BEAUTIFULLY UNFINISHED novel Chapter 28

TWENTY-SEVEN

"Ben?" I called out as I entered Harry's penthouse.

The three maids quickly ran to the main door and welcomed me.

"Where's Ben?" I asked.

"He's already asleep inside the bedroom mam." One answered.

"Thank you so much for babysitting him for me."

They smiled at me and started leaving the penthouse. I began walking up to where Ben was and he was beautifully sleeping on top of a bed. I watch him sleep and sat down next to him. I push his hair off his face and I'm hurting for him. He doesn't even know his real father is, yet Harry's already pushing us away so easily.

All of a sudden, I felt warm tears running down my cheeks. I wasn't even aware that I was holding it back, it just fell down. I wiped it right away with the back of my hand and kissed Ben's hair. "I'm sorry Benny. I'm not strong enough. I'm sorry." I say softly.

I slowly carried Ben in my arms, carefully picking him up so he won't wake up. He rested his cheek against my shoulder and he was still sleeping. I began marching my way out of his bedroom, I stare at the entire penthouse. I remember that night when we build tents from sheets. I remember eating snacks here, watching a movie with him and just fell asleep like we were a family.

A family.

A word that can never happen to us. A word that Ben can never have. My tears builds again behind my eyes as I think about the reality that it will never happen to the three of us. We will never become a family. Even the thought of having a father, Ben will never have that. He will never feel the love coming from Harry.

"This will be the last time I'll see you Harry." I tell myself.

Suddenly I feel the door closing from behind me. Holy hell, someone came in. I flinched by the sound of the door closing and turned around, only to find Harry and Audrey standing right across me. Harry bends his head down and scratched the back of his neck. He looks like he's guilty of hiding his woman inside his penthouse. Shit, she caught me here.

I stare at Audrey Chamberlain and there is no way Harry will pick me. Audrey is super tall in person and the way she stands right there is so perfect. She looks so perfect. She looks like there is nothing wrong with her face and her body. She is very very beautiful.

She wears a black dress over a bright red trench coat while her blond hair hanging loose behind her shoulders with her black killer heels perfectly on her feet. She arched an eyebrow at me and she doesn't look pleased seeing me here inside Harry's penthouse.

"I didn't know we had guests." Audrey glares at Harry.

Harry pulled his head up and stared at me. I think he's mad that I'm still here.

"Even brought a boy here, how lovely." Audrey laughs and shakes her head as if it was a funny thing to see right now.

She stares at me eagerly and starts walking closer to where I am. She was super tall and I was looking up to her. She smells really really really good and she smells like a rich woman, well of course she is.

"I know you. I saw you on photos with Harry days ago." Audrey begins to say.

She looks at Harry over her shoulder. "Wasn't she, honey?"

Harry begins to walk closer to us. He stands next to Audrey and placed his arm around her waist. I feel so small standing before these gigantic people. Harry looks at me sternly and I know I had to leave before they get here but I didn't know they could get here that fast.

"Aren't you going to introduce her to your fiancée?" She arched an eyebrow at me.

Harry sighs. "This is Miranda, my friend. That's her son, Ben."

Audrey fakes a smile, "Oh." She laughs. "What a lovely boy."

I tried my best to hide from Audrey how Ben looks like. She'd be even more suspicious.

"Miranda, this is Audrey. My fiancée." Harry says to me.

I tried to smile, "It's nice to finally meet you." I say nicely, trying my best not to cry.

"Well, it's very nice to finally meet you too." Audrey snaps.

She sounded like she was expecting to see me.

"I have seen photos of you online lately, you were with Harry all the time when he's here in New York and no offense, but I knew he was only using you to make me jealous. We fought when he came here."

What?

What did she say?

Use me? Harry used me?

"Audrey, I think that's enough." Harry speaks as he glares at me.

"No. She should know. But I'm really glad that everything between me and Harry are okay now. Most especially that our wedding is just around the corner." She says, trying to make me jealous.

And it's working.

I bite my inner cheek.

Wedding...

They're really getting married. They're really going to get married. Harry is really doing it and I need to accept that reality.

"I just hope you didn't feel bad that he used you to win me back by making me jealous." Audrey says softly. "Harry just loves me too much, he will do anything to get me back." She giggles.

Don't cry Miranda. Don't fucking cry.

I smile ruefully. "I'm glad to know. I'll be going now. Sorry to be a bother. Have a goodnight."

I quickly walked away from them and headed quickly to the front door. I didn't explain to her anymore why I was inside Harry's penthouse. My tears were already wetting on my cheeks and I was struggling on opening the door.

Suddenly I feel someone coming from behind me, opening the door for me. I see Harry standing next to me while his eyes were glued on my tears.

"Miranda..." He speaks my name softly.

I decided not to open his message after what he's down and placed my phone back down.

I continued blow drying my hair again and just stared at my own reflection.

But then my phone starts to blow up again. It's another message from Harry.

I groaned.

I grabbed my phone and decided to open his two messages anyways.

Harry: I know how I badly treated you a while ago and I'm sorry about it. I didn't know what I was doing. I was just thinking mainly about getting you and Ben out of my penthouse right away before she could see you there. I didn't want Audrey to think we kind of have something.

I sigh.

Of course we don't have any form of anything. But aside from being sweet to me and attempting to kiss me, I guess you can't blame me for thinking that we might actually be something. He just made sure that we'd get out of there so him and Audrey won't have another fight.

Harry: Miranda please, forgive me. I'm really sorry for making you feel that way. Please try to understand my situation. I'm almost a married man.

Argh! How unforgivable.

Me: Didn't I warn you ahead of time not to hang out with me cos you have a fiancée? But you still did. You told me not to worry about it and so I didn't. Now you ask me to try to understand you cos you're almost a married man? How unfair Harry! You hang-out with me and Ben, you do groceries with us, you have dinner with us too, you drive me home and pick me up, and don't you dare forget about that night when you almost kissed me!

Harry: You're just mad right now. Im sorry. I'm really sorry.

Me: I won't let you use me and Ben again if you and Audrey are having your stupid couple fight! You act like you care for us but you don't! It's all for publicity stunt for you! I think this friendship that we have needs to be stopped before something else will happen that I think you won't like. I don't want you to lead me on cos you are already doing it! Stay away from me, Harry. Stay away from me and Ben.

I stared at the message that I fast-typed cos I was rushing with anger. I didn't want to read it anymore cos I was so mad when I typed it. I hit send.

I put my phone down.

"Don't mind what you send. You only told him what's in your head." I tell myself.

I'm just being hard on Ben too. I'm forbidding Harry from seeing his own son but then there's no use to it, he doesn't even know the truth anyways. So I guess he won't even bother about it. But how can I tell Ben that he's not allowed to see Harry? Ben isn't included on this and I know how much he learned to love Harry.

My phone vibrates.

Harry: I get what you're trying to say. I must have led you on for the things we did together and I'm sorry. I'm sorry if I made you think that way and I'm saying sorry again for almost kissing you. I'm sorry if I made you think that we had something special. I'm sorry. I just don't want to lose Audrey. I love her so much that's why I did what I did a while ago. If you felt like I pushed you away, I'm sorry. If you're hurt about it and my apologies aren't still enough, I don't know what to do for you to forgive me. But I'm still saying I'm sorry.

I take a deep breath in and my tears were already building halfway through while I was reading Harry's message.

"He loves her, Miranda." I tell myself as I wipe my tears.

"You're just nothing to him." I added.

I put my phone down.