53. Not in years to come.

TONY.

"Babe, I'll need to go to the hospital tomorrow for a check-up," Lara said to me as she sat on the dining table, across from my seat.

"Sure. I'll drive you there before going to work then." I replied to her.

"Thanks, dear." She replied with a smile as she opened her covered plate of food and began to eat her food. Silence followed in the room as only the sounds of our cutleries and plates were heard. She broke the silence minutes later. "What have you been up to lately? Is it due to work that you've been so busy?"

I stopped chewing my food as that question caught me unaware. "Uh, why did you ask?"

"You've been acting weird lately, Tony. I can't explain it, but it seems like you've been somewhat down," she said to me. On her face was a look of concern and I felt sorry for her. I had been a bit suspicious of her these days for some reasons I couldn't explain.

"It's just work. Things have been a little tedious at work," I said to her and continued eating my meal.

That was a lie though. The truth was that everything on my mind was about what I was going to do about Beth's baby. She is trying to act all strong and independent, but I knew the issue was bothering her so much. That alone made me feel bothered a lot too. But I couldn't tell Lara that.

"Alright then," she said to me. After a few minutes of silence, Luca walked into the dining room and drew a chair closer to himself and had his seat. Lara and I looked in his direction as he sat and placed his legs on the table, cross-legged and he folded his arms too.

"Uh, what's happening?" I asked him, unsure of what he was doing there.

"I was up alone in the room, so I decided to join you two since I had nothing to do upstairs." He said to me, his position still the same.

Lara rolled her eyes and turned to face him. "You need to get yourself a girlfriend. I don't like the way you interrupt us all the time. I notice you always do this whenever Tony and I are together. Why, uh?"

"Maybe you should get me a girlfriend then?" He replied to her, turning to face her. It looked like an argument was about to ensue between them, but I acted like I wasn't there at all.

"I found one for you, but you two act like you don't want a future with each other. What else am I supposed to do then?" She asked him and shrugged.

"And who is that?"

"Beth. Why are you acting like you don't know?" She snapped at him.

Luca chuckled and placed down his legs from the table, his arms still folded. He was about to speak when I stood up from my seat.

"I want to use the restroom quickly, I'll be here in no time." I stood up and left for my room. On getting to the room, I closed the door behind me. I was about to go to the bathroom when I heard a phone ringing. The ringtone wasn't very familiar, so I was able to tell quickly that it wasn't mine. It was probably Lara's, I thought. It stopped ringing after a few seconds. I was about to enter the restroom when the phone rang again. Then I turned back to check who it was that was calling her.

Going to the bed and picking up the phone from the bed, I checked the screen to see who the caller was. It was Beth. Not sure if to pick up the call or not, I dropped the phone back on the bed and it stopped ringing immediately. But as I was about to leave to mind my business, it rang again. I sighed and picked up the phone from the bed and then picked up the call.

"Lara, I wanted to know if—"

"It's Tony here. Lara isn't with her phone at the moment." I said to her before she started to say whatever she was going to say.

"Uhm, oh, okay. Hi, Tony. I'll hang up now and—"

"Oh, no. No, wait a little." I said to her.

Ever since the other day that I left her place, we hadn't been able to speak to each other. I had wanted to call her to talk about that issue one more time, but I've been resisting doing so. I didn't want to make a wrong decision, so as Luca said, I wanted to think right and make a good decision first before taking any steps.

"Okay, I'm here." She said and cleared her throat. I thought she was going to say something, but when she didn't say anything, I decided to speak instead.

"About the other day, I—"

"Tony, let's not have this discussion again. You know I told you the other day. I don't want anything to do with you and the baby. I don't want anything that would cause a rift between all of us, Tony." She said, and once again, I could feel the sincerity in her words.

"I wasn't going to talk about that. I wanted to apologize for leaving that way the other day. It must have been rude or something like that," I said. Then I cleared my that before adding, "But Beth, I would still one day come back to claim the child when the time is right." I explained to her.

"Sooner or later, please don't do it. You will get married to Lara soon, and that means you claim this baby won't happen, not in years to come, not ever. Please, let's just end this here and act like it never happened." She said and added, "I'll be going off now. Please, tell Lara I called." She didn't wait for my reply before hanging up.

I sighed as I thought of what she had just said. I needed to do something, and I needed to do it fast. I let out another sigh and dropped Lara's phone on the bed. About leaving, her phone beeped. Thinking it was going to be Beth that sent a text, probably because she forgot to say something before she hung up. I picked up the phone and checked the screen. It was a text from an unknown number. Opening the text and going through it, my eyes went wide open in shock as I read through it. Not only was I shocked, but I was also confused.

"You can always run, but not forever, Lara. My baby will always be my baby and when the time is right, I'll come back to claim it." I read again, as I tried to understand what I had just read. "What the actual fuck?"