Make Me Yours

Chapter 15

Xen had never been to Hawaii. Being CEO of such a successful conglomerate didn’t afford him much time to travel for leisure. If anyone had told him that he would find himself on this island so soon, he wouldn’t have given it a second thought.

Yet, here he was, searching for the woman that gave his whole life meaning. His woman.

He felt her before he saw her. It was in the way it leapt and began to repair itself; becoming whole again. Alive.

There she was, on the chaise lounge, her straw heart shielding her eyes from the sun, a coconut in her hand, and her legs bent at the knees. Her skin glistened in the sunlight, unable to be dimmed by the long dress that flowed around her, but did nothing to hide the red two-piece bikini she had on, or her beautiful bump for that matter.

His baby. Their baby; one that had been made in the deepest throes of passion.

It had been a week and some days since he left Singapore. He had arrived in Colorado only to find out that she was gone. She had left after the interview got published, aware that he would see her and would come look for her. She had also been off social media, so there had been no way to track her.

He had searched out all of her friends, but they too had been gone. Finally, he had gone to her parents in shame. Her brother had wanted to give him a few bruises with his fist. Her father had wanted to use a baseball bat and her mother would have been too happy to use her cooking spoon.

But they had refrained from hitting him and had only sent him away after they had given him a piece of their minds. He had left but had returned the next day, and the next, and the next. Every day he had gone and stayed at their porch from morning until night.

Then yesterday, they had finally given in and invited him inside. They had sat him down with a warning.

“You better not tell any lies.”

So, he explained everything to them as well as he could and when the tears overwhelmed him, he let himself cry. After he was done, Mrs Martins offered him tissues.

Mr Martins gave him vodka. And after a few shots, he said to him,

“We are going to tell you where our daughter is, not because we have forgiven you, but because we can see how much you love her. You were a victim too, but that doesn’t absolve you all blame. Should you have fought harder for her? Yes. Nevertheless, we all make mistakes, especially in matters of love. What’s most important is that we are able to realize these mistakes when necessary, and make amends.”

Mrs Martins had joined in then. “Also, our daughter still loves you. It doesn’t matter how much you hurt her, she has been miserable since you left. The light is gone from her eyes. That light that you put there. There is another one, but that’s only because of the baby. She still misses you, even though she would never admit it.”

Finally, Lamar had spoken.

“Jenny has a beach house in Hawaii. That’s where they are.”

They had armed him with instructions on how to find her, and he had left their home filled with gratitude. Now, here he was.

The next hurdle had been her friends who had been aware of his coming. He had met them in the house. Jenny and Mariah – after numerous questions and letting him know how disappointed they were – had finally told him where Zoey was: on the beach.

Now, he had to cross the last hurdle. Carrie. After which, the true work began – to get Zoey to forgive him.

*****

Zoey had known he would come. Her parents had told her the first day he visited their apartment. Before that, Kelly had told her that he had been at the company, searching for her.

This Hawaii move wasn’t her running away to avoid him. She knew Xen, and no matter how much he had hurt her, she knew that he would follow her to the ends of the earth to get to his child.

She had simply come here to give herself time to prepare for when she had to face him. That was all. Her parents had called her last night to tell her that they couldn’t buy her more time. They had also begged her to listen to what he had to say, insisting that she would be surprised.

She felt him as he drew closer to her. Mariah had already given her heads up and from where she sat, she had watched him leave the beach house and start to come towards the beach. From the side of her eyes, she had monitored his movement as he walked.

Finally, he came to a stop beside her, but before he would talk, Carrie came out of nowhere and cut him off.

“Not so fast, Mr. This is Hawaii. We don’t talk to strangers.”

He took off his glasses then, and heaved a sigh.

“Carrie, you have every right to be angry.”

“What? You know my name? Should I be worried or something? Are you a stalker? Do I need to call the authorities?”

Zoey was trying so hard not to laugh. Carrie was the first person to start forgiving Xen after her parent’s call, yesterday. Yet, here she was acting all tough.

“I can explain.”

“Sure you can. You’d explain to the authorities. Imma just call them up right now…”

Zoey stood up then.

“Carrie, don’t scare him that way. It’s fine. I’ll handle this.”

“You know this man?” Her friend asked, keeping her role.

Zoey simply chuckled and hugged her.

“I love you so much for this. Thank you.”

As she broke free, she finally turned to him. No amount of preparation could have readied her for the onslaught of emotions that took her under in that moment. She had known that seeing him again would be hard, but she hadn’t known it would be this hard.