note: welcome to another double update weekend! Camp nano is going well and I've got quite a number of stock chapters, plus this book just passed 7K reads and 900 votes and I'd like to thank you all for the support! 

  ══ ● ══  

London did not know what the hell she was doing. 

She found Talia in the driveway, her fingers scouring through her bag. Seconds later she came out with a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. London walked towards her, her footsteps were heavy to make her presence known but Talia did not pay her heed, did not care, as she pulled out a cigarette from the pack, placed it between her lips and clicked on the lighter.

"Are you okay?"

She wasn't, and London knew it was a dumb question to ask but that was the only way she thought fit to start the start conversation after what had just happened back inside the house.

"He's going to ruin your life, London," Talia breathed, letting out a little puff of smoke.

London buried her hands into the pockets of her coat that she had donned on before following Talia out of the house. "He hasn't done anything for me to doubt him," she said, her words carefully picked out.

Talia laughed. "Oh, just admit it. You want to know why I think he'll ruin your life."

"I don't want to get drawn into any drama—"

"Well, babe, you should have thought twice before getting into a relationship with Andy then."

London was truly trying to be patient, to not let Talia's words affect her but it was becoming harder and harder to dodge the woman's jabs.

"Believe it or not, Talia, I wanted nothing to do with Andrew when I found out he was married and in the middle of a divorce. I knew the complications and I wanted him still."

"And yet you say you don't want to be drawn into any drama—"

"What's between you and Andrew is between the two of you, not me, not Simon and certainly not your daughter, Aurora."

"You bitch, don't you dare drag Aurora into this."

"Why not?"

"You're not her mother."

"Yes, you are. And Andrew is her father. So why are you denying him the basic with his daughter when you signed a contract?"

Talia turned away, red-faced. It looked like she was about to cry and London felt neither guilty nor happy to glimpse that expression on her boyfriend's ex-wife's face.

"He loves Aurora so much. He'd never do anything to harm her. I don't see why you try to fabricate all these barriers if he's such a good man. There is no one he loves more than his daughter."

Talia sighed, looking up at the dark, starry sky and blinked. She raised the cigarette to her lips, took a long drag, paused for a few seconds before letting out a puff of smoke into the air. "That's the problem."

"It's a problem that he cares about his daughter?" London echoed, her eyes widening as disbelief filled her. Surely she was hearing wrong.

"You won't get it," Talia huffed, bringing the cigarette back to her lips.

London took a few moments to answer so the snappy words didn't escape her tongue. Though Talia wasn't all that likeable she was still the mother of her boyfriend's daughter and she wanted to get on Talia's good side. She wanted to understand why Talia was putting Andrew through all of this. She didn't get it but she wanted to. Everything had reason and London, who was beginning to find hope in life, trusted that Talia's feelings were valid even though her actions may not be so.

"Try me," London said softly, her tone laced with curiosity.

Talia spared her a glance before flicking the cigarette and looking down at her warm red boots. The silence stretched on but London did not move from her spot, only swaying to the cold winter wind, for she suspected that Talia only kept quiet to figure out a way to phrase her thoughts or to test whether London was patient enough to hear her reasons.

"Aurora is my daughter," Talia started, stressing on the my. She dropped the cigarette onto the ground, stepping over it and snubbing it out. "These last few years have not been kind to me. I'm not as young and pretty as I used to be and at first, I thought my ageing is what threw Andrew off, what made him grow disinterested over time. I came to realise that it was because we could not get along, not as sex partners but as husband and wife, as people. Sex didn't solve anything."

London could not deny that hearing this made her feel awkward but she still steeled herself, believing that Talia still had her point to make and that it was a valid one until proven otherwise.

"Aurora is smart. Andrew once joked about her being a monk in a past life. I don't believe in past lives but he does and it would make sense. She's wise for her age. She's clever and her smartness takes me by surprise every single time. Andy says that I underestimate our daughter all the time," Talia scoffed.

London pondered over her words understandingly. "You don't underestimate your daughter. You're just amazed by her and she stuns you every time. It's not a bad thing. You're in awe of your daughter and that makes you proud, that she's so smart and lovely."

Talia's head turned towards her, eyes raised in shock. London understood.

"I might not have a child of my own," she explained, "But it's not so hard to put myself in your shoes."

London swore she saw Talia smile but it was wiped off in a split second. "I asked Andrew about you, what qualities he liked. He fumbled a lot with telling me what he liked about you but he said what he admired was your empathy and big heart."

This time London was the one that was surprised. Surprised that Talia wondered what Andrew fancied about her, surprised that Andrew found those aspects of her endearing — aspects that she didn't even know about herself. London had always struggled with self-confidence and hearing these words warmed her heart, made her feel like she had more reason to believe that she was not so bad after all.

Talia must have seen something in her face, or must have realised that she could trust London, for the next thing she knew, she was telling London why she was so evasive about her daughter and her ex-husband continuing their relationship.

"I haven't been happy in a long while, London. Then Simon came along. It wasn't right, I know. But it felt so right. He understood me, just like he understood Andrew's problems and it wasn't right for me to unburden myself on Simon when Andrew was one of his good friends. Andrew doesn't keep a lot of close friends and he and Simon shared a strange but admirable brotherly love."

Talia looked like she was about to cry but London made no move to console her.

"I hadn't thought about getting divorced. We weren't happy anymore but I could never think about divorce because Andrew meant everything — not to me but to my daughter. She loves her father so goddamn much that it honestly makes me feel jealous. I know I shouldn't have to feel that way but I do. I've been struggling a lot with myself, especially through the last years of my marriage.

"When Simon told me Andrew wanted to get divorced but wouldn't dare do it because he would never risk losing his daughter, I kind of lost it. I gave him the cold shoulder for so long and he ended up taking more business trips, offering to take up places on his team to market products to the world instead of staying at home because it gave him an excuse to escape from the weary coldness I gave him."

London was looking up at the stars, unable to meet Talia's gaze.

"I was not exactly the best in our marriage and I haven't felt like myself in a long while during then. I found myself enjoying Simon's company, looking forward to the next time and one thing led to another. We needed to stop but we couldn't. Not when I loved him, not when he loved me. But neither of us could bring ourselves to face Andrew. I was technically cheating with his best friend and Andrew, though kind, is not exactly forgiving, especially with these sorts of things. I've known him for years, known that he doesn't let people easily get close to him because he's afraid of getting hurt. And yet...he let you into his life so easily."

This time London looked at Talia.

"I'm a little jealous of you. Andrew used to be one of my best friends, especially in those first years of our marriage, and now I don't have his trust."

"You do," London found herself saying, "Otherwise he'd have gone into a custody battle. But he trusts you with Aurora."

Talia nodded. "Well, there's a piece of that trust I'll never get back."

"I can't say I blame him," London truthfully said, shrugging.

Talia shifted her gaze away immediately, mindlessly playing with her boots, moving her foot in small arcs. London thought that she felt judged so she said, "You deserve happiness, Talia. Your marriage wasn't easy. You couldn't love him anymore. What you did was still not right. Not in any universe. But you still deserve to be happy. And so does Andrew. I don't understand why you're trying to take his happiness away."

Talia sighed, wiping at her face. She was crying but London knew that her story was yet to end so she stayed silently beside Talia, hands tucked warmly in her coat as she waited patiently for Talia's sniffs to lessen and her explanation to come.

"I filed those divorce papers the very next day. I couldn't live like this anymore. Andrew and I, we had such different mindsets, you know, and our parenting styles were different and I'd always been afraid that Aurora would be confused if she had divorced parents, each one teaching her something else. When you're in a house together it's easier to reduce those variations in parenting but..."

She huffed, like getting this all out was hard and London understood, which was why she did not prod, but simply stayed by Talia's side, listening.

"I want to move away from Porte Orlands. Maybe to London. Or to Ipswich — Simon has connections there. Or maybe out of England. I just know that I have bad memories tied to this town, before and during my marriage to Andrew. I've been struggling a lot with myself lately. I've been feeling jealous of Andy and how easily he gets along with Aurora. They say a child's bond is strongest with its mother but it's the opposite in the case of Aurora."

"Your daughter loves you," London rushed in, this time feeling the need to speak. Talia needed reassurance. "Cutting out Andrew isn't going to win her over. She loves both her parents. That's what Andrew tells me. And she needs you as much as she needs him."

"But I want to move. Away from here, away from Andrew. How is Aurora going to cope with that? I thought putting distance between them would help but they're inseparable," Talia cried out, completely helpless.

"That is something you have to talk to Andrew about."

They heard a shuffling noise behind them then and both ladies turned to find Simon gently closing the front door, burying his hands deep in his coat pockets before making his way to them.

"I better head inside," London said, turning back to Talia. "I'll reheat our food if you're still hungry."

Talia's smile surprised London. "I'd love that. I'll be in in five minutes."

"Take your time," London replied, smiling back before she made her way inside, offering Simon a smile on the way.

"You're not dead," was the first thing she heard when she closed the front door and while she would have expected to hear those words from Andrew they had not come from him.

She stared down at little Aurora, eyebrows raised and amusement laced into her expression.

"I'm surprised you survived that. Mum looked really mad," Aurora continued.

"Yeah, well your mum had a little reason to be."

Andrew laughed lightly, catching her attention. The look on his face softened her heart. He looked worried. "I'm just glad you're alive," he said jokingly but there was sincerity behind his words and London felt torn. Torn between understanding his ex-wife's problem and understanding her boyfriend's problem. As much as she wanted Talia to straighten herself out there was no denying that London understood, only if slightly, what the mother was going through.

"Can I show London the superhero set you got me?" Aurora perked up, breaking their trance.

London grinned as Andrew said, "You can show her after dinner. London and Mummy still haven't finished theirs."

Talia and London sat back down at the dining table minutes later while Andrew, Simon and Aurora occupied the living room. Dinner was not tense but it was silent and London could not help her thoughts from wandering. If Talia moved away and took Aurora with her, how would Andrew feel? Aurora was his rock, his world. She knew there was nothing or no one he loved more than that little girl.

His world would shatter and he'd be back where he was weeks ago, without London, without a semblance of happiness.