Contract Marriage with my ex

Chapter 4-Spooked

/Gray’s POV/

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I left the house running like I was being chased.

Her words kept replaying in my mind like a bad tape.

“She’s your kid too, y'know.” Those words continue to haunt me. Me? A kid? This has to be some sort of mistake. I thought before the image of the little girl filled my mind. To be honest, she looked nothing like Amelia.

Those brown locks that looked similar to mine, a total opposite of Amelia’s slick black hair, her golden brown skin that contrasted Amelia’s porcelain skin tone but matched mine, a vivid evidence of her black lineage, and those brown eyes, the colour of water-soaked earth...

I halted in my walk as my hands found their way to my mouth. This is unbelievable. What if that really was our kid together?

Something inside me whispers but she can’t just come back here after five years and expect everything to be alright again. The voice came again, probing me.

Yeah…I still couldn’t get over her disappearing on me five years ago, and now she’s back with a kid to top it. This is insane. How exactly am I supposed to react to all of this?

“What the…what are you doing here?”

The moment I left the house, I found myself heading straight for Deigo’s house with nothing more than my phone in my side pocket and my wallet in my back pocket.

I couldn’t even grab my car keys because I was afraid I'd suffocate if I stayed a second longer in that house.

Diego is an American-Filipino-Hindi hacker who works for me. He runs our security database and tracks our clients.

He’s a cyber-security expert in charge of keeping our reckless clients safe digitally. It’s part of what they pay for.

Diego and I met back when Addy disappeared, I paid him back then to help search for Addy. He was pretty much convinced at the time that I was dating a ghost because there was little to no information on Addison, but now I know why.

“Gray, are you good? you look... a little spooked,” Diego noticed as I stood blankly in front of his apartment door.

“Can I crash here tonight?” I found myself asking. I guess my request caught him by surprise since he looked pretty shocked.

"Yeah, sure, why not? But are you sure you’re okay?” He asked as he left the door wide open for me to walk in.

How exactly am I supposed to start explaining to him that the ex I was looking for back then is alive, well, and sound, but as a completely different person, and we even have a kid together?

This is all so overwhelming, really, but how I wish that was the only thing I was feeling.

The anger I felt towards Addy back at the house was unhealthy; I can’t believe I lost my temper and screamed at her in front of the kid. Control hasn’t always been my greatest suit. I hope she’s gone by the time I return; I really can’t bear to face her or the kid.

"Gray,” Diego called as I stared blankly at his sofa instead of sitting. “So, you wanna talk about it or you’re just going to keep blinking soulessly in the middle of the room and don’t even try to wave it off; something’s definitely wrong. Is it your dad again?” Right, that old man too is also there.

“No, I already made it clear I’m not going back home. It’s not that…it’s-” I sighed deeply. “It’s Addy,” I finally voiced as I settled into his chair while he walked over to his kitchen facing his sitting room to get me a drink.

"What, Addy, oh, your runaway girlfriend... you still haven’t given up looking for her, believe me; if I can’t find her, I’m sure no one can,” he boasted.

“Well, the thing is, you know that new client I’m supposed to be meeting today?” I asked and he hummed in response.

“You mean Amelia Verde. I hope you treated her well. She’s pretty high profile. It’s surprising you would apply to our security company with other big ones out there but applying to our security company means she couldn’t trust anyone of her own circle. Poor girl. She must be feeling pretty overwhelmed right now after her grandfather collapsed. So, did you get her to sign the contract and which bodyguard are you assigning to her?-

"Hey, hold up, can you let me land?” I asked, rubbing my tired eyes as he continued to go on about Amelia Verde.

Of course, I know she’s pretty high profile; signing her into the watch list would help the company’s image, but the problem is, she’s my f*****g ex-girlfriend and possibly my baby mama.

“What if I told you Amelia Verde was my ex-girlfriend?” I stated after Diego managed to shut up for a second.

He smirked and walked up to me with a glass of what seemed to be a fruit drink. Which he gently placed on the table in front of me.

“That’ll be crazy and it’s totally impossible. Your girlfriend’s name is Addy.” He reminded, raising his glass to his mouth while I ran my hands through my hair, an attempt to calm my overheating brain as my hand landed on my neck.

“But she is,” I groaned.

“That’s impossible,” Diego argued.

“Do you still have the profile you sent me about her?” I asked.

Diego was also sort of our information broker. Most of our clients have a lot to hide so Diego was in charge of pulling up information they wouldn’t like to share to help decide if our personnel is worth risking their lives in protecting them since body-guarding can be pretty dangerous and most of our clients are shady assholes.

So, the information he pulls up makes me decide if the clients is worth risking our lives for but even Diego wasn’t able to find out about Amelia’s daughter, possibly my daughter. I’m not sure yet; the kid might not be mine.

"Yeah, I do. Why?” Diego finally responded after some short thinking.

“Do you mind showing me that information you have with you?” I asked and he narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me, though he still stood, walked into his room and returned with his laptop.

With the document opened on it. I zoomed into Amelia’s photo and pulled up my phone. Scrolling down to the few pictures of Addy I still have saved on my phone.

I remember deleting most of them cause I was so pissed when she left but there are some I still couldn’t bring myself to delete. So, I handed my phone to Diego and let him compare the pictures and as his gaze moved from the picture on the laptop screen to the phone screen, I could see the shock spread through his face.

“So, imagine how I felt when I got there, seeing her in that chair-

“Maybe they just look alike. They might not be the same person.” It’s funny how I thought exactly the same way he did. I guess anyone would think that.

“Well, that was my thought but I was wrong, Diego. She is Addison. My Addy” I declared.

“That explains why I wasn’t able to find her all those years ago. That’s amazing, bro, to think you dated that hotshot back then... but I don’t get it though. Why did she hide her identity?" Even Diego was confused.

“Well, I didn’t really get to ask because I was busy trying to digest that we had a kid together-

“What?” Diego frowned.

“She said we have a kid together and now I’m so confused. Something tells me she set up our meeting on purpose. She wanted to meet me but I have no idea why and I didn’t get to ask because I was busy raging at her, and when I couldn’t take it anymore. I just left,” I explained before leaning back into the sofa, feeling the whole world weigh down on my shoulders.

“But Amelia Verde doesn't have a child. She’s single. There was even a time when she appeared in a magazine as one of the most eligible spinsters in all of Los Angeles. She’s smart and comes from a good family,” Diego explained while sipping his drink.

“According to insiders information, she’s supposed to lead her grandfather’s company if he dies. Every major decision about the Jade Co. runs by her first so she was even called ‘the flower of the Verde family’ because of how many people would die to marry her, but since they’re pretty old money, she’s probably going to end up in some unwanted arranged marriage or something and there’s this Russian millionaire that’s had his eyes on her for a while-

“I’m not kidding you, bro,” I cut in sharply. “I saw the kid with my own eyes,” I gritted, and I felt a headache suddenly kick in. “The kid called her 'mommy," I added.

“Well, maybe they’ve been hiding the kid from the public. That’s also possible; not sure how they did it but they managed to. There was a time they hid Amelia from the public too. Her existence only becomes known to the public after her parent’s death as well. Come to think of it. The time Amelia’s existence was hidden matched the period you were dating,” I blinked as I watched Diego run his hands over his computer.

“But why did she need to hide? Why is she hiding the kid too? Oh God, I have so many questions,” I groaned.

“I’m right,” Diego declared before turning his laptop to face me.

“8 years ago, Amelia was declared to be studying abroad, so no one really knows what she looks like or how she’s been living until her parent’s funeral. Which was her very first public appearance” Diego explained.

My heart squeezed in my chest as image of Amelia in all black surfaced. The picture was probably taken during the funeral; she looked... lifeless.

"Gray,” Diego called, and I glanced up to meet his rueful eyes.

“That picture was taken on the same day you came to find me. The day you paid me to find her for you.” My heart sank even deeper after Diego's words. She lost her parents? Is that why she disappeared?

“I’m guessing the reason no one heard or knew anything about her until that time was because of her fake identity. This information must be highly classified. This is crazy, really. To think I’m witnessing this firsthand... I can’t believe it. My friend dated a hidden heiress; that’s lit, bro... what makes this even crazier is ‘your’ identity. Does she know? Who you really are? About your family?” Diego asked and I sighed.

“That’s already in the past, Diego. I’m just Gray Clarke now and I intend to live like that but I guess I should meet her one more time to talk.” I decided.

----------