Chapter 21: Choices We Make

Elena’s P.O.V:
“Hi,” I told Knight awkwardly as I stood outside his door. “Can I come in?”
“O-of course!” Knight seemed to snap out of his stupor and moved aside to let me through. “Please, have a seat. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming? I could’ve come to pick you up.”
“I didn’t want to trouble you in case you had plans.” I entered his penthouse apartment and felt quite impressed with the décor inside his house. “Your house is really beautiful.”
“Thanks,” he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “I can give you a tour if you want.”
“I do, but maybe later.” I told him as he guided me over to the living room and I sat down on one of the comfortable blue sofas. I was starting to get a lot tired lately; I could sleep on for hours and still feel tired. The doctor says it’s normal but it’s actually quite troubling for me as my work time keeps decreasing.
“We need to talk,” I told Knight as he returned with a glass of chilled water and handed it over to me. He then sat down on the opposite end of the same sofa so that we were facing each other.
“Then let’s talk. I’m all ears.” Knight said.
He was wearing a worn out football jersey whose color had faded to a dull red and gold and he had on black sweatpants and flip-flops. It was the most casual I’d ever seen Knight wear but he still managed to look good in worn out clothes.
I took in a deep breath before I told Knight the truth. “I’ve decided to go back to Canada.”
“Bu-“
I held up my hand to cut him off. I wasn’t finished yet. “Look, Knight…all this is very new for me and I have no idea what I’m going to do about it. I haven’t even decided if I want to give birth here or in Canada. I don’t know a thing about how to deal with a baby, what steps I should take to safeguard its future and honestly, I don’t have a steady mode of income to take care of my child alone. This isn’t a fairy tale where I just start completely depending on you for our child’s food and safety and forget my entire world and come to stay with you. I haven’t even discovered my full potential yet, I don’t know what mode I’m going to use to support myself, be a painter or a model. It’s just…” I shook my head, trying to get all my thoughts together. “There’s just so much I need to decide and I need to be with my parents right now, figure out what I want to do with my life.”
Knight stayed quiet throughout, letting me vent out everything I wanted to tell him before he spoke.
“I understand that you want to take decisions about your life on your own, but the child belongs to both of us, Elena. I have every right to take decisions for it.” Knight pinched the bridge of his nose. “What happened to you all of a sudden? I thought we were making progress.”
“You mean playing twenty question?” I asked instead. “That’s not improvement Knight, that’s just called getting to know about the stranger that I’m having a baby with. And yes, you have every right to make decisions about the child’s life, but not mine. For that we’d have to have some kind of a relationship, which we don’t. I’m choosing to go back home to Canada, to my parents. It’s the choice I made, Knight, and you can’t stop me.”

Knight’s P.O.V:
Oh, how my earlier words were now coming back to bite me in the ass.
I wanted to make an excuse, hell, I wanted to tell her exactly what Keena had told me earlier, but the words seemed to get struck in my throat. Love was too powerful a word to casually throw at Elena, but I need to come up with a plan to ensure that I could keep both Elena and our child in my life.
“I understand. But you’re coming back, right?” I asked desperately. “I need to know that you’re coming back, that you won’t just disappear with my baby.”
“I’m coming back,” she reassured. “But I can’t say when. It may be a month or two, maybe more, maybe less. I haven’t decided yet. I’ll let you know once I get to my parents.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. “I thought your parents were here to take you with them.”
“No…” Elena shook her head, looking a little nervous. “They sent Landon instead.”
“Landon?” I raised my eyebrows at her. “I thought your brother’s name was Leonard.”
“Landon isn’t my brother…he’s my ex.”
An unknown emotion passed through me when I heard this confession. Ex? Since when did Elena have an ex? And why haven’t I heard about it till now?
But along with the questions also came the realization that I did not know anything about Elena. Who were her parents? Where did she actually live? Why is she so adamant about trying to figure out what she wants to do in life? If her parents are super rich, then why does she have to work at all?
There were too many questions and absolutely no answers. So I decided to ask her the most basic question that I’d wanted to ask for a long time.
“What are your parent’s names? I’ve never really heard you say that.” I asked.
“Oh?” Elena looked genuinely surprised. “I guess it slipped my mind. My mother is Samira Macaluson Thornton and my dad’s name is Jaxon Thornton. I kinda didn’t want to use my real surname in the Industry, since everyone would find out who I was, so I changed my last name to Thunder. It’s temporary though, it’s not legally changed or anything.”
But I wasn’t hearing anything else; my mind had gone blank after I’d heard the names of her parents.
Samira Macaluson Thornton, the owner of Magneta Fashions, the biggest bloody fashion company in Canada and Jaxon Thornton, CEO of Thornton Security and Enforcement, the company that provides security to all the highest ranking celebrities and Fortune 500 CEO’s. And of course, how could I forget Leonard Stayton? World famous painter of abstract art, married to the supermodel Amelia Tresscot. They were a powerful family, no less than celebrities themselves. It was no wonder Elena was so eager to make a name for herself.
What a great business opportunity…
I shook that thought out of my head as soon as it entered my mind. Elena and the baby wasn’t a business opportunity, but if Keena found out, I’m sure she’ll think differently.
But right now, my priority was to keep both Elena and the child to myself. And I think I just might have a plan for it.