THE HONOURABLE MAN

Episode 46

The Jacob's house is dead silent for a few hours as everyone sleeps. New year's eve day has been memorable and exhausting at the same time. Kiana and Bryce cuddle up in bed for what feels like only a minute's sleep before they know it the alarm starts buzzing. Kiana and the kids gather their belongings and prepare to head back to their home.

Paul ushers them out of the house whilst his parents sleep. Kiana asked not to have them disturbed, she did not see the need of waking them up just to bid goodbye.

"Please tell your mother to call me as soon as she wakes up," she utters to Paul as he holds the door open for them to exit.

"I will do just that Aunt Kiana...we enjoyed having you and your family with us. We should definitely do this again," he contentedly blabs.

"That's so sweet of you to say Paul." Kiana smiles back at him.

"Don't be a stranger," Paul playfully slaps Sam on his arm. "I won't," he sheepishly smiles after a brief moment of delaying his response.

Kiana takes the wheel since her husband is still battling a hangover. He complains of a pounding head and he is unable to stay focused. Sam holds on to baby Kiandra at the back seat during the short journey back home.

"I wish I could go back to sleep until tomorrow," Bryce sighs wearily as he enters his bedroom with his wife marching behind him.

She frowns at his statement, "I'm not the one who said you must drink like a fish," she furrows her brows.

"Well maybe if you had told me about the trip to Bahida I wasn't going to drink at all," he responds.

"Woow so now I'm not allowed to surprise my family?" she rests her hands on the sides of her waist.

"You have just reminded me of the reason why I hate surprises," he mutters under his breath.

Kiana frantically starts blinking, it pangs her heart to hear her husband complaining about the family trip she planned for the family. Putting into consideration the exhausting events of yesterday she can understand why Bryce is dreading having to travel.

"Honey you can go ahead and sleep," she mentions. He turns to face her with a quizzical expression as he is trying to figure out if she is being sarcastic or sincere.

"What did you just say?" He questions.

"There is still sometime before we have to leave. I will handle everything that needs to be done, taking care of the kids, breakfast and packing," she offers.

"Ooh you are the best wife in the whole world," he scoops her up in his arms and kisses her forehead before releasing her to dive onto the bed.

"Remember check in is at 11am and it's an hour's drive from here to the airport hence we will have to leave around 9:30," she calculates.

"Ooh no!" He cries.

"What?" she casts him a bewildered gaze.

"It's already 6.30am that means I only have about two hours to sleep," he pouts.

"Two hours should do you just fine. I assume you will only need an hour to bath, dress up and have some breakfast," she adds.

Bryce slips under the blankets, he is not about to waste another minute up since his sleep time has to be limited, he might as well get on it.

Kiana pulls out the travel bags and starts packing for the vacation. Unlike Bryce she cannot afford a minute to lie down, she has to bath herself and the kids, make breakfast and pack everyone's bag except for Sam. He is old enough to handle his own packing. The name "Sam" repeats on her mind as a realization washes over her.

Sam doesn't know about the trip to Bahida, he still thinks he will be going to visit his mother later today. She cannot wake Bryce up now that he has already fallen asleep, she would hate to disturb him but she can't be the one to break the disappointing news to Sam. The last thing she wants is to give him the impression that she is against him visiting his mother.

She needs to avoid being called the evil step mother by all means. Bryce should be the one to break the news to Sam after all he is the one who made promises to him.

After she is done with packing the bags she wakes up baby Kiandra and gives her a bath. Thereafter she nurses her and places her in her swing chair.

She heads to Bryan's bedroom to wake him up and he is quick to complain.

"I don't want to bath right now mommy, I want to sleep," he grouches as he pulls up the blankets. Kiana yanks away his blankets, "Mommy you are being mean," he sulks at her.

"Guess what... mommy is taking you to Bahida City," she squeals expecting him to leap with excitement.

It is when she reads the confusion in his eyes that she remembers that Bryan is too young to know about Bahida City.

"Do you want to play at the beach...build a sandcastle and later on go on a boat ride and even ride a baby horse hmmm?" she wiggles her eyebrows.

"All of that happens at Bahida City?" His eyes brighten up and a wide grin quickly appears on his face.

"Yes...that and so much more and all you have to do is get out of bed and let mommy bath you and then we can go," she states.

Bryan doesn't need to be told twice, he ducks out of bed and races his mother to the bathroom. He is too excited and impatient that he cannot wait for his mother to catch up and run the bath water for him.

"Stop right there young man," she cautions Bryan who was about to twist open the hot water tap.

"How many times must I tell you not to touch the taps? The water can be very hot and you can get burnt my darling. You don't want to have ugly burn marks on those pretty little hands, do you?" She sternly lifts her brow.

"No...I'm sorry mommy I won't do it again," he mumbles.

Soon after Bryan is bathed and all dressed up, Kiana heads to Sam's room to ask him to bath and pack his bags. She idly stands by his doorway for a brief moment before she knocks softly on the door.

"Who is it?" He calls out from bed.

"Who do I say I am?" she silently questions herself. She is not used to her new name "Aunt Kiana" before Sam moved in her only names were Bryan's mommy and Bryce's sweetheart but now there is a new name she has to get used to.

"It's me...ugh...your...your Aunt...Kiana," she stammers....