Ex-Husband's Regret (Ava and Rowan) novel Chapter 113

“What the fuck is he doing here?” Rowan booms, his cold grey eyes shooting daggers at Ethan.

I was really not in the mood deal with his tantrums. Yes he was there for me yesterday, but that doesn’t mean he has a say on who is in my home.

Theo or should I say my dad clears his throat. It was going to take some time to get used to the idea of calling him dad.

The sound of his voice pulls everyone’s eyes to him.

“Theo Howell?” Rowan says in surprise but he quickly hides it. “What are you doing here?”

Rowan looks between all of us. His eyes moving from Theo and Nora then back at me. Slowly connecting the dots.

“It’s been a while Rowan, though I can’t say that I am pleased with how you’ve treated my daughter” Theo says with a dangerous smile on his lips.

“What he means to say is, we’re downright pissed off with the way you and your family has treated our daughter and we can’t see ourselves having such business partners” Nora adds. She doesn’t smile and for the first time since she came to my house, I feel hostility and hatred radiating off her.

“How’s this possible?” Travis has shock written all over his face.

Like I said, everyone in the country knows who the Howell’s are. They may like to keep their life private, but they’re still known.

“Oh, trust me darling…anything in this world is possible” Nora says glaring at him. Fire burning behind her eyes.

I look at Emma and she too had a shocked expression. Her mouth hang open in disbelief. If she wasn’t careful she would catch a fly.

“Can we just get this over with so that you may all leave?” I ask looking directly at him.

He nods his head and pulls out his laptop. He sets it down and we gather around it. He doesn’t waste any time skyping mother. Soon her face fills the screen.

“Winnie wanted a child, but didn’t want to ever get married again or have artificial insemination so she settled on adaption. About a month after she made that decision, she was called by her mother. She was told that the preacher of their church found a baby outside the church and was wondering if anyone wanted to adopt her”

We all look at each other. Was it a coincidence? Was the preacher Winnie’s mother was talking about, my grandfather? It was too much to be just a coincidence.

Mother continues. “She took a one week break and went back to her home town to get the baby. We expected her back a week after, but she ended up taking two weeks, but finally she got the baby and came back. No one knew who the baby’s mother was and had no identification on her. The preacher said it was probably a scared teen that gave birth and left the baby there”

“Since there wasn’t an issue, the social worker allowed Winnie to come back with the child as she prepared the paper works for adoption. The baby was a blessing to Winnie, she named her Ava. That baby she adopted was you” mother says looking at me before continuing “I had not seen her that happy since her husband died. It’s like Ava breathed life back into her and Winnie adored her. Loved her like she was her own”

She pauses and I take a moment to digest what she just told us. Winnie seems like a great woman.

“If she loved me like you say, why didn’t she raise me? How did I end up as part of the Sharp family?”

“About a year after she got you, she was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. The doctors told her it was too late for her and that she only had a few months to live. Before she died, she asked us to take you in. To adopt you. We didn’t want to, we already had two children and we didn’t want anymore”