C4 The Truth Ava Hides

Ava had a hard time sleeping. Not this time. She lay staring at the ceiling the whole nite and Noah slept peacefully in the next room, oblivious to the fact that one single encounter had flipped her neatly ordered world upside down. Every time she closed her eyes she pictured Liam inside her cafe looking at Noah, scrutinising him with a growing intensity that made her chest clench with dread. The memory kept repeating itself over and over again, harsher and sharper with every look and every face she thought about it.

The similarity was always there. The older Noah became, the harder it was to dismiss. When he was a newborn it hadn’t been clear. He had Ava's cheekbones, Ava's grin, Ava's laugh. But as the years rolled on, Liam had started to show up in ways she could not dismiss. It had happened so gradually that she had not recognised it at first. Then one day she had glanced at her son and saw it plain. The eyes. The jaw line. The looks. stubbornness, even. Especially, the obstinacy.

She’d told herself for years that it wouldn’t matter. Liam wasn't part of their lives. He did not come here to compare traits, or to look for commonalities. The truth was well buried enough, hidden by time and distance and silence. Now for the first time in five years the frail feeling of security had crumbled. And all because Liam Stone had stepped through the door of her café.

Ava sighed, and looked at the clock on her bedside table. 6:14 a.m. Sleep was plainly not an option now. She tossed and turned for hours, but her thoughts kept going back to yesterday's meeting, to every look, every word, every feeling she had tried to bury for five years. She threw back the sheets and rose to prepare for the day. The café will open in an hour and life didn’t halt because the past had decided to walk back into it.

Morning rush hour, as usual. Orders for coffee lined the counter, the regulars passed through the doors and fresh pastries flew out of the display case nearly as fast as they were put in. The regular rhythm of the place helped Ava’s anxiety calm, and kept her focused on heating milk, taking orders, exchanging pleasantries with customers. She may tell herself for a little while, that yesterday was nothing more than an unpleasant surprise.

Then the entrance of the café opened. Ava’s whole body went rigid and her eyes darted to the door so swiftly it almost ached. For one horrible instant her heart bounded into her throat.

Not Liam. Merely a consumer. Relief washed over her, then, almost instantly, self-reproach. Ava chastised herself in silence for her reaction; she relaxed her shoulders, and then focused her attention on the register once more. This was nuts.

Liam wasn’t going to come every day. He had a company to manage, meetings to attend, investors to please and board members to cater to. He was one of the busiest men in the country, a man with a schedule booked weeks in advance and a man whose time was worth more than most people earned in a year. He had more important things to accomplish than explore a woman he'd dated five years ago.

But the question kept coming back to her. She thought of how he had looked at Noah and a knot of apprehension tightened in her stomach. It was not the passing look or polite interest. It had been the probing, calculating stare of a man trying to work out a riddle, and Ava knew better than anybody that Liam Stone had never been the sort to walk away from unanswered questions.

The bell sounded again. Ava looked up, almost dropping the tray she was carrying. It wasn’t Liam in the doorway. It was Ethan Reyes. Liam’s best friend. Ava’s stomach plummeted the moment she recognised him. Oh no. No. No, no, no. Of all the individuals who could have come through that door, Ethan was the last person she wanted to see.

Ethan saw her very immediately and smiled. “Ava.”

She managed a smile of her own, but it was a stiff and unnatural smile on her face. “Hey, Ethan.”

As he walked to the counter her stomach twisted into a knot. He was precisely how she remembered him: affable, intelligent, and far too watchful. The easy grin and laid back attitude fooled most people, but Ava knew different. Ethan was observant. He always did. That made him exceedingly dangerous right now.

He said, “Long time.”

“It’s been five years.”

Ethan nodded slowly. “So on that.”

The way he said it told her all she needed to know. The knowledge dawned and a knot clenched in Ava’s stomach. This wasn't a coincidence. This wasn’t about coffee. He'd come because Liam had sent him. Ava had known it the moment she'd seen him step through the door.

Unfortunately Ethan was not a bad guy and that made it all the harder somehow. It would have been easy to dismiss him if he had been intentionally harsh, unpleasant and arrogant. But he was polite, sensible, and far more understanding than she wanted him to be. That made it harder to ignore the reason for his coming and the painful truth that lay between them.

“Can I get something for you?” Ava asked, attempting to sound professional as a storm of emotions threatened to break free inside her.

“Coffee.

"Anything else?"

Sluggish, achingly familiar, far more deadly than it had any right to be. Ethan smiled. “Answers…”

Ava nearly laughed against her will. She hadn't expected honesty from this talk. "I've got none of those left."

Ethan laughed. “Sounds like Liam said the same thing.”

He sure had. Both men had always had the same stubbornstreak. They were annoyingly persistent, determined and a pain in the ass when they wanted anything. Neither knew how to walk away from a goal once they set their minds to it. Ethan smiled weakly and lifted his cup to drink. “Would’ve been awkward.”

Ava couldn't help but feel the hint of a smile threatening to show, but she swiftly suppressed it. Ethan’s attention moved to Noah’s customary table, where the small child was colouring a rocket ship, blissfully ignorant that the adults surrounding him were perched on the precipice of a truth that may change all of their lives. Ava's heart sunk as a heavy realisation crept in her chest.

There it is. The real purpose of the visit. Ethan stared at her for a few good seconds, long enough to confirm what she'd already assumed. There was a flash of understanding on his face as he slowly looked back up at her.

“Oh.” Just the one word made her stomach churn. The same reaction he'd had yesterday, the same reaction Liam would have had.

“Don’t.

Ethan blinked. “Eh?”

“Just don’t.”

His expression relaxed and Ethan appeared really embarrassed for the first time since entering. The realisation hung heavy between them, impossible to ignore, and Ava wished she could take the talk back before it was here. She saw what he saw. And worse, she knew precisely where his head was going.

Equal parts irritation and resignation, Ethan’s deep sigh echoed across the air. It was the sigh of a guy who has suddenly discovered himself standing in the center of a minefield, knowing that any step forward may be tragedy. “Does Liam know?”

The question hit Ava like a blow to the chest, knocking the air from her lungs. She dropped her gaze, reluctant to meet Ethan’s eyes. She couldn't speak. Not really. But not without kicking off a cascade of events that would change everything she had spent years protecting. The quiet between them was thick and heavy, full of all the secrets she had held, all the truths she had never spoken aloud. It closed in on her from all sides until even breathing was hard.

And she watched it occur. Understanding crossed Ethan’s face and her stomach slumped as the pieces finally fell into place. His face went white. Shock swept across his face, followed by bewilderment and something that was dangerously close to ruin. His eyes probed hers as if he hoped urgently she would contradict whatever conclusion he had come to.

But Ava didn’t say anything. And in that quiet he had all the confirmation he needed. "Oh God," Ava squeezed her eyes shut, worry and fear coiling inside her. Her chest was filled with panic and the knot in her gut twisted cruelly as she battled to keep her face serene.

Liam had read the identical document three times in the past hour and could recall none of it. Each time he reached the end of the page he knew he had no idea what he'd just read. His eyes kept straying from the statistics and the legal jargon, pulled back time and time again to a little neighbourhood café on the opposite side of the city. To Ava, more explicitly. To Noah.

He could not forget the sparkling blue eyes of the tiny kid. Nor the unnerving similarity he’d detected in the café. His mind kept replaying the interaction every time he tried to concentrate on work, picking apart minutiae he hadn't paid much attention to before, and scrutinising details he couldn't seem to get past now.

It didn't add up. Or maybe it made too much sense.

Either way, Liam couldn't focus. His thoughts kept returning to the café, to Ava, and to the little child whose face he couldn't get out of his head. He attempted to concentrate on the reports that were strewn out on his desk, but his attention wandered.

There was a loud knock at the door. “Come in..”

Ethan stepped inside and closed the door behind him, then crossed the office to sit across from Liam's desk. As soon as he came in Liam's face lifted hopefully, the strain in the tightness of his shoulders, the sharpness of his eyes. “Well?”

Ethan didn’t answer right away. Instead he stared at Liam for a long while, as if trying to decide how best to impart whatever information he had unearthed. The silence that followed stretched between them, thick with expectancy, and Liam felt his patience wear thinner with every second that passed.

Still Ethan didn't say anything. There was something odd about the sincerity on his friend's face that made him uneasy. Liam frowned as a knot of anxiety knotted in his chest. His heart quickened. “What was it?”

Ethan looked at him for a long moment, his expression opaque. “You don’t truly know?”

The words hit harder than they ought to have. Liam gently moved forward in his chair, meeting Ethan’s eyes, and a knot of discomfort clenched in his chest. There was something about his friend's expression that immediately put him on edge, the feeling only increasing as the silence between them stretched. Ethan looked uneasy. Trapped. Like he was standing at the edge of a conversation he didn't want to be a part of.

“What don’t I know?”

Ethan sighed heavily and ran a hand across his face. Liam’s heartbeat went up even just from the reaction. Ethan had never been the hesitant kind in all the years they'd known each other. He was forthright, direct and seldom had to labour to express what was on his mind. Liam’s sense of dread was building by the minute as he watched the man becoming more and more restless. “This is a fucking disaster.

Liam’s patience cracked at last. “Ethan.” It was a warning, pure and simple.

Ethan finally looked up and for the first time Liam saw true concern in his eyes. Worry. Empathy. Sympathy. Maybe even sympathy. A chill settled in Liam's stomach. Ethan wasn’t dodging the conversation because he wanted to spare his feelings. He was avoiding it because whatever he’d learnt was horrible enough to make him pause.

Liam's stomach was in knots. “What’s going on?“he asked.

Ethan stopped, as if considering his words. The pause deepened the discomfort already churning inside Liam before he finally added, “The kid.”

Liam stiffened. “What about him?” he asked, but the look on Ethan’s face already had unease crawling under his skin. Liam had a feeling he wasn't going to like anything Ethan was about to say.

Ethan snorted, but there was no humour there. The sound remained in the ensuing silence, making the air between them heavy until it was stifling. Both men were silent for a moment. Then Ethan sprang forward, his gaze fixated on Liam, firm and unblinking.

“Look at a photograph of yourself at age five.”

The words hit with a shattering force, a tangible shockwave that rippled through Liam. For one horrible moment the noise of the café ceased, and the world became nothing but one single, impossible idea. Nope. That could not be. His mind rejected it outright, for if it were true, if Noah was really his son, then he’d lost five years he’d never get back. Five years of birthdays and bed times. Five years of first words, first steps, school mornings, skinned knees and every beautiful moment that should have been his as much as it was Ava's. All of you. And after all those years Ava had never told him.

Ethan saw the slow, agonising shock spread across Liam’s face, like if a wound was opening after years of scabbing over.

“Oh God,” Liam murmured, the words barely escaping his lips.

Ethan didn’t reply, there was nothing he could say. Nothing could make it any better. Nothing could account for five lost years, nothing to explain a fact that had just blown apart everything Liam believed he understood. Liam pulled his chair back, standing up so quickly the legs grinded against the floor.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“I’m going to go see her.”

“Maybe not now.”

He clenched his jaw. “Why?””

“Because you’re mad right now.”

He broke into a nasty, piercing, humourless laugh. There was no amusement in the sound, only irritation and something far deeper boiling underneath. He raked a hand through his hair, glanced away for a while, trying to hold back the emotions that threatened to boil over.

He felt ill and bewildered and afraid and happy and angry all at once. The feelings were all mixed up and crashing together so hard he could hardly tell one from the next. His thoughts were a jumble of astonishment and amazement but underlying the chaos was something much stronger than fear or wrath, something that wouldn't be silenced no matter how hard he tried. He wanted answers.

The past had haunted him for five years, in ways he rarely let himself admit to, in sleepless nites and stolen moments of recall. Now it was just a few feet away, staring back at him with the unmistakable blue eyes of a tiny kid named Noah. Something shifted under Liam, and what he thought he knew, he felt it move beneath him, and the realisation was heavy in his chest. In that second he saw with shocking clarity that the life he’d created over the past five years was not the life that lay ahead of him now.