Jiya
“Mama, you forgot to put peanut butter on the bread,” Lucas said, studying his sandwich with a frown. “You just put jelly.”
My body and mind had been tense ever since Caleb had popped his way back into my life. I kept replaying everything that had happened, wondering how things had spiralled into this complicated situation and how his sudden return was going to affect the life I had worked so hard to rebuild.
“I’m sorry, Lucas,” I replied quickly, correcting the sandwich and handing it back to him.
I could not concentrate on anything.
Questions circled endlessly in my head. Would he come looking for me? Would he leave me alone? How would our working relationship function now that fate had thrown us back into each other’s path?
Surely, he had questions of his own.
Or perhaps he did not.
He had moved on with his life, just as I had tried to move on with mine. He was getting married. That fact alone should have brought me comfort, yet it didn’t.
Why did he accept the project? Why did he choose to work with me?
There had to be a reason behind it.
Caleb was not a man who acted without purpose. Every move he made was calculated and strategic.
The thought made my stomach tighten.
After preparing breakfast, I dropped Lucas off at school.
I planned to spend the rest of the day playing with Emma and checking on the restaurant and cafés.
With access granted by Liam, I had planned to work from home, juggling household responsibilities plus all the businesses, while trying to maintain some sense of normalcy.
When I returned home, I sat down on the living room couch and picked up the paper.
A knock on the door shattered the quiet.
“I’ll get it,” I called to Geeta, who was busy feeding Emma her breakfast.
I walked toward the front door, Oreo and Milo padding faithfully beside me. Their presence always made me feel safer, as though they could sense danger before I could.
I opened the door.
And froze.
Standing in front of me were Caleb and Greg.
A prickle ran across my scalp, followed by a sudden twist in my stomach that left me momentarily unsteady.
What the hell? How did he find me?
Milo barked loudly at the unfamiliar visitors.
The moment Oreo saw Caleb, recognition hit instantly. His tail wagged wildly as he bounded toward Caleb and jumped against his chest.
Caleb steadied him automatically, scratching behind his ears while Milo hung back a few feet away, watching the unfamiliar men cautiously from beside me.
“Hi,” I said, trying to sound calm, even though my pulse had begun racing uncontrollably.
This was my home—my sanctuary, the one place where I felt protected—and Caleb had no right to show up here.
“What are you guys doing here?” I asked, angling my body slightly away from them while keeping a polite smile fixed on my face.
“We… umm… we were… umm… in the neighbourhood to umm… celebrate his bachelor party,” Greg said. “We thought umm… we’d stop by and say hello. Isn’t that right?” He nudged Caleb with his elbow.
The last thing Caleb would ever do was stop by simply to say hello.
So why was he here, standing on my doorstep?
He was the one who was unfaithful to me.
He was the one who had continued his relationship with Caroline while making me believe otherwise.
Even so, I had forgiven him and tried to move forward with my life.
It had taken every ounce of strength to get over him after that heartbreak.
Emma was a reminder of him every single day.
Still, I had managed to move forward with Cole’s help, patience and love.
Caleb’s eyes narrowed at me.
“Can we come in?” he asked.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I replied.
My instincts were screaming at me to keep the door closed, to protect what was inside these walls. I didn’t know the real reason they had come, and until I did, I wasn’t about to let my guard down.
“Why don’t we meet another time?” I suggested, biting the inside of my lip. “I’m busy right now.”
My biggest fear, however, was not myself.
It was Emma.
Letting him inside the house posed a risk I was not willing to take. What if he became suspicious of her? What if he started asking questions I couldn’t answer? What if he discovered the truth and decided to take her away from me?
The thought alone made my breathing quicken, and a wave of heat rushed through my body.
“I think now is a good time,” Caleb said firmly as he stepped closer, stopping directly in front of me.
I lifted my gaze to meet his.
He was looking down at me with an intensity that felt almost accusatory, like a police officer who had just caught a suspect in the act.
Our bodies were close enough that I could feel the solid, imposing presence, yet there was still a small distance between us, a thin line neither of us had crossed.
Then his familiar scent reached me.
The same aftershave he had always worn. The same scent that had once clung to my clothes, my pillow, my memories.
My heart slammed against my chest.
“Mama?” Emma’s small voice called from behind me.
I turned my head instantly.
My fingers turned ice cold, and a sour taste filled my mouth.
Before I could react, Caleb stepped forward and walked past me into the house, his expression balanced between curiosity and shock.
I opened my mouth to stop him, but the words never came.
Greg followed behind him, looking visibly uncomfortable.
Caleb bent to Emma’s height. “And who’s this little one?” he asked.
My mouth went dry. I felt as though the air had been sucked out of the room, the weight of the moment pressing in from all sides.
Time for the truth.
“This is Emma,” I said. “My daughter.”
Caleb turned and faced me. His expression changed as though I had struck him.
His mouth went slack, and his eyes widened.
“Nice name,” he said icily.
He had just heard the name of our daughter, the name he had once whispered to me at his birthday party, and when we had dreamed about a future that had never come to pass.
His jaw ticked, as though he were fighting to keep his emotions locked behind a wall of restraint.
I could almost hear the questions forming in his mind, and I felt a flicker of guilt rise inside me, because I knew exactly what he was thinking.
How could I have done this to him?
The unspoken, invisible accusation hung in the air between us.
Emma grabbed his hand and asked, “Brekkie?”
Before he could answer, she led him toward the dining table, and Greg followed along beside me, my heart still shaken by Caleb’s presence in my home.
“Sit,” Emma said, trying to pull out a chair for him, her small hands tugging at the heavy wood with earnest effort.
“Thank you,” he said. “Let me put you in your chair first.”
He lifted her gently and placed her in the highchair.
“This is Geeta,” I said from behind him. “The children’s nanny. Geeta, this is...” I paused, my voice faltering, because I did not know how to introduce the man who had once meant everything to me and now stood in my kitchen like a stranger.
“Caleb,” he said, finishing my sentence before the silence could stretch any further. “This is my friend Greg.” He looked between the two of us. “We know Ny… Jiya from Vancouver.”
Geeta’s shoulders relaxed, and the faint frown on her face disappeared. She placed her hands together in a Namaste pose and smiled, nodding her head with gentle respect. “Nice to meet you,” she said. “I’ll make more pancakes and bacon. Coffee?”
“Yes, please,” Caleb replied, offering a polite smile before glancing around the room, his hands resting in his pockets, his gaze moving slowly as he studied every corner of the house, absorbing details.
Something caught his attention, and I followed his line of sight as he walked out of the kitchen toward the living room and stopped in front of the fireplace.
His back was toward me, and I couldn’t see his reaction or his expressions, but I knew it was not happiness or joy, because the rigid set of his shoulders and the stillness in his posture spoke louder than any words he could have said.
“Will your husband be joining us for breakfast?” he asked, turning around and walking back toward me before stopping a few steps in front of me, his eyes searching my face for answers.
“He can’t.”
“Guess you don’t want him to meet anyone from your past, I’m assuming,” he said, leaning closer and whispering directly into my ear, his breath brushing against my skin and sending a shiver down my spine. “After all, you’ve moved out here where no one could find you.”
Then he looked at me, his eyes fixed on mine.
“No, that’s not it,” I replied, looking at him, forcing myself to remain steady even as my heart throbbed against my ribs. “He would have loved to meet you both, but—”
“Let me guess,” he scoffed. “He’s busy.”
“No,” I said after a brief pause, gathering the courage to speak the words that still carried pain every time they crossed my lips. “He passed away a year ago due to liver cancer.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat as Caleb’s eyes bulged, and his mouth fell open, the accusation in his expression faltering for the first time since he had walked into my home.
“So, how is it going here?” Greg asked finally, breaking the tension that had been suffocating the room.
Geeta took Emma to the backyard with the dogs after breakfast.
With the three of us now sitting at the dining table, quietly munching on pancakes and bacon, a heavy silence hung over us.
“It’s been good,” I replied. “I have a restaurant and two cafés that I own. And I also work alongside my brother-in-law in the city.”
“That’s great, isn’t it?” Greg said, nudging Caleb.
Caleb nodded silently and continued eating.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed him glancing toward the backyard.
My shoulders stiffened, and my pulse began to climb.
Was he watching Emma? Was he wondering about her? Did he suspect anything? Why wasn’t he asking questions? Why wasn’t he saying anything?
The fact that he asked no questions about Emma unsettled me more than if he had demanded answers.
I wished time would speed up and carry this moment away from me.