"Desmond." Angela whispered when she heard the familiar voice. She turned and sure enough, Desmond was standing right there, fuming. He would have hit her if he was a violent kind of man.
"Did you really think I would let you get away?" He roared. He sighed in relief. He had made it on time. He had received a call from the school, informing him that Angela had made away with Rosaly despite being denied the permission and had mentioned catching a flight. Luckily, Zeus had managed to track down her location before she could get too far.
"I can explain." She burst into tears.
"Ma'am, if you are not going to check in, then leave the queue." A security guard politely reminded her.
There was no point insisting on going when Desmond was already here. He would not let her go no matter what she said. So she let his bodyguard take Rosaly from her and approached Desmond with tears in her eyes.
"I didn't have a choice. You were going to take her away from me." She wailed, their argument earning them attention from passers by.
"Was I? I was going to contend for her custody with you. Why did you immediately assume you would lose? Is it because you already know that you are an evil woman who is not fit to be a mother?" He did not shy off from the eyes of the public. Angela was using the public to gain sympathy but so could he.
He took Rosaly from his bodyguard and turned to leave.
"Can I say goodbye to her before you leave?" She pleaded tearfully.
"No." He pushed her away from him. "You will never see her again."
He was too focused on dismissing Angela and only realized the impact of his words when the girl in his arms burst into tears.
"Mommy!"
"Rosaly," He cursed inwardly. He shouldn't have said it aloud. What would he do now? It was even worse to lie to her.
"I want mommy!" She sobbed.
"Did you catch up?" Zaria hurried over and ran to Desmond as soon as she saw Rosaly in his arms.
"Rosaly, why are you crying?" She gently asked and shot a glare at the sobbing mess that Angela had become.
"Zaria!" Rosaly held out her arms and when Zaria took her, she cried against her shoulder. "I want mommy. Daddy said mommy and I will not see each other anymore."
"Sweetie, don't cry, okay? Let's talk about this on our way home." She coaxed her.
"You witch! Don't you dare take my daughter away!" Angela yelled and launched at Zaria, only to be stopped by Desmond's bodyguards. She strained against their strong arms. "If you want kids so badly, why don't you have some yourself?"
Zaria made a dramatic turn. "Don't you know, I am already having one." She placed a hand on Rosaly's back and sauntered away, leaving Desmond behind.
"Just so you know, we are still meeting in court to battle this out legally." He threw the words at her and walked off to join Zaria and Rosaly. He knew that passers by loved drama and he had seen several of them with their phone cameras aimed at them, recording the incident. It was surprising that they had not been kicked out for causing a distraction in the airport.
Once they were in the car, Rosaly stood on the seat to peek into the airport for her mother.
"Rosaly, there is something daddy needs to explain to you." She held the girl to face Desmond. She didn't want to, so she turned back to hug Zaria.
Desmond was at a loss. If this was her reaction after saying that Angela would not see her anymore, just how much would she hate him once she understood the meaning of custody rights? He looked at Zaria pleadingly and she knew the meaning of his gaze.
She hugged Rosaly. "Sweetie, do you want to go back to school?"
Rosaly shook her head.
"Then I'll help you take a day off. We can go out to play together. Later, we can cook, watch a movie." She coaxed.
"I want to watch Frozen." Rosaly's interest perked up.
"Of course. We will watch Frozen all evening and ignore Daddy." She tapped her nose.
"Ignore me?" Desmond complained.
Zaria glared at him to play along. "You upset my best friend. Of course we are going to ignore you."
He smiled once he understood that this was her way of making Rosaly miss him.
She held onto Zaria's dress with her shoulders trembling in nervousness. "Zaria, will you hate me if you have a baby?"
The urge to stab Angela intensified. Did she get off on distressing her own daughter?
"Of course not." She promised. "If I have a child, I will love both of you. Friends love each other forever, right?"
Rosaly was relieved and a smile finally formed on her lips.
Zaria took the chance to tell her the important news. "Do you know what the best part is?" Rosaly shook her head and she continued, "If I have a child, you will have a brother or a sister."
"Yay!" The little girl's eyes lit up in excitement. "I want a brother! Then Laia will stop bragging
about her brother to me."
Zaria chuckled. When she was young, her friends would brag about their siblings to her as well.
"Well, if you have a sister, you will have a companion to play with." She touched her stomach. "In about seven months, you will have a brother or a sister."
Rosaly was so excited by the news that for the rest of the way, she prattled on about how she wanted to play with her brother and watch Frozen with him. She would bring him to school to meet her friends and share her snacks with him.
Zaria, who was listening the entire way, hoped the girl would not be disappointed if she turned out to have a sister instead of a brother. She was certainly more biased towards the latter.
…
It didn't take long before the entire internet was talking about Angela, Desmond and Zaria. At first, Angela had manipulated everyone to think she was a pitiful mother who had been snatched her daughter by a heartless couple but the more it progressed, the more netizens started to realize that she was in the wrong.
Someone even leaked that Annoix Academy had banned her from its premises for potential child abduction and would henceforth only allow Desmond to pick Rosaly up from school.
Zaria let out a sigh of relief when she read the last part. This meant Angela would no longer be able to steal Rosaly away. She was sitting on his bed while he searched for what to wear to their dinner with Rosaly. They had played all afternoon and later, Rosaly had begun to miss her father and had agreed to have dinner out with him and Zaria.
"You made this happen, right?" She asked, referring to Annoix Academy's announcement. "There is no way a school will ban a mother from picking her child and even on the slight chance that they will, such news cannot leak on its own."
"You catch up quickly." He praised her with a smile.
He wanted this matter to come to an end as fast as possible so, although he'd had to pull strings, the court case would commence in a month instead of two.