When We Were Young

Chapter 37

"Are you okay, Rafael?," he faintly heard Nikko's voice over the sound of blood pounding in his forehead.

Valeria Santos stood on the stage with her husband and son, waving her hand, flashing a polite smile . He was seeing her after fourteen years and she had not aged a bit.

Still the beautiful and cunning witch he knew her to be!

Her eyes scanned the room and then settled on Rafael. Her big eyes widened for a moment in recognition before she masked her reaction.

If Rafael thought he was hallucinating, her reaction confirmed his suspicion.

It was definitely his mother!

Scratch that!

She was nothing to him but a shrewd woman who had given birth to him and then abandoned him.

His hands curled into tight fists until his knuckles turned almost white and his jaw clenched.

His eyes then moved to the teenage boy standing next to her and an icy trickle went down his back.

She even had a son soon after abandoning one child!

The boy looked almost fifteen meaning that he was born around the time he was abandoned. The three of them looked like a small happy family smiling and waving from the stage.

Rafael couldn't take it anymore. He felt like he was about to have a panic attack. He felt sick just looking at her face.

He needed to get away!

"I am going home," he told his best friend.

"What about the business deal you are supposed to discuss with Mr Santos?," Nikko asked him in a confused voice.

"We are cancelling any future business plans with the man," he spat out.

He threw one last bitter look at Valeria Santos and weaved his way out through the gathering people.

Rafael walked down the hallway in urgent strides loosening his tie. He felt suffocated.

He heard footsteps urgently following behind him. He knew it was her and it caused him to quicken his pace.

"Rafael!"

He stopped at the sound of her voice. It still sounded the same after fifteen years. A memory of her mother singing a lullaby for him flashed in his mind and he felt a sting of tears.

He blinked back the tears, steeling himself. He wasn't going to give her the satisfaction of seeing him broken.

He turned around and glanced at her with all the hatred he could muster. His mother's face was wet with tears and her lips were trembling on the brink of another waterworks.

He scoffed to himself. If she thought her crocodile tears were going to buy him then she had another thing coming.

"How can l help you,Mrs Santos?," he asked with a cold and unemotional voice.

She drew closer to him but then stopped when he gave her a warning look.

"Don't be like this, Rafael? I need to talk to you. I know that...."

"I don't think we are that close, Mrs Santos to be on a first name basis with each other," he replied in a calm voice but burning inside with rage.

He needed to show her that she no longer existed to him.