Chapter 27
JIYA
Presenting my business plan with the required funds finally sitting in my bank account, I passed the second round of interviews. When the confirmation arrived, I sat staring at the email for a long moment before it fully sank in.
I had done it.
I was now the proud owner of two cafés.
Training was scheduled in December, just before the holiday season. Everything I had worked for over the past months was finally beginning to take shape.
One morning, as I sat feeding Emma, I looked down at her and couldn’t believe how much she had grown in just ten months.
Her cheeks were fuller now, her little hands constantly reaching for things, and her curious eyes followed everything happening around her.
I had started giving her a combination of breast milk and formula, and she seemed perfectly content with it.
Before leaving for training that day, Emma looked up at me and said, “Mama.”
My heart practically leapt like a firework bursting in the quiet of the room.
“Say it again! Mama! Say Mama, Emma!” I laughed excitedly, leaning closer to her. I scrambled for my phone, wanting desperately to record the moment. “Mama, Emma! Say Mama!”
“Mama!” she said again.
I could barely contain myself.
Without wasting a second, I called Cole.
“Cole, Emma said her first word today!” I squealed the moment he answered. “She said Mama! Can you believe it? Her first word. I’m over the moon.”
“It’s the best sound, isn’t it?” he said.
I played the recording for him, and he listened patiently, chuckling softly as Emma’s tiny voice repeated the word.
I pictured him standing there with that smile of his, head tilted slightly as he listened—like this moment mattered to him just as much as it did to me. Something soft stirred in my chest.
“I’ll be over there in the evening,” he said. “Hang in there.” Then he laughed lightly. “Drive safely and enjoy training!”
After I hung up, I kissed Emma’s soft cheek and held her close before handing her over to Geeta.
As I did, an unwanted image flashed through my mind.
My birth mother.
The memory of our meeting slipped back into my thoughts like a shadow I couldn’t outrun.
Just because she had built a new family for herself, how could she completely disregard her first child?
Her flesh and blood? She was a grandmother now, yet she had looked at my children as if they were something shameful when I introduced them to her.
As if their very presence reminded her of something she wanted erased from her past.
Shaking my head firmly, I pushed the thought away and grabbed my car keys.
I drove toward the convention centre where the training sessions were being held. When I arrived, I parked my car and checked the time on my watch.
I was early.
I stepped out of the car and walked toward the conference room.
A small board outside the door read, “Welcome!”
I scanned the list of names until I found mine.
Jiya Flores, Cowichan Bay.
I moved toward the window and stood there for a moment, watching the rain fall heavily outside. It was a cloudy December afternoon, the kind that made everything feel muted and reflective.
The rain pulled me back to the moment I had chosen Cowichan Bay.
After Alex dropped me at my apartment that night, I printed a map of British Columbia and sat on the couch with Oreo curled beside me. Closing my eyes, I traced my finger blindly across the map, letting fate decide where I would go. When I opened them, my finger rested on Vancouver Island.
Later, after researching different towns, I found Cowichan Bay. With a population of fewer than 2,500 people and Vancouver only a three-hour drive away, it felt safe—far enough to start over, yet close enough if I ever needed to return. Though secretly, I hoped I never would.
Leaving my home had terrified me. I worried about uprooting Lucas’s life and explaining why everything had to change. But I knew there was no other choice. I couldn’t stay in the same city as Caleb and raise his child while risking running into him. I needed distance. I needed space to breathe.
Cowichan Bay became that place.
Now, standing in the conference centre, I opened my eyes and looked out at the rain. My past was behind me, and ahead, my future stretched out—bright and full of possibility.
A mother. A businesswoman. An entrepreneur.
Let the training begin.
While browsing the internet one evening, about a week before the Christmas holidays, I found myself doing something I had promised myself I wouldn’t do again.
I typed Caleb’s name into the search bar on my laptop.
Multiple headlines appeared, along with photographs of him standing beside a woman.
Tatiana Meyers.
The daughter of Richard Meyers, a well-known business tycoon in the import-export industry.
I clicked on a few of the articles and quickly gathered the story the media had pieced together.
According to various sources, after a series of one-night stands that had kept gossip columns busy for months, Caleb had now begun dating Tatiana.
The photographs showed them attending events together, smiling at cameras, looking comfortable beside one another.
I sat there staring at the screen, as if the words had turned to stone in my chest.
I couldn’t help but wonder what had happened to his relationship with Caroline. The last I had known, they had been closely connected. Had they broken up? Had something gone wrong between them? The articles didn’t say.
Maybe his mother had interfered there too.
Or maybe Caleb had simply moved on.
A small sense of relief washed over me.
At least he wasn’t with her anymore.
Either way, it seemed he was continuing his life without me.
Later that night, lying in bed, the images I had seen still replayed in my mind. The sharpness of the pain had softened over time, but it hadn’t disappeared.
I knew his mother would likely approve of whoever stood beside him now. She had always wanted someone from their social circle for him.
No matter how much time passed, my feelings for Caleb never vanished completely. Every time I looked at Emma, I saw pieces of him in her. I still kept his photograph tucked away where no one else could see it, and sometimes my eyes drifted to it before I could stop myself.
I turned onto my side, trying to push the thoughts away.
Instead, another face appeared in my mind.
Cole.
He had been the one constant in my life for months.
I had noticed that he still wore his wedding ring, a reminder that part of his heart still belonged to the life he had lost. Lucas had grown attached to him during that time, looking up to him in a way that was impossible to ignore, and I was careful not to disrupt that bond. I didn’t want to confuse my son.
As I lay there staring into the darkness, my thoughts tangled into a struggle. Caleb belonged to my past, but the feelings had not disappeared. Cole stood firmly in my present.
One had supported me through my darkest moments.
The other had broken my heart.
The contrast between them created a constant tug-of-war between memory and reality.
Before sleep carried me away, I whispered a prayer for happiness, strength, and the courage to keep moving forward.