The Billionaire's Second Chance

Chapter 10

Hannah

             It was around six at night by the time we got discharged, picked up dinner and made it home and saying I was exhausted was an understatement. Even though we just got home, I still had so much to do and I was not looking forward to any of it. I sat in the car for a moment with Bella and looked in the rear view mirror at the little boy sleeping in his booster seat. He looks so angelic and peaceful, like nothing even happened today. Even though he was the most unexpected thing in my life, he is the best thing that ever happened, even though every time I look at him, my heart hopes that one day, Austin will pull his head out of his ass and come to claim him and step up and be a father. It is still unfathomable how someone can say such disgusting things to a person they claimed to love for four years. I pursed my lips and calmed my breath, looking back at him. I can't help but smile. His dark brown hair fell slightly in front of his eyes, reminding me I needed to get him scheduled for a haircut. He stirred a little bit in his sleep, mumbling something that I couldn’t understand, but then he turned his head the other way.

             “What’s going through your mind?” Bella snapped me out of my thoughts. I looked over at her and smiled. Without her, I don’t know what I would be doing with my life. She has been my rock through everything, my sister. I've known her my entire life and she has always been there for me, through thick and thin. Ever since I found out I was pregnant, she has been his pseudo-father. Since I didn’t have any family, she went to every appointment with me, held my hand through the delivery, took care of Dylan while I was in the hospital after some complications, and has been there ever since and I know she will always be here with us.

             “I'm just thinking...” I sighed. She knew. She knew I thought about Austin constantly. I’ve tried to reach out to him throughout the years but I always got an email back stating to have no further contact with the Nicholson’s. It wasn't like I harassed them or anything. Once a year, I reached out around Dylan's birthday to see if Austin would change his mind. The last email I sent was when he turned four, almost a year and a half ago, he threatened a restraining order, so after that, I gave up.

             “You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?” I nodded; a small smile crept on my face but behind that smile was sadness, hurt, pain, longing. “I’m sure there is a reasonable explanation to everything Han. From what you told me about your relationship with him, this doesn’t sound like him.Four years is a long time to just throw away. You two have been honest with each other about almost everything except the whole marriage contract thing.”

             “Yeah, and that marriage contract thing was a hell of a topic to keep from me. I just can't help it though. I am so mad at him, so hurt, but every time I look at Dylan, I can't help but be happy that he gave me him. I just wish he would step up and be a father that Dylan needs and deserves.” I shook my head, trying to push all thoughts of Austin to the back of my mind. “Well, that's enough Austin talk. Let’s get inside, get this one to bed and eat dinner, yeah?” She nodded in agreement, listening to her stomach scream at her at the thought of food. We made our way out the door and I went and grabbed Dylan, having his body limp against my shoulder as I carried him up the small flight of stairs to our front door. Bella opened the front door and turned on the lights as I made my way to Dylan’s room. I carefully placed him down on the bed and tucked him in and sat on the edge for a few moments, taking in his peaceful demeanor. I brushed the hair from his face and kissed him on his forehead before heading back downstairs to the kitchen.

             “So, what do you think happened at the meeting we missed today?” Bella asked as I made my way to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of white wine and a wine glass. I helped myself to a large pour as I sat down at the island.

             “Not sure, but I’m sure if it was that important, Angela would have called us to give us more information. At this point, we are just waiting for the new CEO and CFO to give us a call to have a conversation with them about the meeting.” She nodded her head and took out two plates from the cabinet and started to dish out dinner for us.

             “You’re right. Speaking of...” My phone started ringing with an unknown number. I c****d my eyebrow at it and picked it up.

             “Hello?” I asked.

             “Is this Hannah?” A familiar voice came on the other end. I paused for a moment, trying to pinpoint where I heard this voice before. It's on the tip of my tongue.

             “This is her. May I ask whose calling?”

             “This is Elijah Sanders, the new CFO of Offbeat Incorporated, but you can call me Eli. Angela told my partner and I that you and Isabella wanted a phone call to go over the meeting since you two couldn’t be with us at that time. Is this a good time to call? We wanted to make sure you had time to settle at him after your son's emergency.” He sounded professional but his voice sounded so familiar. "By the way, how is your son? He had the staff worried a bit."

             “He's doing well, thank you for asking. The fever has gone down considerably. It ended up being an infection so he will be fine. Isabella and I are together right now. Do you mind if I put the phone on speaker?” I asked. That was actually quite considerate for him to ask about Dylan.

             “If you don’t mind that I do the same,” he chuckled.

             “Of course not.” And we both did just that, we both put our phones on speaker so we could have this meeting.

             “So, to go over a few items on the agenda, the only thing you really missed during the meeting was us introducing ourselves to the company and stating that we will be going department by department to evaluate and possibly make any changes needed to help the company run smoother and tighter. We will be going over the success rates of each member who handles different contracts and see what we can do to help utilize resources to make things run more efficiently.”

             “Sounds extremely reasonable.” Bella peeped in. “Sorry for my intrusion, my name is Isabella Williamson, part of the human resources team along with Hannah. I do have a couple of questions when it comes to the evaluations.” She stated before she was cut off by another voice.

             “Isabella Williamson?” a deep voice came on the line and I froze. Familar. It sent shivers down my spine. It made my heart flutter. I would forever have that voice engrained in my head. No, it couldn’t be. “Why does that name sound so familiar?” he asked quietly on the line while I heard shuffling papers. I pushed the mute button on the phone while the two gentlemen were going back and forth with each other for a few moments.

             “Do you think it’s him?” I asked, worry covering my face. "It can't be right? He's in California with Nicholson Marketing. He can't be in Texas, right? It just doesn't make sense." Word vomit is a terrible thing to have.

             “What are the chances....” she said softly.

             “Ask. Please.”

"You ask." She crossed her arms over her chest and propped her feet up against a chari.

"I can't. I just...I literally cannot make the words come out of my mouth." She rolled her eyes at me. I knew she was going to ask anyway, she just likes being a brat sometimes.

             We unmuted the phone and waited patiently while the boys were talking in hushed tones. “Excuse me gentleman.” Bella pipped in. “If you don’t mind me asking, no one has told us yet, but what company do you two work for? We've been curious, wondering who was going to be taking over Offbeat.”

             “Nicholson Marketing”, the deep voice stated, and my face went pale and flushed. I felt the heat drain from my body and I had to grip the counter to keep my balance. I really thought I was going to pass out. It would surprise me. “I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to introduce myself, the name is Austin Nicholson, CEO. Am I also speaking with Hannah Boyce?”

             “Y-yes sir.” I stuttered out. For the first time in my whole career, I have never been so happy to change my last name. After fighting with Austin over email about Dylan, I decided I needed to make myself disappear. I changed my last name to my mother’s maiden name soon after Dylan was born. Changing his last name to hers was a bit more complicated, but after some time, it was complete and a sense of relief and grief washed over me. Relief to know that Austin wouldn't be able to find us because he claimed Dylan wasn't his to begin with and grief to know that Dylan would never meet his father. That is, until he came waltzing back into my life, buying the company I work for. What was I supposed to do now? He's here and I can't avoid him. I looked over at Bella and her eyes were wide, worry flushed on her face along with mine. I slapped the mute button again. “I can’t do this, Bella. I can’t work with him.”

             “What do you plan on doing? It’s not like you can just leave.” And an idea popped into my head. I couldn’t leave town, I mean, I could. It would be easy. I have a large enough savings where we could start over somewhere new and somewhere far away from everything Austin, but I can't do that to Bella, not after everything she's done for us. Instead of leaving her, I could quit and go to a new job. There were plenty of businesses in the town of Crossdale and job openings were consistent and he would never know because this town doesn't know a Hannah Bence. Even if I had to take a small pay cut, I would. The threat of the restraining orders came back into my mind. I couldn’t risk it.

             “I’m going to do just that...” I stated to her.

             “Are you crazy? You’re the head of HR and you make such an impact on the company. You can’t just quit.” As we were having our small argument, Austin was on the line saying ‘hello’ and ‘are you ladies there?’. I forgot we muted them, so what did I do? I hung up on them. “What the heck Han? You might as well just have them tell us we’re fired now.” She rolled her eyes.

             “Your job is fine. I can’t work with him, Bella. I can’t risk him finding out about Dylan. He didn’t even want anything to do with him to begin with. If he follows through with his threats from before, it will make everything that much more complicated.”

             “Han. Breathe. Calm down. The email you last received was a year and a half ago. I am sure he doesn’t even remember. Don’t do anything rash before thinking it through.” I shook my head. I pulled away from her grasp, grabbed my phone and went upstairs to check on Dylan. He was still sleeping peacefully with no worry in the world, just the way it should. A small smile crept on my face but that smile soon faded as I heard Dylan whisper ‘daddy’ in his sleep and a small whimper escaped his lips. Talk about heart break.

             It has been a topic of conversation more recently that I have been avoiding. The other day, he asked if he had a daddy, because everyone else at the daycare has a daddy. I explained to him yes, he did, but his daddy was away and I didn’t know when he was coming back. I couldn’t tell a five-year-old that his father wanted nothing to do with him. I wiped the tear that ran down my cheek and made my way to my room, where I sat on my bed and pulled up my laptop to take a look at the emails that were sent throughout the day. I needed to keep myself busy, otherwise I was going to lose my mind.

             But that was a mistake. I couldn’t help myself. I pulled up the saved emails and read through them, coming to the last one that was sent by Austin. The one that solidified my decision to change my name and erase him from our lives.

             Hannah,

             Tell me, how are we supposed to believe that this child is mine? I am not entirely sure if you have been honest throughout our entire relationship. We haven’t spent the entire time together, so how am I supposed to know if you were faithful during the entire length? I know for a fact that we did not make a child. That is something I do not want or wish to have, as I have the future of my father’s company at stake along with my future with Amber. I wish to have no further contact with you regarding this matter or anything in the future. If you do not cease the emails, I will have no choice but to file a restraining order against you for harassment. I do wish you luck in your future endeavors and I hope you find out who the true biological father of your child is.

             Austin

             I cringed rereading the email for the first time in a while. I avoided these emails because every time I used to read them, I would go into a depressive state. I pulled up my work email, my fingers shaking with what I was about to do. It was a rash decision. I knew I wasn't thinking straight. It was a rough day, but I didn't care. I couldn't risk everything I've built for us. It is Dylan and I against the world and it always will be.

             To whom it may concern,

I regret to inform you; this will be my notice of resignation. My last day will be this Friday. I do apologize for the short notice. However, I will continue to work to the best of my ability to make the transition as smooth as possible.

I do want to thank you for the past 5 years and the opportunities the company has given me.

Thank you for your time

Hannah Boyce

Head of Human Resources