Brave Enough To Love Again

Chapter 37

Keane

So much had happened since Eden entered my life. We met at the club and then in front of her locked apartment door. My plan on asking her to be a friend with benefits was immediately discarded when I saw her sorrowful eyes at the bar. Then I invited her to my sanctuary. She loved the cottage at the beach. We both felt the magnetic physical attraction that was too difficult to ignore, hence our mutual understanding for a relationship without a label.

The more time I spent with her the more I realized what a special person she was, and the bond that we had formed made us comfortable with each other. However, the sexual chemistry was undeniable. Our togetherness reached a climactic pinnacle when we spent our first night together.

Meeting her parents made her lie to them about our real relationship, which was an unlabeled one then. When she asked me if I could pretend in front of them, it felt good. I very much liked the sound of it; calling her my girlfriend and she introducing me as her boyfriend. That was when I realized that the no label thing was a stupid arrangement, which I had to fix immediately.

After talking to her and making our relationship official, everything between us reached another height, a different level. The intensity of my feelings for her grew with each moment we were together. Whenever we were apart, her absence was palpable. It was as if she had carved out a piece of my heart and took it with her, which left a whole when she was away.

I wanted to become a better version of myself because of her. The time of hiding from the world and everything that could possibly hurt me was over. Because of her I needed to get my life in order again. I began working on my emotional baggage by forgiving Amanda and Greg for what happened. A meeting couldn't be arranged as none of them both was reachable. However, internally processing and reflecting on the time with Amanda, made me feel like I could breath again after a long time, as if the thing that was constricting my life was finally gone.

My next step was finding out my father's identity, something that I had given up on a while ago. But I finally wanted an answer to that question too, so I could live without anything holding me back with Eden, to be able to solely focus on us and our future together. I finally got in touch with my relatives from my mother's side, who she never talked about, but they too couldn't help me with my search for my father.

I decided to leave them again so soon, because Eden's absence was becoming unbearable with every hour I was away from her. Going back to my relatives with Eden to introduce her to them was my excuse to leave to be with her again, and I knew it was the right choice when I finally had her in my arms again. I felt complete.

After spending more time with Eden I got a call from someone who claimed to be my mother's best friend, Anne. She wanted to meet up in the city to personally see me, as she had never seen me before and only knew about me through my mother's letters to her. When we finally met she told me that James Holloway was the one who knocked up my mother.

I was shocked, confused and angry to say the least, and I didn't want to believe it. Anne promised to look for the letters and send them to me as soon as possible. What infuriated me was the fact that my mother had lied to me about my father's identity. She took away so much from me and my life with her lie. I realized once again how much I hated lies.

After walking around the city to clear my head, I decided to pick Eden up from the hospital where she worked. However, I was told that she wasn't there. Once again on that day, I was confused. I called her on her phone and asked her how work was she simply replied that it was fine, but boring. I didn't think much of it, as thoughts about James still occupied my mind. It was the first time we didn't spend the night together on the same bed since becoming intimate. I wanted to sort things out about James in my head first.