26
##Chapter 26
Hugh Mikhail

The next day, I woke up earlier and went to the gym. I couldn't stop thinking about my son and Diana, suddenly someone who had nothing already had a reason to go on living. The night before, before leaving, she gave me her phone number so that I would only contact her when I went to see the boy.
I knew she would continue to avoid me, so my approach needed to be more intense. I worked from six to eleven in the morning, I talked to Hunter about my schedule and he gave me the flexibility to change whenever I needed to, but before that I had to fulfill the entire training schedule with the scheduled staff.
I left there and went to my house, took a shower, changed my clothes and called the number Diana had given me. It was time to meet my boy. Gripped with anxiety, my hands were shaking when she answered.
- Hello.
"Hi princess, it's me. She was speechless for a few moments.
"Oh, hi..." Her voice was soft.
— I have the afternoon free, I want to see the baby.
— Okay, I'll give you the address of my shop. He is here with me.
"Are you going to hand him over to me yourself?"
- No! But he's always here when I am.
"Do you take him to work?"
"I'll take him anywhere."
— All right, you can say the address and I'll write it down here.
After giving me the address and making sure I wrote it down, she hung up on me before I could say anything else. Without further ado, I walked to the address of the store, which by the way was close to the gym, about two blocks away.
I arrived at the store's extremely elegant reception and spotted the receptionist who seemed to recognize me for some reason. As soon as she got up with Charlie in her arms I knew she also noticed how identical the boy was to me and that made me so fucking proud.
“Hello, you are Mister Hugh Mikhail, right? — I nodded without taking my eyes off my son — Here it is, Diana asked me to give it to you.
The boy smiled as soon as he laid eyes on me, I almost cried with emotion when I picked him up, he was certainly the most beautiful child in the whole world. My heart was so happy to have him in my arms, to know that I had a son, a little piece of me and Diana. I hugged him carefully and kissed his cheek.
Who knew that a little over a week would result in a feeling that many in years of dating can't feel. What's more, one night of love made us the parents of such a perfect child.
"Is Diana there?" I asked the woman who was still smiling from ear to ear.
“She's upstairs, but she asked me to tell you to get out of here. Here's baby Charlie's bag with everything he'll need.
"Can you let her know quickly that I need to speak with her?" Asks if she can see me for just a few minutes.
"She won't budge. Don't tell her I told you, but she was crying when she had the baby delivered to you.
She needed more time. It really wasn't easy to hand over her child to the one who broke her heart, but she was trusting me, it was a big deal. I needed to be patient with her.
- Very good. Thank you Miss?
“Oh, Chelsea.
“Okay, thanks Chelsea.
With a baby in one arm and a bag in the other, I walked out of Diana's shop and headed home. Charlie was such a nice baby that even without knowing me, he was calm, I think that deep down he knew that I was his father and that I loved him more than anything.
We spent the whole afternoon together, I didn't know how to take care of any baby, I searched the internet for things to do in order to keep him happy and smiling, my chest burned whenever I looked at him, sometimes I had the impression that the card didn't have fallen. Fuck, I had a kid.
After my ex abandoned me when I went into depression and aborted my child, I had thought that I would never have the hope of a child again and there I was, with my boy in my arms.
I played with him and got the most delicious laughs I've ever heard in my life. After I gave him a bottle, the recipe was inside the pot with his little things to eat. The princess was so organized. In the end, after getting a little dirty, I gave him a bath and held him in my arms, stroking his hair so he could sleep, following his mother's orders.

“I love you son. I whispered watching him close his eyes falling asleep.
The next two days I followed the same routine, picking him up from Chelsea around one in the afternoon and dropping him off around five. On the third day, I needed to stay late at the gym, so I texted Diana to let her know I couldn't keep the baby that afternoon, she didn't even reply.
I ended up getting distracted instructing an apparently young lady who was showing a lot of focus lately. Soon Hunter arrived saying that he wanted to talk to me privately, I thought I would lose my job but the news was very good for me.
— At the end of the week there will be an academy event, it will be more or less a meeting of coaches, former fighters and people from our circle. I put your name on the list, who knows there might be a good proposal for your future? You need to go knowing that you might not be back soon.
“Hunter, I'm sorry but I can't. I have a son here, I can't "not come back soon".
“You don't go away forever if you're offered something good. You are simply going to stay away for a while to ensure a better future for you and especially for your heir.
He was right in part. It didn't cost anything to go to the event, I wouldn't be committing myself, listening to proposals didn't mean I would accept them.
“Okay, I'll go.
"Until the weekend then."
At the end of the day I had made a serious decision, I would no longer wait for Diana to want to listen to me, but I would tell her why I had rejected her from the village and let her go without saying goodbye and why I had stayed for two years. absent.
I picked up my cell phone and called her, I was surprised when she answered.
"Hugh..."
- We need to talk. Where are you?
"I have nothing to discuss with you, I told you."
— But I do and I want to talk and it won't be over the phone. Tell me where I'm going there.
- No...
"Princess, do you want me to break into your shop and force someone to give me your address?" I heard her sigh loudly.
"Okay, meet me at my place." I'll text you the address.
She hung up. After two minutes the cell phone beeped with the address, I could already feel the anxiety dominating me and my heart beating faster. I ran home, took a shower and went to meet him.
When I arrived at the address, I came across a beautiful bungalow style house, it was dark and there were lights in the garden making the house even more spectacular. My heart squeezed, I could never give her something like that, not that she needed to, but I was a fuckup who had nothing to offer but feelings.
I rang the bell quickly and was greeted by a more than perfect image, her holding our son in her arms.
I cleared my throat.
- You look beautiful. I reached out and took Charlie from his lap. "Come here with Daddy."
God, she was too beautiful. She looked very comfortable in my presence, wearing a casual outfit that made her the sexiest woman in the world. At the same moment I imagined myself with my head between her legs making her scream with all the letters that she was mine, only mine and that asshole Caleb would never make her feel what I did and can do.
"Stop making that face." she asked.
- What a face?
"Stay cynical." You know that face, that naughty face.
"You let me..."
"Shh... Don't say inappropriate things to me in front of the baby."
“I wouldn't say anything inappropriate. And if I remain cynical, you remain a perverted princess who thinks dirty. —
she turned red.
- Why are you here? — changed the subject.
— I need you to listen to me and after that I promise never to bother you again, I'll just want to know about Charlie and I'll leave you alone.
- He is well. He swallowed hard.
We sat across from each other on the sofa. I was still with the baby in my arms and I was extremely nervous, I took a deep breath and started talking.
“Do you remember when we talked about our families and I told you about my dad?
- Yes.
— I told you about the death of my sister Naya and my nephew that shook me so much that it made me lose heart for an important competition I had the next day.
His eyes softened and his expression became empathetic. I felt like putting my finger on a wound again, which hurt but I needed to remember.
— Do you also remember that I said that my father had known many sponsors who had bet on me and that with my withdrawal, they wanted all their money back and even double?
- Yes I recall. His voice was calm .
— My father had to get involved with bad people to be able to pay. But over time the debt only grew, because to pay one, he owed another.
"So that's why you wanted to sell your house that time?" To pay off your father's debt?
- Yes. I felt guilty all the time knowing that he was being exploited in every way to be able to pay off a debt that never ended and it was all my fault, because if I hadn't given up the fight, this wouldn't have happened.
— Hey... It wasn't your fault, your sister and your nephew died, you got sick. We don't control our feelings, we can't choose what to suffer for and it's ok, we are human beings. - Diana touched my hand, but quickly removed it when she realized that she was very close to me.
“Long before I met you, that was my purpose, to rid my father of those shitty explorers. And he always warned me that we were getting involved with bad people, bad characters who were unreliable and therefore I couldn't have any weaknesses that could be used against me. And I was willing to do anything to help my father.
Diana seemed attentive to everything I said, which gave me the strength to keep talking.
— For that reason I tried my best to keep my distance from you, I didn't want to get involved. I wanted to free her from an uncertain future, from a mess, from danger. I was obsessed with getting my father out. And after I learned that you had already suffered at the hands of a scoundrel, I was sure that you deserved better.
Her look was like someone trying to remember the things I said to her back in the village.
“After we made love, I was willing to have you for myself at any cost. But my father called me the next day saying that they were threatening him because the deadline for paying the debt was coming to an end, at that moment I was sure that we were in danger and I could never involve you in this mess.
"Why didn't you tell me any of this?" I could have helped.
“Because I didn't want to put you in danger, I didn't want you to be with a man who had no future either. I didn't even know if I would be able to pay off the debt, if I would get out of it all alive in the end.
“You made me suffer anyway, Hugh. I almost went into depression, what I felt for you in a week was as strong as a love of years. I would do anything for you.
She loved me.
My heart had no more room to break, it was already in pieces.
“After getting involved in underground fights and taking money from loan sharks, I went to settle with Freddie, but the bastard set me up. He stabbed my father, I ended up going crazy with rage and beat him until he was disfigured, after a few hours the police arrested me for having my hands dirty with blood claiming that he had died with a shot in the head.
"But you didn't…" Her expression was shocked.
“No, I hadn't shot him. They set me up and so I was locked up for two years until my father woke up from his coma and confessed to a crime he didn't commit either, just to see me off the hook. That's why I didn't come back before, if everything had been different I would have come back, if everything had been different I would never have let you go.
We were silent for a few minutes, Charlie fell asleep in my arms while I talked and stroked his hair. I gave her the time she needed to digest my explanation and then I knelt down in front of her with the baby still sleeping in my arms.
— Forgive me, please, forgive me for letting you go without saying goodbye, for never looking for you, for saying that everything we've experienced has stayed there in the village. Everything we've experienced has always stayed inside me, all our moments are still alive in my heart. Forgive me for not being by your side when I found out you were expecting my child, for not being there when he was born. For everything. I want you back, princess.
