DRAMA NOVEL ONLINE Chapter Finale
MAXIMILLIAN finally understood what his wife meant that one morning in his office.
She gave him patience that could match the Buddha’s. There are times that Max frantically searched for her and gets pissed when she’s nowhere in sight, but Hyacinth made it a routine to hide from him just because she doesn’t want him to be too dependent on her.
In a few months, Max got used to Hyacinth’s constant disappearance he got used to them and just waited for her in the living room.
But she always welcomed him whenever he goes home from work. She never skipped a day of waiting on their doorstep and accepting the hungry kisses that Max tends to give her every time.
Months had turned into years, and Hyacinth urged Max to take weeks off to explore the Oriental Continent just like how they used to. Erin got busy with boarding school that when she went back to Sutton City for two consecutive summer vacations, the news of another addition to the family greeted her each time.
Hyacinth fulfilled her promises. She made Max so happy and content (and stressed) that he forgot everything that has been bugging him since Hyacinth arrived. He eventually forgot the uncertainties of their future and is always busy with his three-year-old boy and their one-year-old baby girl.
But Hyacinth is planning to give him more kids than he could ever manage in his lifetime. And that goal of hers wasn’t so hard to accomplish, considering her husband’s hearty appetites in the bedroom.
But his alcoholism is the hardest one to cure. Even if Hyacinth instructed the staff to hide the alcohol from his mini-bar, Max always kept a stash under the bed or in his file cabinets.
It was the toughest challenge that Hyacinth encountered. Well, she eventually overcame the obstacle when she gave birth to their second daughter.
Max gradually turned back from the liquor cabinet and spends most of his spare time with his kids. Her husband adored their babies so much that he requested another one.
“I guess, we can have one more. But that is it, Max. We won’t be having another one.” Hyacinth remembered the phrase she told him that Christmas morning; that was his birthday, by the way.
And how could she forget the smile of triumph from Max when she ended up conceiving twins?
After that, he ignored the alcohol completely and diverted all of his attention and energies to their growing family. Max is surrounded by laughter and bickering from his kids and the stress from dealing with an army of little devils.
But Max loves a challenge. He always loved complex things. It is probably the reason why he fell in love with her in the first place.
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A FEW YEARS LATER
-Winter, 2050-
“HOW WAS your Grandpop?”
Erin, now twenty-nine years old, touched the wrinkly face of her ninety-five-year-old son from the future.
When she traveled to the future countless times, she discovered many things: one of them is that she’ll end up marrying at the age of thirty. That means that she’ll marry next year. That is if they’ll base on her original age. Erin spent her two years in the past so her age in her school records and identity cards is missing an additional two years. In her records, she had been twenty-seven, not twenty-nine.
Traveling to the future also meant that she knows the identity of her future husband.
Oh, and she has her parents’ blessing about her upcoming marriage already even if the man she’s destined to be with doesn’t pay her any romantic attention at all. Erin doubts if the man has the time to think of anything but work.
But she returned countless times to the future not because of her interesting love life but because of her future son. She always pays a visit to her son and future grandchildren whenever she can, having established an emotional attachment to her own family from the future already. She sometimes helps her future grandchildren to take care of the ninety-five-year-old Theodore as Erin doesn’t have anything productive to do in the present.
Her son allowed her to visit the future from time to time and gave her expert advice about her ability. Because of that, Erin and her mother mastered the ability earlier than expected.
That also caused countless complaints from Maximillian. But who can control Hyacinth and Erin? He knew that the two are a force of nature when they worked together, so the man stopped meddling about it. His efforts will end up down the drain, anyway.
“Thank you for letting me see Grandpop, Mama.”
Hyacinth caressed her future grandson’s face. “Did you tell him everything about the truth of the threads like I asked you to do? Did you tell him to open the box where my letters are?”
The old man had coughed before replying, “Grandpops doesn’t seem to care about threads, Grammy, even if I told him about my ability. He looked so lonely, too.” And then, he coughed again. Louder, this time. “And yes, I told him about your box that contained letters for him.”
She pursed her lips together upon hearing the last sentence. “Really? You told him about your ability to see the red string of fate?” That’s odd. Max didn’t once mention their first grandson’s ability to see the red string of fate. He didn’t mention it once.
Theodore, her grandson, cleared his throat. “Can you guys return me to the future now? I need to take a nap.”
Erin laughed and kissed her son’s forehead. “Oh, my darling. We will bring you back now.”
After they sent back Erin’s son to the future, Hyacinth held her daughter’s hand and smiled. “If Theodore told his Grandpop about the red string of fate, then why your father didn’t care to tell me about it?”
Erin shrugged as she guided her mother to the entrance of the Bismarck Mansion. “I don’t know, Mom. Maybe, Dad is planning to tell you that but eventually forgot about it. Can you imagine raising eight kids, Mom? You guys sure didn’t inquire the Ob-Sonologist about family planning.”
Hyacinth’s eyes smiled at that. “Oh, your dad really planned to have as many as we can. I persuaded him to stop at eight. It’s supposed to be ten, but I talked him out of it.”
Erin’s nose wrinkled at the thought of two more siblings. “Oh, I’m glad you stopped Dad before he created more devil-spawns.”
Hyacinth laughed at Erin’s annoyance. “You love your brothers and sisters. Admit it, sweetie.”
Her daughter agreed to that statement, then guided her mother to the living room of the Bismarck Mansion where Max is firmly seated. There’s this glee sparkling in his eyes as he saw Hyacinth walk into the room.
“Where have you been, love?” He handed her the bowl of peanuts he’d been holding. “I’ve been waiting for you so we could start watching Enemies.”
“Oh, we just visited Theodore in the future.”
Max frowned, adding more wrinkles to his already slightly wrinkled face. His age didn’t make him look so old, though. It only enhanced the aristocratic corners of his face and amplified the air of authority around him. “I told you to not visit the future anymore.”
“We can’t help it, Max. We wanted to know how long he’ll live. And he reached the age of ninety-five! Can you believe that?”
Erin chuckled when her father casually wrapped his arm around his wife’s shoulder. “Tell me everything, love.”
“Well, your grandson mentioned his ability to you. You know that our red strings are connected. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Love, red string only proves that we’ll still end up together even in our next lives. What’s the surprise about that? It’s hardly news anymore. I’ll choose you every time we reincarnate. Don’t doubt that.”
Hyacinth grinned and blushed like a lovestruck teenager as she bashfully pinched her husband’s waist. “Oh, you monster!”
Erin chuckled at the scene in front of her, then went outside to give her parents some privacy.
It turns out that causing chaos in the threads of fate was all that they needed. Erin sometimes wondered if her mother was destined to see her father’s gray thread before so that their fate will be entangled, or if it was a mere happenstance.
Maybe, it is the red string of fate that had brought the two closer. Maybe it wasn’t a coincidence when her mother had worked at Moonround Cafe just in front of the building owned by her father. Maybe, it wasn’t a coincidence that her mother saw her father’s gray thread years ago.
The two were bound to meet each other and be together in the first place. It is just that her mother rushed things by interfering with fate, causing chaos that led everyone to this point.
Or, maybe, the chaos they caused in the threads of fate only sped up things between the two. Because if someone’s red string is connected to a person, then they’ll surely end up together regardless of the outcome of every decision they make.
Erin sometimes wondered. What if her mother didn’t intervene with the threads? Will her father die? After all, her father only has the gray thread. It only meant significant sacrifice but doesn’t necessarily mean death. And if he sacrificed his life for Aunt Maine, then there must be a possibility that both of them survived.
Whatever the answer was, Erin will never know.
But, at least, her parents ended up not regretting every choice they had made that led them to this point.
The doubts, fear, hopelessness, promises, wishes, and a decade of separation didn’t stop the two from loving each other. Such love was rare that their red string is one of the most vibrant ones that Theodore, her son, has ever seen.
And Theodore said that Hyacinth and Max’s red string of fate will stay like that forever.
That had put a smile on Erin’s face, realizing that her parents finally received the happiness that they both deserved.
“Where have you been?”
Erin didn’t have to turn round just to see the owner of the voice. The familiar sexy, baritone belonged to only one person.
To Andreus Rodriguez. Ray-Ray!
She scowled, then she slowly turned to look at the man’s perfectly-chiseled face.
“I went to the past, then to the future. We visited someone, then Mom and I went to the present.”
Andreus knew of the Bismarcks family secret since childhood. Maybe that was the reason why the man was annoyed by her. He’s probably jealous of her ability.
“Oh, yes. Probably your future husband.” The man had said with bitterness that could rival the taste of bitter gourd.
Erin faced Andreus with visible annoyance. “Can’t you just go directly to Dad to discuss business? Why do you have to annoy me before doing your job?”
He lifted a brow. “To piss you, obviously.”
Oh, the bastard!
“By the way, how’s Theodore?”
She snorted. “I thought you love your work like how you love your women. Now, you care about your so-” she was abruptly stopped when a realization hit her. “How do you know about Theodore?”
Andreus shrugged. “I overheard you guys earlier in the living room. Aunt Haya and Uncle Max were talking about your son from the future. I don’t know but I was curious to hear more about him.” He frowned at his statement, finally realizing that it sounded so odd to be curious about a random stranger.
Of course, that’s understandable, Erin thought. Connection by blood is always the strongest.
He cleared his throat, meeting her electric-blue eyes with his piercing-brown ones. “Who’s Theodore’s father, anyway? Did you meet him? Was he good to you?”
Erin gasped at his question, then she turned her back to hide the blush creeping from her neck to her face.
Should she tell him?
No. Erin shook her head frantically at the question. Absolutely not!