Written in Chance

~ 1

Chapter 1 |

Michael's Pov

I watched her get out of the car and open the back door to get something out of the backseat. Quickly, I hopped out of my car and swiftly jogged over to her. She was too busy taking groceries out of the car to notice me while she tried holding Kees in her other arm.

I put my hand out and waved it in front of her face. "Let me help you with that," I said.

She jumped from the sound of my voice and glared at me, yet I smiled and tried to lighten the mood, but she kept shooting daggers at me with her eyes.

"I can do it by myself," she said stubbornly. She grabbed one last bag and kicked the door closed and stormed over to the door on the side of the house. I wondered whose house it was.

She easily slid the door open with me following right behind her, eager to talk to her again. I closed the door behind me and looked around the house. It was well decorated and clean, yet it looked like someone had been living in it for years. Kyela couldn't be living alone in here.

She went over to the playpen in the corner and sat Kees down there, then she disappeared into another room. I followed her into a moderate size kitchen with large windows that reached the floor.

"Please, talk to me. I haven't heard your voice in so long," I begged.

"So, my screaming didn't do you any justice for the last month and a half?" she snapped.

She began to unload the groceries from the bags and put them away. I sighed and shook my head. "That was a mistake," I responded.

"I don't even want to discuss that with you," she retorted.

"Can we just sit down and have a civilized discussion for once in our lives?" I asked.

She slammed down the can of green beans that she held in her hand, and I watched it break and slice her palm, but she didn't seem to notice. "For what?!" she yelled, "You had the chance before I left, so why now all of a sudden? If I wanted to talk to you, I would have found a way. Trust me."

I guess I deserved it, but I wanted to show her how sorry I really was. She looked down at her bloody hand and cried. "Fuck," she cursed as she ran over to the sink.

"I wanted to-"

She sniffled. "Just go and play with your son. I'm sure he missed you."

I sighed and left the kitchen. The brightest thing in the room was Kees' face when he saw me. I had been thinking, since I was gone, that he would forget me and not know who I was when I saw him again. He was the main reason that I wanted to get back. I wanted my family again, but it wasn't coming together the way that I hoped. Yet.

He reached out to me in the playpen, and I picked him up, kissing him on the cheek.

As soon as I sat him on my lap, he pulled my hat off and tossed it to the ground. I chuckled to myself as he grabbed onto my hair, tugging at it hard. Some things just don't change, I guess.

• • •

Kees was getting a little fussy, and the house was starting to smell great. I went into the kitchen, and carried him with me.

"I think he's getting hungry," I said as I placed him in the high chair near the counter.

Kyela adjusted the stove and went over to a cabinet and pulled out a jar of baby food. "He eats this?" I asked, looking at the green mush in the jar.

"Bwooh!" he shouted happily as he slammed his hands on the plastic tray in front of him. Kyela and I turned to him and smiled.

"I swear he only likes that and the sweet potatoes," she said. She went through a drawer and gave me a baby spoon. She pushed her hair behind her ear and made cute faces at the baby while I prepared to feed him.

I gave him a spoonful of the broccoli and made a sort of 'mmm' sound that he tried to imitate. Then, I heard the front door open. I looked at Kyela, and she didn't look the least bit worried, which put my suspicions to rest that she was seeing someone else. I would have been absolutely devastated, but she deserves better.

"Kyela, I'm home!" a woman's voice called from the front of the house. It didn't sound familiar, and I wondered who it was.

An older woman, about twenty years older, who looked nearly identical to Kyela walked into the kitchen. I dropped the baby's spoon onto the tray, and Kyela turned the stove off. "Hey, mom." She said.

Both of them looked back and forth between me and each other, and I had no idea what to do.

"Mom, this is Michael, my husband," Kyela said with almost no trace of anger in her voice. She almost sounded... proud to say that, but I was more surprised at the fact that I was in the same room as the woman that I took her away from...

"Michael, this is my mom, Brandy," she said.

Kyela's Pov

She was not impressed whatsoever by this introduction, and it was clear by the look on her face. I had no clue on how to deal with this, and I'm sure neither one of them did either.

"I just finished dinner if you guys want to eat," I said to break the silence.

She threw her keys onto the counter and nodded to me. "I'm gonna go and freshen up. I'll be right out," she said. She left the room, and I sighed.

"Did you tell her?" Michael asked quietly.

I stared at him blankly. "Tell her what?"

"That I was the one..." He didn't finish. Instead, he emptied out the last of the baby food in the jar and fed it to Kees.

I shook my head. "There's some things that she doesn't need to know, and I'd rather not talk about it."

"Would you take him out of the high chair?" I asked, changing the subject. He lifted him out of the seat, and Kees reached out to me, but I refused to take him. Instead, I just wiped his cute little face with the napkin in my hand.

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How do you think Michael and Brandy's relationship will be? There's obvious tension already from the first impression, but there's more to come. This is only the beginning.