The Returning Ex (Completed)

Chapter 6 - Meeting Austin

Chapter 6 – Meeting Austin

Tristan Wilder

POV

“Aria” Aria says as she stands up and reaches her hand out to shake hands with Reyes.

I did not miss the way Reyes eyed my tattoo. Yeah I still had Aria’s name on my arm. If I were on an undercover mission, they would usually cover it with heavy-duty make-up. So today my tattoo was on full display today.

“Amanda Reyes.” Reyes says shaking Aria’s hand “I work with Agent Wilder” She adds

So that’s what her name is or did I just not care what her name was? An awkward silence followed for what felt like hours. No one said a word however; I didn’t miss the glares they were sending each other. What the hell was up with that?

It was extremely weird these woman didn’t even know each other and this felt unsettling somehow. If Reyes lost her temper and hurt Aria I would lose my s**t. We may not be together but she was still my girl.

“Your necklace is that an engagement ring?” Reyes asks

My eyes instantly went to Aria’s neck; I had planned on taking it off her neck after she graduated college and putting it on her finger. No matter how much it hurt seeing it on her neck and not on her finger, I would never take it off her. I knew I would never marry another girl or propose to another girl. My heart belonged to her and her alone if she wasn’t my wife no one else would be. That ring was a symbol of my undying love for her.

“Uhm yeah it is. Tris gave it to me on my 17th birthday present” Aria said proudly.

That took me by surprise why would she say that? I never thought she would be proud of that. At least I know I still have a place in her heart.

She had a small smile playing on her lips and she clung onto the necklace as if her life depended on it, well that I found strange. One would think I broke up with her and not the other way around. What was even weirder was that she made it sound like we were engaged and actually together when in fact we haven’t seen each other in ten years.

I stared at her beautiful blue eyes, those same blue whenever she saw me or whenever I held her in my arms. But when I looked into her eyes now there was this weird emotion that I couldn’t decipher was it guilt? Regret? Why would Aria ever feel that way? She has done nothing wrong. I am the one at fault. I was the one who messed up. I got scared and drunk and I messed up. I knew going into our relationship I was never going to be good enough. Whom am I kidding? I will never be good enough for her. Aria deserves a man who could spoil her, love her respect her and give her the world. And most importantly someone who would never hurt her the way I did.

“Ahem” I heard someone clear their throat. I turn to see Reyes looking between Aria and I. I clear my throat and look away.

“I’m sorry what was your name again?” Aria asks but her tone was hostile I’ve never seen her this hostile before. I am extremely confused. What the hell was happening. I look at her she’s glaring at Reyes, and I’m pretty sure she’s introduced herself before. Is there something that I’m missing?

“Amanda” Reyes says

Aria nods. Aria then turns to me and moves to me and hugs my arm, she leans in and says softly

“Tristan I might know where our son might be” she says

Just as I was about to say something my phone rang. It was Maddie.

“Maddie??” I say as I answer the phone

“Urh hey Tristan. So there’s this kid here. Uhm he looks exactly the way you did when you were younger and he claims to be your son. So you better come back to the house right away.” Maddie says honestly she sounded as if she was in shock.

“Okay. Uhm Maddie I’ll be right there.” I say hanging up

I look at Reyes “I’m sorry. I really need to go.” I say apologetically

She didn’t need to know why I needed to leave. She nods. I pull out a 50 out of my wallet and put it on the table and pull Aria out of the café with me.

I stopped once we were outside.

“Maddie called Austin is at her house. Did you come with your driver?” I ask her

“Actually urh I drove here. I got my licence about eight years ago.” She says proudly

I remember when we were dating she refused to get her licence she use to say I was there to drive her around she didn’t need it.

I was nervous thinking about my son. Our son the son I never even knew existed until today. I was nervous about meeting him for the first time. He was nine years old. I wasn’t there his whole life.

I walk Aria to her car once she’s in her car. I go over to my rental. The plan was that I would meet her there and we would walk in the house together. She pulled away and I followed her.

The drive over to Maddie’s place was peaceful and once we got to the neighbourhood my nerves began to set in. what if the boy hated me because I wasn’t there for the first nine years of his life. What if he hated me because he thinks my job was more important than him and his mother. I had lost my parents when I was nine and look how I turned out. I know how it feels to want your father by your side and not being able to see him. Hearing other kids speak about their parents and family, when your sister was on the other side of America and your parents weren’t alive all I wanted growing up was a full family. A father to teach you how to treat and respect woman, a mother to cook supper and a sister who would annoy me. I didn’t have any of those things growing up. I always knew my parents didn’t have a love story. They met through Maddie’s dad, my father served in the army with him and when he died, my father took care of my mother. My father practically raised Maddie and one day my parent were drunk and accidentally slept together and I was the fruits of their labour. The only reason they got married was because of me. Yes later they fell in love but that didn’t happen until later. I read my mother’s diary one day that’s how I found out.

I don’t want that for my son. I don’t want him to ever think that he was a mistake or a burden to me or Aria. God the boy was made out of love. He definitely was not a one night stand born baby. On the trip to Greece Aria and I slept together about was it ten times in the month we spent there. God if things were different Aria and I would be married right now with at least five kids. I would love for them to be with me in DC but they have a life out here and I have enemies who could use my family against me.

I park the car behind Aria’s taking a deep breath. Closed my eyes and tried to relax. God my mind was going 100 miles per hour. I hear a knock on my car window. I open my eyes and looked at the window. Aria stood by my car. I nod and I unlocked the door and she opened it. I take the car out of the ignition. I get out and close the door behind me not forgetting to lock the car. Aria takes my hand and walks towards the house.

“Tristan for God sake breathe. I’ve never seen you this nervous ever.” She says looking at me

“Well I’ve never met my nine year old son before so yeah I’m nervous what if the kid hates me because you failed to tell me you’re pregnant” I snap at her

She drops my hand and I felt my heart drops. My hand felt cold all of a sudden, my body had lost all of its heat. I wish I had said nothing instead.

“I’m sorry I-I just I’m nervous. I shouldn’t take it out on you. I’m sorry Aria” I say

“Tristan I know you, I’ve always known you. You might have aged and you might have grown a beard but you’re still the same person you were ten years ago. The way you would snap if someone pointed out something you were trying to hide or when you didn’t like what someone had to say about you. Just so it would take the attention off you” She says

I just nod. Because I knew it was true I had a bad habit of snapping at people unnecessarily. Sure that was me back then but I’ve changed she didn’t know me anymore. She didn’t know the hell I’ve been through since I left Greece ten years ago. After she broke up with me I had joined the army. I had to give that up sooner than I had planned. I was disappointed but now I help people reunite with their families and bring down big criminals. It brings me somewhat of relief. I look over at her but don’t say anything.

She takes my hand again and we walk into Maddie’s house. I noticed Quinn and Aurora straight away. I didn’t know they would be here. I nod in their direction. Which they both return. Aria lets go of my hand and everyone’s eyes were on us. this was extremely nerve wrecking.

I noticed the boy. Yeah he did kind of look like me when I was a teenager. He’s taller than I was at his age. He ran up to Aria and hugged her

“Mommy!” he shouts as he ran to her.

I could see by the look on everyone’s face that this was the last thing they expected. I looked at the boy closely. He had my dark hair, its all I could see right now with his back to me, he was a lot shorter than I was. He finally turns and he has my green eyes. Everything about this boy screamed me. It was like he was cloned with only my DNA and no one else. Like Aria made no contribution to his appearance what so ever.

“Austin baby, this is your father” Aria says

What he did next took me by surprise he engulfed me in a tight hug. I hugged him back and I heard soft sobs from him.

I pulled him away from me a little so I could see his face. I bent a little so I could be at his height and looked him in the eyes. I wiped his tears away.

“What’s wrong buddy?” I asked him

“Why did you leave me?” he asked me through his sobs

“I didn’t leave you. I…” I didn’t even know you existed until today… I said silently in my head. I looked at Aria for help, honestly I didn’t know how to comfort him on my own. How pathetic am I that I have no idea how to comfort my own son.

“Matteo why don’t you take Austin and give him a tour of the house and get ice cream for all of you?” Aurora says

Matteo was Aurora and Quinn’s son, he was three years older than Austin.

Matteo quickly took the hint and led Austin and the rest of the kids to the kitchen. I guess the tour starts and ends in the kitchen.

Everyone was looking at us for answers. And I knew it looked bad. It looked as if I left Aria because she was pregnant and I was the bad guy. Aurora and the other adults gave Aria and I the privacy we needed to talk. She told me he knew I didn’t know about him. What the hell was that if he knew? It gave Aria and I a chance to speak privately. She had a lot of explaining to do. Before we even had a chance to speak my phone rang. Great just great. I excused myself from her walking outside and answering the call.

“Wilder” I say