“Arrgggghhhh!” she yelled. The urge to push was so overwhelming; she gave in to it.
A thick frown creased her forehead when she pushed and pushed yet her baby didn’t come out. Her eyes darted across the room without a door or a window. There was no one to help her. Even if she called for help, who would hear her? The room felt like a mausoleum.
The compulsion to push again as more pain wracked her body consumed her. Pushing with all her might, she fell back on the bed, hoping to feel the baby leaving her body and the pain stopping.
When none of that occurred, she raised her head. Her lips parted in surprise. Striding toward her with a dazzling smile on his face and a bundle in his arms was seventeen-year-old Tyler as boyishly handsome as ever.
“Congratulations, my love,” he said to her in a voice that was like ripples in water.
Smiling, she gently carried the blanket from him to gaze lovingly at what it held.
A scream tore out from her throat when she noted that the blanket was filled with nothing but blood.
Kaiya woke up with a start. Beads of perspiration marked her forehead. Her breath came in shortly as her eyes trailed her room. She was no longer in the bright room, and Tyler was nowhere to be found.
Exhaling softly, she pushed herself into a sitting position, grateful that it was only a dream. It had been so vivid; she had feared it was real.
Disbelief crossed her face because she found it hard to believe that her nightmares had returned. Trepidation filled her at the thought that she might start having them almost every night like she experienced after the death of her child. This particular nightmare hadn’t plagued her sleep in ages. And there was only one reason for it occurring now.
Tyler Landry!
The return of Tyler to Montreal was the most likely cause of her resurfacing terrible dream! Why in the world did he have to come back? Why now that her life was progressing smoothly?
Kaiya took a moment to reflect on her life after she resolved to pull herself together and forge ahead after the loss of her child. Since she came to terms with her baby’s death, her life had been moving forward steadily with several achievements. Everything was going just fine. Her sister had moved back to Montreal as she and her husband reconciled, her dance studio was thriving, her niece and nephew were the absolute cutest toddlers, and her plans to expand her dance school were on track. Granted, she didn’t end up as a professional ballet dancer for apparent reasons; however, she was living a fulfilled life nevertheless.
If she was sincere to herself, seeing Tyler again had stirred up memories and nightmares of their past. Though it was said to be a small world, not once had the thought of seeing him again ever crossed her mind. For years, she had pushed the anguish she felt at losing the supposed love of her life and her baby to the recesses of her mind. To think of it was sheer torture, but now she was doing it. All thanks to Tyler showing up at her dance studio two days ago.
She closed her eyes as the image of him standing in her dance studio flashed through her mind.
His features were the same but more advanced. His hair had become darker, his eyes were still a cloudy gray but were now even more penetrating. It appeared that he still worked out to keep fit. His shirt accentuated his broad shoulders and muscular chest. The jeans clung to his legs, heightening the strength of his body. When he had smiled uncertainly at her, she noted he still had a dimple on his right cheek, a feature that used to make her weak in the knees whenever it made its appearance.
Her steps had stumbled to a halt when she returned to the lobby of her dance studio to hand over her fussing niece to her sister. Her breath had drawn sharply against her throat as she set eyes on the man who had broken her heart eight years ago.
“Tyler!” she had called with surprise in her voice.
His deeply penetrating gaze had fallen on her. Cold dark brown eyes had latched onto his own smoky gray ones from across the room. She had stood there and endured the way his eyes trailed her body. Jalissa had come to stand beside her. Kaiya saw it as a show of solidarity, and she was grateful to have her best friend there. Jalissa was the only one in the room that truly had an idea of what she went through when Tyler abandoned her.
“Kaiya,” Tyler had said as he confidently strode his six-feet-five-inch frame across the lobby to meet her, ignoring everyone else there. Her name on his lips had brought back painful memories. His voice was more profound than she remembered it.
He had insisted on talking to her privately. Reluctantly and oozing iciness, she had followed him outside after telling him she could only spare him a minute because she had to get back to her dancers.
He said he needed to talk to her about an important matter, and she wondered what it could be.
Maybe he found out, she mused but dismissed her thoughts as impossible since the only people who knew couldn’t have told him.
Seeing him again was definitely the cause of the resurgence of her nightmare. She had been enraged yet trapped in his handsome snare the minute she set eyes on him again. Her gaze had been wielded to his lips, remembering the countless times he had brought her neck-deep in passion with them. The familiar scent of him had tantalized her senses.
“Yep,” she sighed, “he’s the cause of my bad dream.”
Flinging aside the sheets, she got out of her double-sized bed. Her body, covered in gray slacks and a white and black sweatshirt, bent as she did a few stretches. Then she trudged to the bathroom to brush her teeth.
As the brush moved up and down in her mouth, and as she stared at her reflection in the mirror, she recalled when she and Tyler first met.
It had been at one of the house parties she and Jalissa had snuck out of their houses to attend. The location of the party was close to the group home where Tyler lived.
As the party got heated and boys and girls danced to the rhythm of the latest hit songs, her dance partner had gotten too adventurous and handsy with her. His hands had been all over her body under the pretext of dancing. Incensed when he wouldn’t stop, she had wanted to walk away from the dance floor, but he had held her rigidly until a handsome boy had intervened. He had told the tipsy boy to take a hike. The determination and probable menace in the newcomer’s eyes had registered in her dance partner’s eyes, and he had moved away, cursing and swearing.
Kaiya had thanked her knight in shiny armor before he walked away. A few minutes later, in search of a washroom, she had found the boy who helped her earlier in one of the rooms. The boy, who she got to know later was called Tyler, was in there studying with a book on his laps. Just like her, he had been stunned that the door wasn’t locked. Giggling at the look of discomfiture on his face, she had wondered what a teenager like herself was doing studying when a party was going on downstairs.
