‘What the hell’s going on, Aaron? You have a son?’
‘I’m so sorry you found out like this.’
‘So you weren’t planning on telling me at all?’
‘It was a messy break-up – I don’t see them often.’
‘I’ve literally just met your sister, but she’s mad at you. Mad at me. What the hell?’
Aaron glanced behind them. The kids were making a racket, still running around. Tasha and Zahida were now talking, and the two men were sitting at the table. Aaron’s mum returned from the kitchen holding two bowls of food and handed them to her daughter. Freya sensed they were being watched.
Aaron took Freya’s hand and led her out of the garden and down to the beach. There was no one about apart from a local man sanding the side of a boat.
‘My sister’s mad because Zahida is her best friend.’
Freya drew in a breath. It was even hotter down on the beach in the full glare of the sun. She’d been looking forward to another home-cooked Maldivian meal before they left, and now she was faced with spending the next hour sitting round a table with three women shooting daggers in her direction.
‘But he’s your son?’ Freya frowned. ‘Even if you’ve fallen out with his mum, that’s something I would have expected you to tell me. For you to be proud of?’
‘You’re reading way more into this than you need to.’
Even though they were far away from everyone, Freya lowered her voice. ‘Aaron, we slept together last night. How do you think I’d feel about it?’
‘I didn’t think we’d see them. We’re not together any more...’
‘It’s not about that. It’s trust, it’s communication... It’s not like we haven’t talked about our lives, our pasts...’ Freya trailed off, a sudden stabbing guilt that there was stuff that she hadn’t told him because she found it too painful to talk about. But having a son was completely different.
‘It’s complicated,’ he said.
‘Break-ups usually are, more so if a child’s involved.’
‘This one was particularly difficult. I loved her and we were planning on getting married, but then she got pregnant... If you want the truth, I’m almost certain he’s not mine.’
‘Really? Whose do you think he is?’
‘The whole thing’s a mess and complicated; nothing that I want to go into now. I’m really sorry for not telling you. I would have eventually. It’s just what we have has been so good and... I don’t know, I didn’t want to ruin that.’
Chapter Nineteen
Aaron was unusually quiet on the boat ride back to catch the seaplane. Admittedly Freya didn’t know what to say either. Their time away had taken an unexpected turn made even more unsettling by them having spent the night together. Although it hadn’t even been the whole night, just Aaron creeping into her room for sex then leaving again. Freya balled her hands into fists and focused on the cooling spray of the water as they sped across the lagoon and away from the island.
Lunch had been as uncomfortable as she’d imagined it would be. After Aaron’s brief and confusing explanation on the beach, they’d returned to the courtyard. Aaron’s mum had gathered the children together and got them sitting at one end of the table with a firm word in the ear of her eldest grandchild to keep the others quiet and in their seats. Not once did Aaron attempt to engage with his son. He could barely look at him. Freya sat in silence, glad of the distraction of food even though she was no longer hungry. She ate purely to have a distraction, and it was delicious too, home-cooked fish curry with fluffy rice. It should have been joyous being immersed in the real culture of the country with a family. Although Aaron’s mum was fluent in English, and Tasha obviously was too, the family spoke in Dhivehi and Aaron didn’t bother to translate. He barely said a word anyway, only an occasional nod or grunt in answer to something. Zahida was quiet too, not once looking in their direction. Aaron’s mum and Tasha made up for it, along with the two men who Freya discovered were Tasha’s husband and an older cousin. Freya couldn’t wait to leave the table. She thanked Aaron’s mum for her hospitality and retrieved her bag from her room. She waited on the sandy path while Aaron said goodbye to his family on his own.
Aaron didn’t say a word all the way back to the boat, so Freya had plenty of time to think. It had all slowly become clear. Aaron’s mum couldn’t understand why he wasn’t with the mother of his child and why he was hooking up with some British girl he worked with, while Aaron had been unaware his mother would go behind his back and invite his ex-girlfriend over. But the way Aaron had reacted to his son left her unsettled. It was one thing not telling her he had a son – she could probably forgive him that and understand it might not be the first thing he’d want to tell a new love interest, but to completely dismiss the little boy... He came across as cold and she’d had enough of heartless men who couldn’t deal with difficult emotions.
Tasha was protecting her best friend rather than her brother. Her brother who’d got her best friend pregnant out of wedlock. It might not seem like a big deal to Freya as it happened all the time back home – she had a handful of friends who were pregnant or had young children and weren’t married through choice or not having got round to it yet, but in a conservative country, and with a traditional family and a mamma who frowned on that sort of thing, it was no wonder his sister was upset. Freya cringed at the thought of the opinion Aaron’s family, his mum in particular, would have of her. From what she’d
