"Did you hear him? He said mama!" Elena looked happily surprise at the six months old Sebastian progress, who was inside his crib, sitting down with only a diaper on, and holding a blue rattle. His eyes turned big as he stared at the sprightly Elena. Probably wondering what was going on.

"Hm... I heard dada," I said, telling her what I really heard.

"Really?" she frowned, then turned her attention to Sebastian, "come on, Seb, say ma-ma... ma-ma..."

Seb shrieked and ate the rattle, ignoring Elena. Then he shouted, "da-da. Da-da."

"I told you," I chuckled, teasing Elena, and she pouted.

"That's not fair Seb, we bonded more," she picked our baby and cuddled him.

Since Elena's grandpa died, she had been very busy taking care of everything. From the funeral, to taking care of the Pallis business, bringing Seb to the pediatrician for his regular checkup/ immunization and so much more. Of course, I was always with her on many occasion, and always available for her, whenever she needed me.

We solidified our relationship by keep on building every day - honesty, respect, trust, faithfulness, open communication, understanding, and making time and effort for each other. Whatever issues or problems we had, we told each other right away. We both learned from our mistakes, and we never wanted to repeat that misunderstanding anymore, it was so draining and unhealthy.

Marriage?

We were not closing our doors to marriage, but we agreed to put it behind us yet. It would come at the right time, and at the right place. Not to get pressured or demanded. We allowed life to take its course and flow smoothly.

The little things we do for each other every day, like thinking if she already eaten, she calls me if I arrived in the office safely, thinking on how to make her smile, she cooks my favorite dish, bringing home her favorite doughnut, she saves the last piece of pizza for me, opening the car door for her, merely holding her hand when she's scared, we hug and kiss whenever we bump into each other in the house, and so much more. Those are the things that matters most to us.

"Ba-ba..." Seb said, then shrieked with laughter, and Elena laughed aloud, "Oh my, who's ba-ba?"

I joined them and played with Seb - doing peek-a-boo, crawling race on the floor, swinging him to the air like superman, and other things.

The television was on, Elena was watching the news, when I heard her gasped.

"What's going, hon?"

She pointed at the TV screen. There was a corpse on the floor, covered with a white blanket, "that's Pedro, Camella's adoptive father. He got shot dead."

"What happened?"

"He kidnapped a young boy, and held him for ransom," her face looked so pale.

We continued to listen to the news. There was a shoot-out. Pedro and the other guys with him got killed.

"Camella had been hiding from him," she let out a sigh of relief, "I'm glad that she's going to stop running now."

__

The following day, I got a call from my private investigator in London. For Elena, I did it.

"Mr. Stavrakos, we got an information about him," he related everything that I wanted to know, and the vital data that he gathered.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Definitely, sir. I could never go wrong," the investigator confirmed, "I'll send you some photos and footages in your email."

Elena mentioned about her father, who died in a car accident. It broke her mom's heart that he died on the eve of their wedding.

Elena was restless. During the funeral of her grandpa, she overheard a man talking about his grandpa's evil ways. That Constantine plotted on killing someone for financial gain.

She told me about it, and she doubted if her grandpa planned on killing her father, Gareth Danes.

With her permission, I hired a private investigator to get information about the truth of her father's death.

It was Sunday, family day. Together with mom, the four of us went to a restaurant owned by the Stavrakos for lunch.

"I have someone for both of you to meet," Adonis said when we got inside the SUV.

"Ah- okay. I think I know who that is," I chuckled softly.

Definitely an architect. He had been talking about building a new mansion. His gift for me. We shared a joke, that it would be under my name, so I would be the one kicking him out of the house if we would have a big fight. Which would never happen. We would not allow that.

"Hm... it's a surprise."

"I hate surprises," Mom complained, "I was in my pajama when you both gave me a surprise birthday party!"

Adonis and I laughed, and Seb shrieked with laughter.

"This one is different, Celine."

"Just make sure that I'll like it, Adonis," Mom answered.

"Hm.. let's wait and see," he said, then focused his attention at the road.

The mystery was killing me, but Adonis seemed determined to give us a surprise.

We entered the Stavrakos hotel and went directly to the restaurant. The manager showed us to a private. A waiter took our orders and immediately left us.

"Who are we going to meet?"

"Later, my love," he gave me a kiss on my cheek, and caressed my nape, "let's eat first. I'm hungry."

"Are we meeting the architect?"

His eyebrows rose, "no. We agreed to meet him next week, right?"

"Of course," I answered, and I got distracted with Sebby, calling me ma-ma. I giggled happily, feeling so proud of our son, "did you hear that? He called me mama."

Adonis chuckled, "he did. Loud and clear."

"You should thank me," Mom said proudly, "I taught him mama, the whole day, yesterday."

We started eating, and I forgot about the person who we were going to meet. Until Adonis received a call.

"He's here? Okay, we're here in the restaurant. Let him get settled first," I heard Adonis said to someone.

From what I gathered in their conversation, we were meeting a man. He just came from the airport and went directly in the Stavrakos hotel.

Oh my goodness. I had a feeling that Adonis would surprise me and Mom with our favorite Korean actor. We had been watching a Korean Drama lately, and we had a crush with the famous actor, Cha Eun-woo.

The thought itself made me laugh. I could not imagine Mom's reaction.

We had our dessert, and I also finished feeding Sebby with my breastmilk. I also changed his nappy, and Adonis cuddled him until he fell asleep.

Mom and I were talking about changing the nursery room decorations, when the door of the private room opened.

A tall middle-aged man entered. He looked very familiar, but I could not place in my brain, where I met him.

He was a handsome man, slim, and a redhead.

I heard mom gasped aloud. She abruptly stood up, and went to the man, meeting him halfway in the middle of the room.

He was hesitant. Probably shy, because his face was flushing. His clothes were so basic. A shabby brown jacket and pants and over-worn shoes.

Who is this man? Why my heart throbbed so fast? And why mom looked like she was going hysterical?

Until Mom cried out, and it solved the mystery.

"Gareth. You're alive!"

___

Hey Dreamers! Hope you enjoyed the update.

Please make me happy by leaving some comments. It inspires me to write faster updates.

So! What have you been up to in the last couple of days? Here in the Philippines, we had a long weekend. What I did was, I ate, slept at 2am and woke up at 11am, watched Love is Blind on Netflix and played Sims 4. Do you know that it's free on EA? Lately, when I was relaxing after writing a chapter, I spent time, making Zion and Claire to fall in love, woo-hoo, and make Claire preggy. Haha...

I have a new hair. I have ash blond highlights, for a change. I got bored of my black hair :D

I love you dreamers! Take care always.

Let's connect:

Instagram: sweetdreamer33_xoxo

Facebook Page: Sweetdreamer33

YouTube Channel: Neilani Alejandrino

Twitter: sweetdreamer33_

TikTok: sweetdreamer33_

Please don't forget to vote, comment and share to get more reads. Thank you.