THIRTY-TWO YEARS AGO…“Any questions?” Paul Richmond asked, facing the class. Nobody raised their hands. Everybody seemed disinterested in the class. They were all chatting and looking through their pagers. It was a typical college student attitude. Paul Richmond shook his head and reached for his bag. “Very well, we shall continue from where we stopped in our next class,” he said. The whole class rose from the seats immediately to leave the theater. “And read pages 56 to 77, for the term paper,” he added but he knew nobody had heard him. His voice had been buried in the ruckus caused by the students leaving the classroom. Paul grabbed his luggage and cursed under his breath. He hated his job but he needed it. He thought that teaching young college students would be a good thing, but it turned out to be one of the worst decisions he had made. He would have been better off with High school teenagers. Maybe they would have been worse than them. Who knew”“Umm…Professor Richmond?”
“Come in, Professor,” the man behind the desk said. Paul Richmond stepped into the office and closed the door behind him. As he took a seat before the desk, he knew why he was there. It meant that he was in big trouble. To be invited to the vice chancellor’s office could mean only one thing. Which was that he was getting fired. “You’re a smart man, Professor Richmond,” the vice chancellor said, arranging the files on his desk. “So I already know you guessed why you’re here.”Paul nodded in response. He had broken one of the academic laws in the school which was not to have any illegal affair with any of the students. Paul had broken that law when he got Lauren pregnant. It had all happened in a flash. Paul hadn’t seen it coming. Things had spiraled out of control ever since he had asked Lauren out for dinner. She had accepted and they had grown from there. They had gone out on dates pretty much after, and the class had spread rumors about them sleeping with each other. While those
Paul Richmond stormed into the hospital and rushed towards the hallway. He had heard that Lauren was on the verge of giving birth. He was both mad and hurt. Why would she rather go into the emergency room alone than call him? It didn’t make any sense. Arlene wasn’t around anymore which meant that she was all alone. She was an orphan with no parents and had been taking care of herself ever since she got into college. Paul hadn’t learned that until a few months ago. That had made him feel worse. He had indeed ruined her life and there was no way he could come back from this. All he had to do was hope that Lauren would end up forgiving him if he was doomed to feel this guilt forever. It had been nine months since the time he had spoken to her and Arlene just outside the vice Chancellor’s office. Lauren had told him she never wanted to see him again a couple of times after that day, but he had stuck around making sure that she barely had any complications. Paul hadn’t told her that her
“Come in, Mr. Richmond,” Doctor Meyers said. Paul nodded and stepped into the room. He was puzzled that the doctor would call him instead of letting him share a few more days with his son. Paul was the happiest man on earth right now. He finally had a family now. With Lauren accepting him back after everything, he hoped that this would be the start of something new. He was expecting a reply from the college he had applied for in Texas this week. Hopefully, he would get hired and they could all move there. Maybe Lauren could restart school there, and they could share responsibilities on who would hold the baby. Everything seemed to be working out better than he had expected. This was because Arlene wasn’t here. She would have whispered into Lauren’s ear telling her how bad a decision this was. But Lauren knew that the baby and she needed him. There was no way she would be able to provide for herself without him. She was still in the sick bed trying to recover from the delivery, and
Paul Richmond barged into the hospital making his way through the hallway in a hurry. He was just told that Lauren had finally returned after going missing for over two days. Paul was infuriated, but all he hoped was that she was still with the baby. He could remember being dumbfounded after finding out that she had fled the hospital with their son, Rylan. He couldn’t understand what would prompt that move. They had agreed to take care of the child together when they moved to Texas together, but it seemed like she had other plans in her mind. What had she done, and where had she gone?Paul was going to find out soon. He arrived at the door of Dr. Meyers’ office and knocked on it impatiently. “Come in,” a muffled voice ordered. Paul gripped the doorknob and swung open the door stepping into the office. In the office sat Lauren. She was sitting before the desk with Dr. Meyers looked directly at her. They seemed to be having a conversation before his interruption.Lauren turned slo
Dr. Meyers shut the door of his office heading towards Lauren’s room. It had been two weeks after the incident at his office. He had broken the news to Lauren about her hemorrhage, and she had taken it better than he had expected. After her meeting with Paul, he had prescribed a few pills for her to take which would help with the hemorrhage, but she had refused to do so. Dr. Meyers had been shocked by this. Her condition had become critical, and now he was heading to her room to prepare her die surgery. The hemorrhage would have to be removed for her to live. If it didn’t work out, she was going to leave behind an innocent kid to an arrogant man like Paul Richmond. This isn't something Dr. Meyers would wish on anybody. He arrived at the room all dressed in his lab coat and knocked on the door. There was no response. He felt that she was dressing up in preparation for the surgery and that there were a couple of nurses in there with her, so he waited. Dr. Meyers hadn’t talked to Pau
LOS ANGELES, PRESENT DAY. Rylan was shaken as he stared at the floor. Hearing his father’s side of the story had truly opened his eyes. It seemed everybody had a different perspective on the story, but he would have loved to hear it from his mother’s mouth. He wasn’t going to be that gullible to his father. There is every possibility that his father could be trying to manipulate him. Rylan didn’t care if it was paranoia knocking on his door. He wasn’t going to let somebody who had been absent throughout his life change the way he thought about his mother. He refused to believe that his mother would give him away like that after Paul had promised them a happy home in Texas. Why would she choose to hand him knelt to Arlene rather than move to a new city with him? Maybe she didn’t love him anymore? Maybe she hated him so much. It could be understandable. Paul had told him that she hated him because he had ruined her life with the pregnancy. Rylan couldn’t help but feel like a problem
Paul Richmond couldn’t describe the mix of emotions he felt. He was happy that his son was alive but was also sad that he had given up on searching for him. He had feared that Rylan had been dead all alone, and that was why he had never bothered to go and search for him. But now, he was at his mother’s grave trying to pay his last respects. It was raining heavily now, and Rylan hadn’t come in yet. Paul feared that something was wrong. And so he decided to go out and look for him. He picked up a raincoat and pulled out an umbrella before stepping into the rain. He walked through the backyard heading towards the little garden where the three tombstones were. The garden had been made by Lauren’s mother, Agatha. Lauren had decided to look after the garden after her demise. And Paul had promised on her grave that he would look after the garden for her. That was why he was staying here. He had run away at first to Texas after burying her. He had thought he could escape his past, but it