Chapter 28: Entangled Part I

****Abigail's POV****

"Hello, dad?" I answered, balancing my phone between my ear and shoulder as I continued unpacking my boxes.

"Sweetie, are Celeste and you doing okay?"

"Yeah, dad. Thanks. It's a lot easier now that Maria came along with us. It's such a huge relief." I stated as I folded Celeste's purple Disney top and placed it on her stack of clothes.

My father couldn't bear the idea of just sending Celeste and me on our own to London and the idea of keeping Celeste in some nursery or under the care of some foreign nanny until I came back from university irked his very being. So he asked our nanny who had been with Celeste ever since she was born to come along with us and offered her a very huge raise that was difficult to reject. Now I had Maria to rely on while I was here.

"Don't you worry, dear. You'll be fine there. When do classes begin?"

"They begin from tomorrow, dad. I'm really excited to start my course." I beamed after I was done unpacking the last box. Phew, that was hard.

"Of course you're." He chuckled.

I smiled while watching Maria coo Celeste to sleep.

"How's my granddaughter? I miss her already." He whined.

"She's fast asleep right now. Really thankful for that, though. All hell breaks loose once she's up." I chuckled nervously.

"You were a lot like her back when you were a baby." He commented.

"I must've been such a pain in the ass."

He chuckled softly and then his tone got serious.

"Abigail, I want to wish you luck to get your relationship back to normal with Aaron. I don't want to hate the boy and all I wish for is your happiness..."

I sighed softly as I guessed what was coming.

"But if the boy isn't ready to be a father, don't force Celeste onto him. Let him take his time to digest the situation. This news is going to shake him to his very core and don't throw it on him like a bomb. Settle down there and work on your relationship with him, clear things out and when you feel the time is right, have the both of them introduced." He advised, cautiously, fearing I would get ticked off.

"Yeah, dad. That's exactly what I was planning on doing. Don't want him to run away, you know?" I chuckled nervously but let out a panicky breath since I couldn't doubt the chances of that happening.

"Don't you worry, child. It'll all be okay. And sweetie, just one last thing. Don't hate me for this." He pleaded.

"What is it, dad?"

"Try not getting caught by the media. It's not like I'm not happy where you're at right now but I don't want gossip erupting at this moment."

I tried not to roll my eyes. "Okay, I'll keep that in mind."

After saying our goodbyes, I hung up and informed Maria I had to go to the grocery store to get food and other basic necessities for our small apartment at Kensington High Street. Our apartment was called Kensington 103-125 and we lived in 114. We had landed in London late last night. It felt really nice to come back to the place I was born and brought up till the age of 5! It was a beautiful yet chilly Sunday morning here and I wanted to get things bought before the weather got too chilly. I also had Uni to attend the next day at Oxford. The course I had chosen was Diploma Art Design and Media level 1 and it had been almost a week since the beginning of the semester. I was way too excited to start with the course since I had always been passionate about art!

I hadn't texted Aaron yet regarding me being in London because the very thought made my palms sweat and brought me to the edge of nearly passing out of excitement and longing and guilt. I was so excited yet so afraid to see him! However I knew I would be seeing him the next day. All my fear was regarding Celeste and I wanted to keep that drama at bay for however long as I could but I knew I had to address it in good time. Shrugging those thoughts away and with the coming jetlag making me want to groan, I grabbed my coat and walked out of the house to buy what I needed.

****Aaron's POV****

Ugh, it was boring to be at home. Especially when George bluntly told me he would replace me with books any day. Ouch. Apart from him, my other friends were "taken" for the day because it was a Sunday and their girlfriends and boyfriends wanted them for the whole day. Being lead quarterback had 0 perks when all my friends had commitments.

All the Single Ladies, on cue!

My parents had gone for mass and I told them I would pass the honour of blessing myself today because too much holy wasn't healthy. Carol wasn't there to annoy either since Clarisse and her had gone shopping and they didn't want any testosterone accompanying them and I wanted to point out that they had testosterone too but decided against it since not having me involved was their loss. Ha.

Man, the ego! No sign of desperation for human company at all!

Tired of staying at home with nothing to do because literally everything around was so boring, including the TV and stuff on the internet, I decided to get to know our neighbours. I had been staying in the apartment since almost 2 months and I didn't know anyone around except for the haggardly bearded dude staying at 105 who would pop his head out exactly when I would pick up the newspapers from the doorstep every morning, looking worse each day. Not creepy at all. Never felt like getting to know him so I excluded him from the list of people I wanted to get to know.

I got out of the house and stepped onto the carpeted hallway. Closing the door, I pocketed my keys and began walking straight while counting the number plates on the doors and sometimes stopping outside the doors of houses to get a whiff of the delicious food being prepared. Loner alert, peeps!

There was complete silence in the hallway and the silence was peaceful. The antique interior of the building and the smell of old paint and teak were very enrapturing. There were old photo frames of the old monarchs on some empty walls with the golden paint being eaten away at the edges and some empty spaces had mailboxes filling them. It seemed like most of the residents weren't at home and I took a right to enter the lane of apartments from 110 onwards.

"Celeste!! Come back here, child!!" A lady screeched and my eyes widened in alarm on seeing a baby crawling her way out with tiny footsteps and an amused smile lighting up her face. She was crawling towards the opposite door and I ran to stop her. I knelt in front of the baby and picked her up.

"Ah, there you go, you naughty girl." I cooed as I balanced her on my arm where she nestled comfortably. She was such a beautiful baby that watching her brought me so much joy! Her hazel brown eyes twinkled at me innocently and she gurgled slightly that it melted me inside. Her wide eyes were scanning my face and I held her tiny fingers softly. She popped me a happy smile and jumped slightly in my arm that made me chuckle. Two rosy cute dimples popped on cue and I was trying so hard not to melt into a puddle at this angel.

Her small palm held my pinkie and she was still smiling at me gleefully. Wow, I guessed this baby was glad she had a fan now. A 19 year old loner.

"Ah, she just woke up and I put her down and opened the door to throw the garbage out and the next thing I know, this little cheetah is speeding her way out." The lady sighed in relief and looked at me gratefully.

"Causing trouble, are we?" I asked the baby as I swayed her softly earning a giggle from her. I pressed my lips to her forehead and she kept smiling at the gesture.

"Where do you stay?" The lady asked.

"Apartment 103." I replied.

"Ah, so you're a neighbour. Would you like to come inside for coffee? I was just making some."

I wanted to spend some more time with the baby and it wasn't like I had anything to do anyway.

"Yeah, sure." I replied.

I walked inside and noticed the way the things were messily arranged.

"Just moved in?" I asked even though the answer was clearly obvious but I was trying to make conversation.

"Yes, we came here late last night." She replied while bringing me a cup of coffee. I passed on the baby to her who was playing with my hair. I thanked her for the coffee and began sipping on it as she brought her cup and set the baby in her pram. Peaceful silence enraptured us for sometime.

"So what's the baby's name?" I asked as I looked at the child sucking on her thumb.

"Her name is Celeste." She replied. Ah, Celeste! I didn't catch onto the name properly when the lady was calling out to her. What a pretty name.

"Your baby is absolutely beautiful." I commented and she smiled at me whilst shaking her head.

"She isn't my baby." She replied.

I was puzzled for a second.

"Her mother has gone out for grocery shopping. She'll be back soon."

I nodded my head in understanding. That lady looked too old to have a baby that young, anyway.

"Sorry for not introducing myself, though. My name is Aaron."

She just stared at me for a second as though my name seemed familiar to her and just shook her head.

"It's nice meeting you, Aaron. I'm Celeste's nanny, Maria." We smiled at each other and continued drinking. Celeste kept sucking her thumb as we kept drinking.

"I think she's hungry." I informed Maria while placing my cup down on the table.

"Oh, she's not. I just fed her some milk. I think she's just missing her mommy." She cooed and kept stroking Celeste's hair tenderly.

"Where's the father?" I asked, inquisitively.

She stopped stroking her hair and slowly turned to face me.

"He's out of the picture as of now."

"Out of the picture?? May I ask why?" Why would a father who was gifted with such a precious daughter not want to be involved?! Though it wasn't my place to judge, I still wanted to know!

She sighed before explaining, "I'm hoping this will remain between you and me and you seem like a nice guy so I'm telling you this. The father doesn't know he has a child."

My eyes widened in shock because this was huge! A father not knowing the existence of his own child!

Just then I heard the jangling of keys and the door opened revealing a tall slender girl with auburn long and straight hair and fringes. Her hazel brown eyes landed on me and she breathed in a huge gulp of air making her eyes widen in utter shock and disbelief. The paper bag filled with items she just bought landed on the floor with a thud as her fingers and hands began trembling, one hand tightly holding onto the door knob.

My mind went completely blank at the sight of the person in front of me.

This girl was the one who made me fall in love so damn hard.

The girl who made me feel like the luckiest man on the planet.

The girl who I got to make love to.

The girl who left me hanging after that one special night.

The girl who told me she would meet me in London.

That girl was right in front of me aghast with shock.

"Abigail."