Chapter 3: "let go of mummy"

Chapter 3: let go of mummy

‘‘I believe we have something to discuss, Miss Janssen’’ Ruben's eyes burned as he watched Tess’s nonchalant countenance, stressing the ‘Miss’ in hopes to get a reaction but she didn't crack.

‘‘Sure Mr Ruben.” Tess laughed.

The rest of the people in the room didn't notice anything wrong, they thought of it as normal interaction between an employer and his employee.

Ruben dragged Tess all the way to his office, meanwhile a little figure wearing a black hoodie with his face half covered watched all these play out quietly in a corner.

As soon as he saw Ruben, a tinge of surprise flashed past his eyes, “ This must be my father.” Luuk thought. The weird interaction between his parents didn't escape his sharp eyes. ‘‘Father is hurting mother, that's not manly.”

Ruben shut the door behind them, his eyes brimming in anger as he turned to Tess ‘‘what's the meaning of all these? Why are you here? A lawyer? You?”

“ One question at a time, Mr Ruben, I can't keep up with your excitement.”

‘‘Tess, don't joke with me, Why are you here?” Ruben's eyes burned with disgust and even more hate than that night.

“Why else? As a lawyer.” Tess replied nonchalantly “let go of my hand, you're hurting me.”

Ruben, deaf to her request, tightens his grip. “Why are you in my company Tess?” He was reluctant to let go, he had planned to make her life miserable but after seeing her, memories of that night and things that happened flooded his mind and his eyes burned with underlying lust and longing.

He fought his desires and hatred inwardly, the two contrasting sides drove him crazy, but he couldn't control it, he could only grab on to her hand tightly reminding himself of how ruthless this woman in front of him was.

Tess grimaced in pain, her wrist turned red from Ruben's strong grip. “Ruben.” she called out through gritted teeth, tears hung onto her eyes.

Something broke within Ruben at the sight of her tear-stricken eyes, the thick layer of unmasked hatred in her eyes took him by surprise that he forgot to breathe.

A small short figure in black clothings, sunglasses, and a face mask pushed the door open, scrutinizing the situation in the room with his eagle eyes, Luuk grabbed onto Ruben's arm holding Tess’s wrist.

“Let go of mummy's hand” His voice was stern.

“Lu- you? Why are you here?” Tess panicked, her eyes traveled from Luuk to Ruben who had a stunned look on his face, clearly still processing the word ’mummy’.

Ruben's grip softened and Luuk used the chance to separate his hand from Tess’s.

Luuk’s brows furrowed at Tess’s red wrist ‘‘mummy does it hurt?’’ his cute soft voice was laced with concern.

Tess smiled softly, and her tears dried up instantly.

“You’re not allowed to lay a hand on my mother.”

Tess was having a blast, from Luuk’s tone, she could tell he knew Ruben’s identity as his father. He has always been too smart for his age. His voice while calling mummy was even more affectionate.

He was so calculative it made her laugh, playing along with his little stunt, she squatted to his eye level and replied in a pitiful voice. ‘’Mother is hurt, look here it's so red, this weird man over here hurt mother, what do we do in this situation?’’

Luuk's eyes traveled from his mother's to Ruben who still hasn't said a word, his hand hung awkwardly in the air with shock written all over his face.

"We will be suing for assault and inflicting bodily harm on a harmless woman, prepare to hear from our lawyers.”

Ruben was speechless, Tess has a child, one that is grown? She remarried? He has a lot of unanswered questions lingering in his mind.

“ Son, he's the popular CEO and tyrant of the technology industry, go easy on him, besides it’s not a big injury so the sentence will be too light, definitely not worth the time spent on the trial.” Tess teased.

Luuk muddled over Tess’s words for a few seconds before he turned to Ruben again and demanded ‘‘Apologize to mother.”

Ruben couldn't refuse, a 6-7 year old looking boy threatening to sue him on behalf of his mother was laughable but he felt the urge to not be a jerk in front of this little boy, his heart softened.

“Sorry… I went too far”. Ruben apologized.

“Not to me, to mother” Luuk demanded imperatively.

At this point, Tess was dying inwardly with laughter, the pain from her wrist went numb, and the urge to roll up on the floor and laugh itched her stomach.

“I'm sorry Miss err Mrs Janssen.” Ruben stammered, for the first time in a long time he lost his cool, the last time this happened was that day 6 years ago. His eyes burned at the thought, he tried to burrow into the mask covering the little guy's face but he couldn't see anything except his fair forehead.

Tess noticed Ruben's gaze, before their cover was blown she held Luuk behind her, “ It's alright, I wouldn't hold this against you on behalf of my son, next time keep your distance.” Without waiting for a reply, the mother and son duo left the stunned Ruben in his office.

Ruben sat on his chair weakly, processing whatever just happened, once again Tess successfully got him mercilessly. He dialed a familiar number.

“Thomas, I want every information you can get about Tess, her spouse, son and whatever happened between these six years. I want a detailed report.”

After a few minutes, Ruben recovered. He couldn't get over how fast Tess moved on when he couldn't, for the past six years he has never shared a bed with another woman, if he tries to, memories of that night flood his mind and he loses his temper, driving his partner away.

“Tess? Son?” Thomas asked, confused, they gave up on finding information about Tess a few months ago after wasting precious resources in vain.

‘‘She came to the company today as a Ro and Co employee, they definitely have her information with them, it wouldn't be hard to get. If she's in Amsterdam she's within my grasp, you have a day… No, 5 hours, suspend every other thing.” Ruben demanded impatiently.

“Okay boss.” Thomas, although confused, could only follow orders.

….

“Luuk! Why did you follow me? Tess scolded.

“Was that my father? Luuk asked the million dollar question for the first time ever.

Tess froze, she clearly hadn't expected Luuk to ask her up rightly and she felt ashamed at the fact that she didn't intend to give him an explanation.

“Luuk, mother - “

“It's alright mother, I know already, I just wanted to confirm. I could tell at a glance. But is father a bad guy? He caused mother so much pain, I can't forgive him. ‘

Tess muddled over his words, but “so much pain” wasn't about her wrist but her depressive episodes over the years, the periods of her isolating from the world and crying alone to relieve her heavy heart. She made her son witness these unintendedly and this made her feel even worse. Unable to control the flurry of emotions threatening to burst out within her, Tess burst into tears.

Luuk sat on the passenger's seat at the front of the car, patting her head comfortingly. Her shoulders were heavy from carrying the burden of guilt for raising him without a father and he wished to relieve her of this. He grew fast not because he grew in an emotionally unavailable environment but because both his parents are geniuses, and Even if he has ten lives, he wished to spend it with his silly mother.

Luuk's gentle voice communicated these thoughts to Tess like an adult would and she cried even harder, more and more. Luuk comforted her quietly, not saying a word until she became calm, wrapped him in a long warm hug and drove to a restaurant by her workplace for lunch.

Ruben left work earlier than usual to his private villa, where he stays to clear his head or work overtime.

He sat by his working table in deep thoughts, ignoring his buzzing phone. He has been ignoring Brittany after she caused a huge dent on the performance of the new application he worked hard for.

He still remembered that drag vividly, Brittany stormed into his mansion and cried to him.

“Ruben, did you ever love me? Ever since that woman left, everything changed. I am your wife by name but we never got married. Heck, I don’t even have a ring to prove that to my friends.”

“What do you want?” Ruben was now accustomed to her tricks.

“The endorsement for your latest mobile app-“

“No.”

“But-“

“Brittany, you need to understand that this is the first application my company has launched in two years, it is a big project for us. Your recent scandals wouldn’t permit me to grant your request.”

“What do you mean by that?!” Brittany flared up.

“Brittany, there were videos of you harassing her staff, beggars and making fun of black people while throwing slurs casually on the internet.”

“I don’t care, I want the endorsement, unless you want the whole world to know about the fake marriage between us.”

“Leave.” Ruben’s tone hardened.

“Ruben!”

“Ever since I signed you as the face of De Vries, everyone had something to say about it, negatively. The loss incurred due to the last scandal was greater than any in the history of the Netherlands. I don’t want that sort of achievement for my company.” Ruben was beyond livid.

He usually doesn't care about what she does, he gave her a reputation as a B list Actor from a nobody and raised her standard of living but she repays him like this, cheating around and soiling his name as her ‘legally married husband’.

He turned his official phone off, dumped it in the drawers under his table, and took out his personal phone. ‘‘how's it going?’’ He asked solemnly, trying to mask the impatience in his voice.

‘‘Mr Ruben, Ro and Co refused to give any information on Tess, they apologized with a statement stating they can help with information on other employees but not Tess, they said she is being protected by the Government and conglomerates of the United States, apparently she's a big shot lawyer there.”

“That is fine, put a tail on her instead.” Ruben sighed in disappointment. Although Tess’s appearance surprised him, he wasn't very shocked as to her various achievements, she had been steadily showing him a different side of her since that night and although it makes him slightly uncomfortable he doesn't disdain it.

‘‘Father, you're here’’ A cute voice called out from behind Ruben. Ruben turned and carried the little fella into his arms.

He was suddenly reminded of the little boy that called Tess mother, he seemed to be about the same age as his son, Luke, but younger.

Anger brimmed from within him at the thought of Tess casually moving on.

If Tess was present, she would have fainted from shock, the boy in Ruben's arms looked just like Luuk, no visible difference. Their blue eyes, dark silky brown hair and sharp eyebrows, even down to the birth mark at the corner of his eyes.

A light knock followed by the sound of the bell woke Ruben from his deep thoughts. Furrowing his brows impatiently he decided to ignore, he wasn't expecting any guests anyway.

But the bell kept on ringing, Ruben couldn't take it anymore, Luke noticed this and volunteered to check.

‘‘I'll go”

“Be careful’’

‘‘Okay father.” his little legs strutted towards the door. As he opened the door, he was left speechless.

Visibly in shock, the two young boys stared at each other for a few minutes before the visitor stretched out his little hands

‘‘Here, we are new n-neighbors, mother asked to share dumplings.” Luuk stammered for the first time since his birth.

‘‘Who's there?’’ Ruben called out from inside after a few minutes of silence.

‘‘err it's just the neighbors.” Luke stammered, staring in shock at the mirror image of him.

Luuk was equally stunned, truth to be told, Tess never told him to share dumplings for the neighbors but he did in hopes of making friends for his lonely mother but unexpectedly he entered the lion’s den, in his little mind he was scared shitless

‘‘Mother would definitely not let me off if she found out.” Ruben's familiar voice confirmed his guess. If is indeed his father, and even more shocking was the fact that he had a brother?! Who looks just like him but slightly taller.

A connection was formed between the twins, no words were needed between them to realize something fishy was going on.

They exchanged numbers and Luke accepted the dumplings, after which he ran inside quickly, wiping the shock in his face to avoid suspicion.