The Reunion (Part 1)

chapter 27

They had been cut off by Carina's phone ringing on the table announcing a message, the screen had lit up to reveal the photo of a little boy.

- "Who is it?" Maya asked with a smile

-"Charlie, my son Charlie DeLuca-Leveque."

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Maya's gaze was fixed on the phone on the table.

- "huh?" She was not sure she understood, not sure she had assimilated what the Italian had said.

-"Charlie was not my husband, he was my son, my husband was Charles."

- "You... You named your son Charlie?"

- "Maya I probably shouldn't have, that was the name you wanted"

- "Carina you, did you have a child?"

- "a little less than two years after Tom, after you, I met Charles, a very nice guy, half English and half French. We started dating and... He's blond with blue eyes, he looks a little bit like you, as a man, so if I couldn't have you, if I could have someone who looked like you... Looked like you, a little bit... And I got pregnant, pretty quickly, we were only together a few months. And he was from a very religious family, so we got married... I could have had an abortion, but understand me, I had to find a way to forget you, a baby was a good way to change my... Minds."

- "woww wait, wait, slow down Carina" Maya said, holding out her hands and wrinkling her forehead.

- "I'm sorry."

- "you're divorced, you have a child..." she said as if she needed to absorb Carina's story. As if to make sure her brain understood.

-"I had a child" said the brunette with a lump in her throat, the words stuck in her trachea.

- "I'm sorry."

- "I called you on my wedding day, I was pregnant and I was looking for you, to call you, to tell me that you were going to raise this child with me... I know it's... Ridiculous... So Charles and I got married... And I got the wedding blues. I was married for two months, pregnant for five and I made my husband unhappy, as unhappy as I was, unhappy as ever. I was depressed, I... He wasn't you." Made the brunette closing her eyes as tears had left her eyes.

-"Do, do you want a glass of water?" Asked Maya as she extended her hand towards her without touching her, her voice loaded too.

- "yes, please."

The blonde had gotten up and gone to the counter, she had brought back a glass and pushed it towards the brunette. She had taken a sip and wiped her eyes.

- "one day he took my phone and he went through it, he didn't understand why I was spending my time on my phone, I was asleep, and he went through the pictures, and he came across a folder, the password was not hard to guess... Your birthday was my password for everything ... And he understood right away, I was so happy in our pictures, and especially there were so many pictures of you. I must have had maybe twenty pictures of him in my phone and hundreds of you. He asked me who you were and what you meant to me... I was honest with him and he asked for a divorce."

- "and Charlie?"

The brunette had smiled a sincere smile but one that looked painful at the same time, her eyes shining.

- "the man of my life. I was heartbroken to have married Charles, but I was happy to be pregnant with Charlie."

- "why Charlie?" Maya was in shock, she asked questions mechanically, she needed to know as much as possible now that the bomb had dropped, but at the same time she felt like she was having a dream, she was just ingesting if it was a good or bad dream.