Love, Helena

Chapter 9

"Did you ask mom to come along with us on the trip?" Alessandro asked his dad. They sat in the living room, with Amber on her phone and Ophelia colouring in her newest sketchbook her dad had gotten her.

Lennon was playing scrabble with his mother at the corner table of the room. They had all taken a week vacation to spend together in their summer house, in Zach's attempts to bond more with his children. Except that Lennon and Wren rarely took part in any activity that included Zach. The sixteen year old boy somewhat tolerated his father being around, but Wren could tell he was just wondering when he drop the pretense and fall back on old habits and leave them again. And if she was honest, that's exactly what she was thinking too.

Wren wouldn't even look him in the eye, rarely speak to him either. When they got back home, she had been sorting through the mail Sharon usually gathered for her to go through in the mornings. That was when she found the mail from the clinic addressed to Mr. Bradford. Wren knew immediately what it was. A DNA test. She couldn't believe her husband actually had the audacity to take her angry words seriously, to even think it was an okay behaviour to doubt, and worse, check if his own daughter was indeed his own. 

That day she had stalked into his office throwing the envelope in his face and cursing him and his guts and the day she met him. That very day she received a phone call at night from Robert apologizing to her about his jerk of a brother. He let her know that Zach had been inquiring about footage from his last place residency before he moved away to live with his wife in another city. He had even dared ask his own brother if he had slept with her.

Wren felt embarrassed and appalled during the uncomfortable phone call, and as she hung up, she swore that was it for her... If there was ever a part of her that doubted the course of action she should have taken, that part was now dead and buried. Her children would have to forgive her and come to understand her eventually... She hoped.

A couple days later, Zach started trying to approach her again, even when she blatantly ignored him. He would bring up their past memories, try for innocent casual touches, sneak in romantic remarks, reminisce over times past of when they were 'in love' and 'happy'. He moved his suitcases back into the bedroom the following day and started sleeping there again.

Wren vacated the room for him and started sleeping at Ophelia's room instead every night ever since. Had Zach started doing all of these things a couple years ago, even a few months ago, she would have probably fallen for it like a fool. It would have given her hope, and hope was all she ever had.

Now Zach was planning an official family trip like old time, so they could 'make up for lost time' and make new family memories. Wren wasn't having any of it. She was completely and utterly immune to every comment and semblance of a kindness he'd try to throw her way.

Xavier had visited again for the first time since their last conversation. It definitely served as distraction and a reminder of what he'd confessed, what he'd asked her. The thought of leaving Zach felt sharp and impending in her mind more than ever before now. She could not help but fall into a cycle of questions. What made her fall in love with Zach in the first place? Was she under some teenage trance or illusion of love and happiness? Was it because she'd gotten pregnant and instead of leaving, he proposed to her? How could she not see any of the flaws she would have never chosen to put up with?

"What do you say, Wren?" Zach asked, breaking her from her spiralling thoughts. "You would of course go, wouldn't you?"

He'd been watching her with  hawk-like focus for the past two days. He knew he had made mistakes these past years. She hadn't cheated on him with Robert, and Ophelia was most surely his daughter. He had unnecessarily ruined his relationship with his family and his wife over baseless speculations. And he had to make it right, to set the record straight. He would. Wren was still his wife after all. She hadn't left him all these years and had never had the intention to. She was probably still in love with him, and now all he would have to do is show her that he's ready to fall back to the way things were. Treat her  like a cherished wife, the mother of his children. Thirty-six and four children later, and Wren still looked absolutely stunning.