BXBX NOVEL Chapter 196 - Called
Lara helped Melanie bake some snacks for the pups, and then she reached her room.
Since there were people taking care of the house, there wasn't anything she could help with. Also, Nate had ordered her - using that imposing power of his, for a change - to relax and not worry about anything. He even took care of the twins that day. She was completely jobless.
As soon as she crossed the door, she noticed the led of her phone blinking, a signal that she had received a call. It was an unknown number. Probably a call centre, selling something she didn't have any use for.
She didn't think much until the phone rang in her hands. She winced, surprised, but she answered.
«Hello?» she muttered, cautious. If it was someone trying to sell things, she had to be careful with her words.
«Lara...» a man's voice said.
Her knees trembled, and she slipped down on the floor. Her back was on the door, feeling the cold wood but not registering it to the fullest. Her belly started hurting, and she bit her lower lip not to start crying.
«It's been so long,» that voice continued.
«L-long,» she stuttered. He had changed his number.
Or, most probably, he was calling for the phone of another person. He knew she wouldn't answer if he had used his own.
«I miss you.»
«I don't,» she sighed, returning conscious with each passing second. The shock faded away as she remembered what had happened years before.
She had been thrown out, and her brother didn't help her with anything. He watched as she left, and he never asked about her.
He had never called. He didn't even know if her baby was a boy or a girl. He couldn't know.
She hadn't asked for help from him because he also was a student back then. But she had felt disappointed he didn't offer her his support. Not even to listen to her worries and to say a few words at home.
Nothing.
And then, when things were starting to work out, he had reappeared.
She had just found a job. The cubs were turning two, and the babysitter she was paying was happy to keep them during the nights.
Then, her brother had found her. He had called and asked her to meet.
He was in debt. She didn't know why nor when, but he needed a huge sum of money and didn't have the guts to ask their parents.
«I messed up, Lara.»
Back then, she was still waiting for her mother to call and say she had changed her mind. Still, it had never happened. The only one calling her was a brother in need.
She had given him part of her savings with the promise to get them back in a couple of months. He said he wouldn't run away. He said he would be with her from that moment on.
Too bad, it was a lie. He disappeared with the money and never gave it back.
She had been forced to move cities soon after when the cubs had started turning. She didn't have enough money to buy new clothes and toys for her babies, and she had spent days crying because of her stupid decision.
How could she trust her brother with so much money? Moreover, she had known he was lying right from the start. He wouldn't have returned that money; that was not even the main problem.
Her real concern was to give a family to her cubs. She was ready to hand away even more money than that at the condition her brother stayed around. If he became an uncle for her kids.
Still, he hadn't even asked about a name.
«What do you want?» she inquired, hugging her knees and returning to the present.
The cubs would return home soon, and she wanted to have some time to hide the signs of that call. It was better to end it sooner.
«I'm calling just to ask you how you're doing,» he said. «And the kid. Of course. How is the kid doing?»
«Good. Never been better.»
Her voice was metallic, soulless. She was courteous enough not to hang up immediately.
«I'm happy about that! I've called you so many times today, but you answered only now... Were you busy? Don't tell me you're working, ah?»
She sighed, throwing her head back. She hit the wood of the door, but it didn't hurt one bit. Even the sound of the impact echoing in her brain wasn't troubling.
«Why are you calling?» She cut it short. Her nerves were failing her.
She couldn't allow a breakdown, at that moment, in that house. Not when Melanie could have heard her. What if she thought she was hysteric?
She had to keep her cool and reputation.
«I just wanted to hear from you. Mom told me she tried to call you as well, but you didn't answer. I bet you blocked her number, right?»
«What if I did?»
It was her right. Those people had nothing to do with her. Getting involved with them might have brought trouble. Not much to her; she didn't care. It would have been troubling for Nate and for their children.
She couldn't allow them to suffer because she was weak.
«It's your mother!»
«She said she has no daughters. Have you forgotten already? I'm on my own now. I don't need any of you anymore. Not as desperately as I needed you before.»
«You're so strong, Lara. You can make it on your own... It's always been like that.»
«Like what?» she snickered. «I've never done anything on my own until I had no choice. I had a comfortable life for years until it was all taken away from me in a single day. I wasn't strong before.»
«Shouldn't you be thankful for the first twenty years of your life? Is a single decision enough to erase everything? For real?»
She hung the call and threw the phone on the bed.. The device bounced on the mattress and fell on the other side, but Lara had no energy to get up and collect it from the ground.