Chapter 16″ I’m a father
“Miss Hilton! Miss Hilton! Are you alright?”
Lisa’s voice brought Tessa back to the present. It had been an hour since Aaron rushed out of her office as if his life depended on it. All she knew was that his daughter called and he dropped everything and went to be there for her.
Tessa didn’t mean to feel bad. She just couldn’t help but wonder if Aaron would show the same love to her three children who longed for a father’s love if he knew about them.
She ended up zoning in and out the entire time during the meeting as they planned the week’s schedules.
“What is wrong with you? You’ve been like this from the time that jerk, Aaron, left. Don’t tell me seeing him brought back your old feelings for him?” It was Michelle who remarked this time.
Tessa sighed and shook her head. Love? She didn’t know what that was anymore.
Smiling at her friend, she explained, “I just got disturbed. He signed a contract with us so I’ll be seeing him a lot. I’m worried he will see the kids.”
Michelle let out a sigh of relief knowing Tessa wasn’t still in love with the man who broke her heart. She smiled and assured her. “Don’t worry. He wouldn’t do anything with me here. My family has ties with the military.”
Tessa raised her eyebrow at her. “You mean the ties you broke when you escaped from getting engaged with the pretext of studying overseas?”
Michelle rolled her eyes. “We are still family friends. I just couldn’t marry a military man. They are busy all the time. And often away from home. I don’t want to live like a widow or worry all the time if my husband will return or not.”
Tessa chuckled. “It may not be like that at all. You didn’t even give the man a chance. How did you know you would be lonely? And what if you just missed out on your soulmate?”
Michelle sighed. She had watched too many movies and heard too many stories. She didn’t want to suffer in
her marriage. Those who were in the military were away eighty per cent of the time. She wasn’t willing to risk
her happiness. However, she frowned at Tessa’s last words.
“It doesn’t matter. I can get a queue of potential soulmates at any time,” she said haughtily.
Indeed, Michelle was a very beautiful woman. Average height, with strawberry blonde hair and grey eyes. Tessa knew finding another man would be a piece of cake for her.
“You shouldn’t have escaped that way though. The man was probably hurt,” Tessa remarked and Michelle’s smile suddenly dropped. She had been feeling guilty for what she did for a long time.
Seeing that her best friend was getting uncomfortable with the topic, Tessa decided to change it.
“Ok, we have a big client now but our other clients need attention as well. Let’s plan on how we are going to tackle this problem.”
Meanwhile, Aaron rushed to the school Willa had told him to go to.
He didn’t know why he went there. But since the little girl had asked for help, he couldn’t just ignore her. Besides, for some reason, he felt restless and annoyed that she was being bullied.
“Sir, we are here,” Enock announced when he parked outside the school.
They alighted from the car and entered the schoolyard, heading to the principal’s office.
At the same time, Willa was crying in the principal’s office.
She had been playing with her legos during break time when Jonas, the class bully dismantled the Castle she had built. When she tried to protest, Jonas shoved her roughly to the ground and she ended up bruising her “elbow.
Her brother, Reagan came to her rescue and hit Jonas in the face. Now they were in trouble and the principal wanted to call their mother.
But the children were worried that Tessa would scold them. They had promised not to fight anymore. Willa surprised the other two by telling the principal she would call their father.
That was how she ended up calling Aaron and luckily, he was on his way.
Jonas’ parents were already in the office. They saw the red bruise on their son’s cheek and became furious.
“Miss Smith, is this what happens at your school? Why did my son get hit? And why did you not allow him to hit the boy back?”
The principal sighed. Jonas’ parents were rich and had a few companies in the City but they clearly lacked good parenting skills. Jonas often bullied his classmates; this was the first time someone stood up to him.
She looked at Jonas’ parents and uttered, “Bullying is not allowed in this school. Reagan will be punished for
hitting a friend and so will your son for bullying.”
Jonas’ mother gritted her teeth. “How dare you! Do you know who we are?”
However, the principal remained neutral. “I’m sorry, Mrs Turner. Both children will be punished. No one is
above the other at this school.”
The Turners were about to complain when someone knocked on the door. Then a tall man with a kingly aura entered, making the place fall deadly silent.
Willa’s eyes lit up when she saw the man. She stopped crying and rushed towards the man while screaming.
“Daddy!”
Her siblings were Shocked as they looked at the man their sister called ‘daddy’. They thought she had called Harry and seeing this stranger made them wonder who he was.
Aaron smiled the moment Willa called for him. His heart melted and he immediately spread his arms wide as he bent over to lift her off the ground.
“Daddy, save my brother. He was just trying to protect me when Jonas bullied me!”
Hearing that, Aaron’s eyes trailed around the room but he froze when he saw two children who were looking at him with curiosity in their eyes.
‘These kids… why do they look like me? Don’t tell me Dad had fathered other children in his old age.” These were his first thoughts when he saw the two faces that were similar to his. After all, the only woman he’s ever been with was Tessa so there was no way he would have thought the kids were his.
“That’s your brother?” Aaron asked while pointing at Reagan and Willa nodded.
“Yes. His name is Reagan and that’s my sister, Nia. I’m the third one.”
Aaron glanced at the principal and asked, “What happened here, Aunt Tina?”
The Turners were stumped. When Aaron walked in, they were speechless because they didn’t expect to run into the City’s most powerful man. He was someone who could make them bankrupt in a day if he wanted to.
To their horror, he turned out to be the father of the three kids and the principal seemed to be his aunt.
Tina Smith was Aaron’s late mother’s sister and the school belonged to his mother. It was under the Wentworth group. This was why status didn’t matter and they treated everyone equally.
She was shocked when Willa called her nephew daddy. Come to think of it, when she first saw Nia and Reagan, she thought they looked familiar. Who would have thought they were related to her?
Tina explained everything to Aaron and what she planned to do. The Turners were obedient this time and agreed for their son to be suspended for a week. Reagan was also suspended for two days because he hit someone which was against the rules.
Aaron stepped out of the principal’s office with Willa in his arms and Nia and Reagan in tow. They kept
glancing at him, not understanding why they felt a pull towards this imposing man.
As Aaron glanced at the kids, an inexplicable emotion swirled in his chest. He had to know who these children.
belonged to.
“Where’s your mother?” He asked gently.
“She’s at work,” Reagan responded. He hadn’t said anything so far but he had been secretly examining Aaron.
The man looked like him. Was he their father? Did he come to see them? The little boy wondered.
“What’s your mother’s name?”
“Tessa Hilton!” Willa chirped while wrapping her tiny arms around Aaron’s neck but she didn’t know her answer made Aaron’s heartbeat skyrocket.
Surely it was not a coincidence. He had met Willa at the mall where Tessa’s company was located.
His breath caught in his throat as he recalled the words she had said the last time.
‘My kids are my world.”
Aaron felt like a hand was squeezing his heart. Willa was shorter than the two so he didn’t know they were
triplets. His mind reeled with several thoughts. He knew there was a high possibility these kids belonged to Tessa. Willa was a carbon copy of Tessa.
“Little ones, where’s your daddy?” He asked, wondering if Tessa had gotten married while she was away.
“We don’t have a daddy, Mr handsome. Can you be our daddy?” Willa said adorably while Reagan and Nia
shared a look.
They didn’t object because the man looked like them and he was also powerful. Those who were bullying them were scared of him. They thought if the man was their daddy, they wouldn’t get bullied anymore.
Reagan looked up seriously, “Hello Uncle. We are triplets and we like you very much. Can you be our daddy and protect us every day?”
The little boy’s words made Aaron release a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He had thought they were “born at different times. His stomach knotted as he glanced at Reagan’s face.
‘Could these be my kids with Tessa?”
The possibility made his heart race.
He glanced at his assistant and instructed, “Enock, let’s go to the hospital.”
He wanted to do a rapid DNA test to find out if the children were his.
An hour later, Aaron brought the children to his office.
Willa was still in his arms and didn’t want to let go. Nia wanted to be held too but she was much more reserved than her sister. Aaron gave off a fatherly vibe and she wanted to get close to him.
They all concluded that this man was their father because he had protected them and he looked like them.
“Daddy, is this where you work?” Willa asked sweetly as she looked around.
Aaron nodded. “Yes, this is my company.”
“Wow! Daddy is so rich! Your office is so cool.”
The other two kids sat on the leather seats in the visitor’s lounge while Willa sat on Aaron’s lap on his swivel
chair.
Aaron ordered Nora to bring some snacks for the children while he anxiously waited for the DNA results.
He couldn’t even focus on work.
Since he was rich, he used his resources to get the DNA test done rapidly.
Enock returned to the office quickly. Sweat coated his forehead and he was a little breathless.
He took out the brown envelope containing the DNA results and gave it to his boss.
“Here are the results, sir.”
Aaron quickly opened the envelope. His heart was in his throat as he went directly to the bottom of the page
4/5
Chapter 16 I’m a lather
where he saw the words, ‘There’s a 99.99% chance that there’s a father and child relationship.”
The world stopped spinning as those words sank in. Lightbulbs went off in Aaron’s head as his momentary shock soon turned into joy.
Tessa must have gotten pregnant the last time they were together!
He stood up from his seat, lifting Willa into the air while shouting gleefully.
“I have kids! I’m a father!”
