelief. Heidi stuck her tongue at me mischievously, and I pinched her cheek to punish her.
She immediately bawled again, fakely this time. I ignored her, and as she noticed it, she stopped and sulked by puffing her cheeks.
"No mobie for you!" She shouted, pointing at me.
"Movie?" Alex was confused.
I replied to her, "I made her believe that not allowing me to watch movies with her is a punishment."
Alex giggled slightly. She asked, "How are you going to handle my sister, and my dad?"
"Slowly." I replied. "I can holster my urges in for about a month. If it isn't settled at that time, I'm going to just elope with you."
"Elope?" Alex raised an eyebrow. "No, I want a wedding. For the gifts, I'm going to register at a cadaver lab. Or a biochem lab."
I smirked, hugging her waist and pulled her in close to me. As we locked eyes, I said, "You don't have to wait for us to get married to get what you want. Just ask me, and I'll give you the entire world."
"Scarily enough, it's possible for you to do that." She teased and hugged me back. We kissed slightly, and the office door was opened.
Claire entered the room and stopped as she saw us.
"Oh Alex. I didn't expect you to do PDA in the office." She said teasingly.
"Mo-Mom!" Alex pushed me away. "Wh-What brings you here?" She went to Claire immediately.
I picked up Heidi with a laugh and walked towards them.
Claire replied, "I'm just in the neighborhood. I'm wondering if you want to have lunch together. But I guess you already have an earlier commitment, so I won't disturb you."
"No. Mom, we can just go there together." Alex said calmly. "It's fine, right Ed?"
"Yeah Claire. Or have you not moved on from the spring roll accident yet?" I asked teasingly.
"Spring roll accident?" Alex was intrigued.
"No– Nothing Alex. There's no spring roll accident. And we can go eat together." Claire said, picking up Heidi from me and held her as we went to the restaurant to eat.
…
During lunch, I let Heidi eat by herself while I had a conversation with Claire and Alex. Of course, I made sure to pay attention to her too.
"By the way, Eddy. Where is your dad? I haven't seen him in a while." Claire asked.
"Oh, he's in Cuba. He's supervising a resort construction on behalf of my mother." I replied.
Cuba has turned unrecognizable after four years. Towering buildings, green energy, research centers– the city has become a first world country.
The entire population was literate, and 85% were dual-language speakers, skillfully changing between Spanish and English conversations.
The food crisis there was completely resolved as I bought back the farmlands and genetically engineered the crops.
Schools rewarded innovations and in turn, allowed a lot of inventors to succeed.
Although it was mostly great, the rapid advancement also brought concerns of cultural preservations as most of the country was embracing the new sciences.
My dad and my mother worked together to build a resort that would bring those two things together. Culture, and sciences.
"How's your mother?" Claire asked.
"She's completely fine now." I replied. "She already has her adult mind back. And she's working hard for her country."
"Cuban Mama." Heidi chimed in, with her mouth full of spaghetti.
"Yes Heidi." Alex wiped the smudge with a napkin and hugged her slightly. "You're just so adorable!"
"She's a rascal." I teased.
"No I'm not! I'm cute!" She snapped at me, slamming the bottom of her fork down on the table.
"You're a cute rascal!"
"I'm not a wascal!" She said with an adorable baby voice.
I laughed and kissed her slightly on the forehead. "Alright. You're not a rascal. You're a delinquent."
"What's that?" She asked.
"Just a cute person." I replied.
"I'm a deli-qua-ent." She raised both of her arms up and celebrated.
Alex snorted, trying to cover up her laugh. We accidentally met eyes, and both of us started staring into each other intently, and full of affection.
Claire noticed it and teased, "Wow. With a baby in between you two, you really look like a new family."
"What– Mom." Alex blushed and brushed her hair behind her ears.
Claire gasped slightly and froze.
[Claire's commentary]
"Oh. This is quite… bad." Claire muttered, shaking her leg and biting her thumb slightly. "Not in a 'they are together' bad, but mostly because of Phil and Haley being a thorn in their path's bad."
"It reminds me a lot of when Phil and I were trying to get my dad to bless us being together. He wouldn't do it, so we had to elope–"
She gasped to herself and whispered, "They are going to elope."
[Commentary ends]
Claire changed the subject quickly, "So– How's the wedding preparation going?"
"Tough." Alex replied. "Elsa is being really hand-off with the decision, she basically let us plan the whole thing."
"And Jacob… Well, he's Jacob." I laughed. "Other than eating, or football, he's not really useful in this sort of situation."
"He did volunteer to sample every caterer for the wedding." Alex added.
"But Elsa pulled him back since he accidentally exposed his hidden agenda to hire every single one of them to have a buttload of food at the wedding."
Claire smiled in content as she saw us finishing each other's sentences.
We talked for a bit, and afterward, Claire finally gave us her suggestion for the Phil and Haley matter.
"You know what? Since they didn't want to handle this like mature people, we're going on the offensive and we're going to get them instead." She said with an evil smile.
"What are you going to do?" Alex asked nervously.
Claire smiled mysteriously and said, "Just a few things… Leave it to me, and I'll make sure to organize the dinner before the wedding."
"Sure, I'll leave it all to you." I agreed with her.
…
"So, I think it's time for you to start your tour." Alex told me suddenly after I dropped off Heidi at Frankie's.
I turned to her from the driver seat of the car. "You want me to go on tour? I did that last year–"
"Not your musical tour. An apology tour." She laughed.
I raised an eyebrow. "What apology?"
"You know, your exes. I love you, but you don't really have a good track record with girls."
"You love me?" I was surprised.
Alex was taken aback. "You… Didn't we already say this to each other?"
"Not casually." I smirked. "Also, I love you too."
She blushed shyly, "Shut up. So, what I'm saying is, go meet up with your exes and give them closure."
"Ahh." I exclaimed in understanding. "What you're saying is that, I should close up all the doors for me to get back together with my exes, since all of my relationships with them were left vague. I got it. I'll do it after the wedding."
"No– Wait. Yes." Alex replied with a teasing grin. She turned slightly nervous and said, "Also, you can't really wait until after the wedding."
"What? Why?" I narrowed my eyes in suspicion.
She said with anxiousness, "Because I already set up a meeting with Abby."
Stunned, I looked at her speechlessly for a few seconds.
…
Concert City Forensic Lab. Located in Symphony street in the big city. I went inside the building, bypassing the six burly guards there easily.
They nodded at me and even opened the gate for my entrance. I took the lift to get to the fourth floor of the building.
Once the lift was opened, I stumbled into the person I was supposed to meet abruptly.
Abby was sipping on her coffee, wearing her hair into a twin tail like usual, and wore a lab coat over her sexy black halter top and her plaid skirt.
"PFFFT–" She sprayed her coffee as she was surprised to see me.
"You?! What are you doing here?" She asked, wiping her mouth quickly, smudging her black lipstick in the process. She wore dark eyeshadow like before, a purple coloured one.
"What do you mean?" I asked her as I offered her my handkerchief. "Alex told you I'm coming, right?"
"Alex?" Abby was confused. "No, no one said anything to me."
"Wait. Did she lie to me?" I mumbled in surprise. "That little minx."
"So, why are you here?" She asked, crossing her arms together.
"I'm on a journey." I said with embarrassment.
"See, I need to confront all of my exes, and see if I was a jerk in our relationship. Also, to give closure to it all. Now that I'm saying this all out physically, I realized it was so cringy, and I want to die."
Abby snorted, and she felt amused by my words. She couldn't hold back and giggled, moving her shoulder up and down reactively.
"That's so cringe. Oh my god Eddy. Who got you so whipped?" Abby asked teasingly.
"Let's go to my lab." She said, pointing to the left as she saw her boss coming in her direction.
In the lab, I stood next to her station awkwardly as she was staring at me.
"So, I can get anything I want from you in order for you to get my forgiveness?" She asked with narrowed eyes.
I pointed at her and said, "IF! If I have done something wrong in the first place. Do you think I've done something wrong to you?"
She kept staring at me with skepticality. "I don't know. Did you?" She asked.
"I don't know. I don't think I did something wrong, since you're the one who left." I replied.
"You could've waited for me, but you have to stick your thing into the next dumb blonde thing that flaunts her behind at you." Abby replied, slighted.
I nodded and said, "It does seem like I did something wrong, which… I don't think I have done anything. But! I get what you're saying. I moved on quite fast while you waited like a nun for years. Oh wait, you didn't."
She was taken aback and said, "I don't sleep with any men."
"But you slept with girls."
"That doesn't count. Also, aren't you here, trying to get my goodwill for your karma or some shit. Why are you instigating me?"
I went speechless for a few seconds.
Abby laughed and said, "If there's anything I think went wrong in our relationship, are the lack of time and the sudden distance."
I nodded slightly. "Yeah. I get that."
"I mean, we could've dated for a long time." Abby stood up and approached me. "Think about all the things we could've done together. We could've solved a lot of cases!"
"We could really have done that. We could've been a power couple in crime solving." I agreed with her.
"I KNOW!" Abby exclaimed with frustration. "And I don't really mind if you want to sleep around, since I know you're a man-whore."
I clicked my tongue slightly at her. "I am trying to change a bit."
"Just a little bit, right?" Abby giggled teasingly, pinching her two fingers together but didn't connect them.
I turned to her mountain of cases on the table and said, "We could, do some work together if you want."
"Don't insult me, Newgate. I just need a week to get this all done." She scowled at me. "I'm not called the hottest rookie of the forensic department for nothing."
"I mean, isn't that because of your boobs?"
"Still a boob man are you?" She squinted her eyes at me with disbelief. "Did your new girl have something as big as mine?" She asked.
"I mean, she has some fighting chance." I replied with a smirk.
Abby scoffed and took off her lab coat.
"I mean, I kept your secret for four years, even if I desperately wanted to tell someone about it. Now, you're suddenly here? This whole day has been pretty strange for me. "
"Secret?" I was intrigued. "You know my secret? Which secret?"
She smirked, enjoying my reaction. "Wouldn't you like to know."
I paused for a few seconds, my eyes shifting slightly. "Yes? I do?"