The formidable Aiden Romanov

Chapter three

As soon as he left, the party resumed it’s usual glamour, Aiden was pushed to the back of the minds of everyone, no one really cared about him as there were no benefits attached. As Aiden walked away with nothing but Zia in his arms, no one could tell what he was thinking from his expressionless face, one of his hands were clenched in anger and frustration. 

Upon arriving outside the venue, he quickly flagged down a taxi wanting to be away from the place immediately. He entered the taxi with his daughter and gave the driver his address. Getting home, he quickly ran a bath for his daughter and soon tucked her in bed. 

“Daddy,”  Zia called out to him with a smile as Aiden tucked her in.

“Yes darling.”

“Is mummy going to come see me?” she inquired with an hopeful look on her face.

“Mummy has to be somewhere else right now but I’m sure she’ll  come see you when she returns.” Aiden had no choice but to lie to his daughter seeing the expectant look on her face, he couldn’t  bear to crush her little expectation by telling her the truth so he had to lie again

… like he always does.

“Can I wait up for her?” 

“No sweetheart, it’s past your bedtime. You have to get some sleep now.” He placed a kiss on her forehead and dimmed the bedside lamp, not giving her a chance to say another word.

Zia smiled at him as he was leaving the room. “Goodnight Daddy.”

“Goodnight princess.” A rare smile appeared on his face but as soon as he shut the door behind him, it was gone. Instead of walking away like he planned, Aiden sat at the entrance of his daughter’s  room and was soon lost in thoughts. 

He didn’t know whether Zia was aware of her mother’s hatred for her but he tried to hide from her, Aiden knew how much Amelia hated Zia since she was the reason why they got married. Amelia often referred to the girl as one of her mistake, she never had a good word for her, never had she smiled in Zia’s direction for once. 

Amelia laid in the hospital bed with a cold expression in her eyes, it was void of the excitement that came with giving birth to a child. 

“This is all your fault”  She would glance at Aiden every few seconds to blame him.

Before he could respond her, a nurse entered the room with a baby in her arms. As she proceed to show Amelia the child, who would expect that she would scream. “Take her away from me! Take her out of here, I don’t  want to ever see here! I want her out of here!”

Left with no other choice, Aiden could only go and carry his child. 

Aiden Reyes.

Hell, Reyes wasn’t even his last name, he couldn’t  recall his last name and all he remembered from his past was Aiden. 

He was nothing but a son in law who lived with his wife’s family, endured their insults, with no family, no backers, he didn’t even know when he was born or what his parents looked like. The only memory he could recall from the past was being raised in an orphanage, he didn’t know how he got there and he was never adopted. When he eventually turned eighteen, he left to find a path for himself, to build a life for himself. 

Five years ago, he and Amelia’s path crossed, they both got drunk and had a one night stand together. The next day, Amelia left him without saying a word but her face expressed her disgust for him. Two weeks later, he completely forgot about the event until some people came looking for him; turned out that Amelia was one of the daughters of the Reyes family; an influential family and was pregnant as a result of the passionate night they spent together.So her grandfather, the patriarch of the family insisted that she kept the child and also married him to prevent their family’s name from being dragged in the mud. 

Aiden couldn’t tell if he was happy about this arrangement, yes he wanted the child but he didn’t want to get married to someone who looked down on him since they were not of similar social status. He vehemently disagreed and after a few threats, he had no choice but to agree. All the man cared about was his family’s reputation and not Aiden’s opinion 

With no other choice, Aiden became a live in son in law of the family, he had nothing to his name so he was looked down upon by everyone in the family, no matter what he did, he was never accepted. One of the conditions attached to the marriage agreement was that the pair had to stay together for five years before they could go their separate ways; Aiden had completely forgotten about this and won’t have recalled it if not for his wife. 

‘Do not think that because of the this dumb arrangement, we are going to fall in love and live happily ever after.’

‘I do not ask for that, all I ask for is that you treat Zia well.”

“Zia?” Amelia laughed before she continued in a mocking tone. “That’s what you called her? Boring. I don’t  care about that child so don’t  expect me to show her a little love.”

Five years had passed and the couple would be going their separate ways, Aiden began to wonder how he was going to explain this to his daughter. Amelia was not entirely wrong when she stated that he relied on her, he couldn’t keep a job because he had to raise a child all on his own. He had to endure the insults from Amelia, her friends, her parents and other members of the family that disliked him. 

With various thoughts on his mind, Aiden fell asleep in the entrance of his daughter’s room.