Purloiners

° Six

After about fifteen minutes of meandering around the mall just doing a bit of window shopping, Zayn paused by a baby shoe store and looked through their display window. His eyes flickering through the variety of baby shoes of every type and color, for every stage of a baby's active life.

He found himself staring at the cutest pair of sneakers that had caught his eyes and bit his lower lip, contemplating whether to go in there and buy it since MJ is crawling and he will need a pair of shoes once he starts to walk, to protect his feet from broken glass and other problematic objects on the ground.

Why are you buying stuff for a kid you're supposed to return to his mama in a few hours. It doesn't make sense.

Louis's voice resounded in his head however before I knew it, his feet moved on their own accord into the store and he bought the sneakers. Then he spent an additional thirty minutes inside the store, buying whatever stylish pair of shoes he thought would fit MJ, and he ended up buying different expensive brands of shoes, sneakers, and sandals.

He came out of the shoe store holding five shopping bags with a satisfactory grin on his face then he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He drew his phone out and looked to see who was calling before answering it.

"Hi, sorry I'm late, my son was....

"Where are you?" He asked, cutting the nurse in mid-sentence.

"At the food court" She answered with hesitation.

"Alright, I will be there soon"

He ended the call before sliding the phone back in his pocket then strode towards the food court and stood at the entrance, looking through the crowd, and saw someone at the far end of the room waving in his direction.

He recognized the person as the nurse and sauntered his way over to her then sat across from her. He glanced around, to see if someone is watching their way before pulling out an envelope from his pocket and slide it across the table towards her.

The nurse raised her brow and picked it up. She opened the envelope and her eyes widened.

"Take it and do whatever you want to do with it. This is the last time we will see each other, and remember to keep your mouth shut"

The nurse looked up at him and sucked a long gulp of air into her lungs before nodding her head. She put the envelope in her handbag and stood up, then gave him a curt, imperceptible nod.

Zayn acknowledged with a small thin smile and stared after her as she strode away from him, toward the exit door.

He sighed, leaning back in his seat, as memories of MJ's adorable giggling flashed through his mind, and the thought of never seeing that again made his heart descend from his chest into his stomach.

He had always ruthlessly concealed his emotions but this time, it's ruling him and he's finding it difficult to keep them at bay.

What the hell is wrong with him!

He groaned inwardly, clenching his jaws, as he fought the conflicted emotions holding his mind.

How on earth in this short time he has spent with the baby, he has become so attached, and surprisingly, he's crushing on the baby's mama too, even though he had only seen him once at the parking lot of the supermarket and on TV during a news report on the kidnapping of the baby.

How does he untangle himself from these emotional knots he has somehow entangled himself into?

He ran a hand through his hair, trying to fend off his growing frustration. Then he had a feeling that somebody is watching him, he frowned and looked around until his wandering gaze landed on two ladies on the other side of the room, eyeing him with their most flirtatious smiles.