Ang angrily threw her cell phone across the room, causing it to bounce off the wall and shattering. “Good one, Ang,” she muttered to herself, rapidly blinking back the tears that were threatening to spill. She had just gotten another phone call. They were happening at least three or four times a day. She didn’t know what to do. She had told AJ about it, who had pressed her repeatedly to tell Brian but she still refused. Eric had come up with no leads as to who could be doing it. Why were they still bothering her after three years? And now, looking at the shattered remains of her phone, she needed to, yet again, change her cell phone and buy a new phone. If Brian wasn’t at all suspicious of her weird behavior over the last few weeks, he had to be suspicious of the fact that she went through enough phones to keep Verizon in business all by herself.
She sighed and picked up the cordless phone sitting on the desk. She needed to talk to someone about it and who better than her best friend. She clicked the phone on and dialed Katelin’s number in New York.
“Hello?” Katelin asked, picking up the phone sitting next to her on the bed.
“Hey Kate,” Ang greeted, faking cheeriness.
“Ang?” Katelin questioned. “Is that you? What’s wrong?”
“What do you mean, what’s wrong?” Ang asked, confused. She thought she sounded okay.
“Something’s wrong,” Katelin pointed out. “I can tell.”
Ang sighed. “I got another call.”
“Another one?” Katelin stood up from her bed and began walking downstairs. “What’d they say this time?”
“Basically the same thing,” Ang replied. “That they know and to stay away from Brian, blah blah blah. I don’t know what to do anymore. They’re driving me crazy.”
“But they haven’t done anything more serious than that, have they?” Katelin questioned.
“No, Kate.” Ang rolled her eyes. “But this is still serious. This is harassment and if they don’t fucking stop I’m going to go crazy.”
“I know it’s serious, Ang.” Katelin felt bad. She hadn’t meant it to sound like that. But she was just thankful that they were limiting it to phone calls and not doing anything that was going to seriously hurt either Ang or Brian. “Does Brian know?”
“Of course not,” Ang snorted. “And he’s not going to. AJ, you, and Eric are the only ones so far. Maybe Sarah.”
“I still think you should tell him,” Katelin said just as her doorbell ring. “Hold on a sec, Ang. Someone’s at the door.” Katelin, with the phone still to her ear, walked into the foyer and opened her front door, seeing Nick, Lanie, and a small, blond-haired boy. Her eyes widened in shock. “I’ll call you back.” She clicked off the phone and set it down on the table, never taking her tear-filled eyes off of the little boy.
“Can we come in?” Nick asked, ignoring the stabbing pain in his heart at the reaction on her face.
Katelin raised her eyes to meet Nick’s. “Sure.” She opened the door wider and allowed all three of them entrance. “What…what are you doing here?”
“I thought you guys should meet,” Nick replied, softly. “This is Aidan. Aidan, this is your mom.” Nick had spoken to a child psychologist a few days ago about what Aidan should know about his family situation. The doctor told him that there was no reason that Aidan shouldn’t know who is real parents are right away, even if he didn’t really understand. He would someday and there was no reason to lie to him now.
Aidan shyly clung to Nick’s leg as Katelin bent down to his level. “Hi Aidan.”
Nick also bent down to their son’s level. “It’s okay, honey.” He gave Aidan a slight nudge in Katelin’s direction and the little boy finally let go of his father’s leg.
With tears streaming down her face, Katelin reached out to her son, burying her face in his shoulder as he hugged her. She looked up and met Nick’s eyes. “Thank you so much,” she whispered, tearfully. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”
Nick didn’t say anything. Just nodded, trying to keep his emotions in check. After a few minutes, Lanie elbowed him in the side, reminding him of the other reason they were here. “There’s something I need to ask you, Kate.”
“What is it?” Katelin stood up and led them into the living room of the apartment. They all sat down on the couch, Aidan in Katelin’s lap.
“I was thinking,” Nick began. “I’ve been really hard on you about this. And if I try to keep you away from Aidan, it’s going to hurt Aidan more than anyone in the long run and I don’t want that to happen.” Katelin didn’t say anything. Just watched Nick intently with watery eyes. “What I’m getting at is that I want you to move to Florida. To live with our son.”
Katelin stared at Nick intently, trying desperately not to keep her mouth from dropping open. She could’ve sworn that Nick just asked her to move in with him. “What?” she finally managed to whisper.
“I think that you need to be a part of Aidan’s life,” Nick repeated. “And the best way for you to be there for him is if you lived with him.”
“I don’t know what to say.” Katelin was trying to make sense of all of this. A few days ago, Nick had sworn her out of Aidan’s life. And now he just did a complete one-eighty and was asking her to move in with her.
“Say yes, Kate,” Nick pleaded. “That’s all you have to do. Do it for Aidan.”
Katelin looked down at the quiet little boy in her lap. She smiled, tearfully, at him as she came to a decision. “Okay.”
Lanie squeezed her eyes shut. Not that she wasn’t prepared for the answer. It was because of her that Nick had taken his lawyer’s advice in the first place. Nick was hell-bent on ignoring the advice of his attorney, who had told him that it was best that Aidan live in a house with both parents present. But there was still a little piece of her that was hoping Katelin said no. If Katelin said no, there would be no way that Lanie would lose Nick. But with her back in Nick’s life, permanently, Lanie already felt like she was being pushed to the side in favor of the girl who, so many years ago, stole her boyfriend’s heart.