My Son Called The Billionaire Dad

The first client of the morning came in, and the bell above the cafe entrance gave a quiet tinkle. Ava Bennett didn't look up from the counter she was cleaning. "Good morning," she said on autopilot, continuing concentrating on her task.

Freshly brewed coffee filled the cafe, its aroma wafting into every corner of the small room. It was like a warm blanket thrown over her. It was just 7:30 a.m. and the rush hadn't started yet, which was the way she liked it.

Her favourite portion of the day was the early morning hours. The cafe was blessedly, unusually quiet, before the customers began to arrive in a constant stream, before the discussions started to blend into the clatter of cups and saucers. She had always found those silent times calming, enveloping the familiar area in a pleasant, predictable, and safe environment. In a world that appeared to revel in keeping her on her toes, those few hours each morning were the one portion of her day she could always bank on.

For the first time in years Ava had created a life that seemed stable. It wasn't flawless. Was nothing, ever. But it was hers, and that alone meant more than she could say. The café had given her something she hadn't had in a very long time. Certainty. The firm was not expensive, but it was profitable enough to keep the lights on and the doors open. Over the years it had become more than a way to make ends meet. It was a home, a routine, a place where she felt she belonged.

She had regular clients, who came by every morning, familiar faces who greeted her by name and lingered over coffee as if the café was an extension of their own living rooms. Their presence suffused the place with warmth and comfort, changing what started as a fantasy into something genuine. She had Noah most of all.

He was the best thing that had ever happened to her and the reason every sacrifice was worth it. Every long day, every sleepless nite, every hard decision looked smaller when she gazed at him. He brought joy and chaos and a kind of love she didn't know existed to her world. Everything she had developed in the last five years had been built for him. Every choice she had made, every risk she had taken, every challenge she had overcome had led to this life they lived together now.

She smiled and looked to the corner table where her five-year-old kid was sitting with a colouring book open in front of him. He was so busy meticulously colouring a dinosaur in brilliant purple that his tongue popped out in concentration.

"Mommy!" Proudly said Noah.

Ava giggled, glancing at the page he put out for inspection. The paper was covered edge to edge with a brilliant purple dinosaur.

Dinosaurs aren't purple.

"They're in my world."

Her lips curved into a smile.

"Okay."

Noah grinned, his eyes shining with pride. Ava's heart melted. She was always undone by moments like this. No matter how hard life got, Noah always made it all worthwhile. He made the sacrifices, the long days, the loneliness worth it. Even on the nites when she lay awake wondering how different her life could have been, one look at her kid was enough to remind her that she would do it all again.

The thought stayed for but a moment before she brushed it away.

Five years was a long time. Long enough for people to change, for old wounds to heal, for memories that felt hard to escape to lose their sharp edges. It was definitely long enough to move on. Or at least that was what she spent years trying to tell herself.

Five years. She'd established a life without Liam Stone in it. She'd poured herself into her café. Into parenting Noah. Into building a future that didn't depend on the past. Whenever she got thoughts of Liam, she threw herself into work or sought some other way to distract her mind. It was a habit now, over the years, a survival thing. Because dwelling on Liam too much lead her down paths she didn't want to go back to.

So she put the thought aside again, and she reminded herself of what she always did. Five years was a long time, long enough to heal old scars, long enough to forget about Liam Stone. Or at least that's what she told herself, though some part of her never truly believed it.

The café door opened and some other regular came in. A second customer soon appeared, smiling a familiar smile as he walked approaching the desk. The morning settled into its normal rhythm around her. The espresso machine hissed constantly behind the counter and customers chatted over warm cups of coffee. Low murmurs of conversation and the odd clink of porcelain mugs mingled with the soft music drifting from the ceiling speakers.

It was that kind of morning. Ava had acquired a taste for over the years. Busy enough to keep everyone busy, but known enough to feel comfortable. All seemed normal for a time. Comfortably normal. Expectedly normal. An routine morning, like they have every day, without surprises, without reason to fear about what was to follow.

And then it all shifted.

The bell above the door rang again and without looking up Ava grabbed another cup.

"Bennett Café. Welcome. "What'd ya get-"

Words died in her throat. The cup slid from her hand and shattered on the floor, the piercing crack echoing around the café, everything around her seeming to stop.

Ava paused, her heart lurching cruelly into her ribs, as incredulity washed over her. No, sir. That couldn't be.

I was positive my mind was messing with me for a second. No chance. No particular reason. No way that the guy standing there could possibly be him. But the vision was the same no matter how many times she blinked.

There was a man in the doorway. A man she hadn't seen for five years, a man she used to know better than anybody, and a man she tried for years not to think about, but memories of him had a way of coming back when she least expected them.

It was five years since she had seen his face, yet she knew him instantly. There were things, it seems, which were not to be forgotten

He was taller than she remembered, or maybe it was just having been apart so long. He was in a black suit, perfectly made, emphasising his broad shoulders and the serene assurance that seemed to accompany him wherever he went. From his bearing to the easy authority of his posture, he radiated accomplishment and control.

His dark hair was well groomed and the strong features of his face had only sharpened with age. Time had changed him subtly, adding a maturity he hadn't possessed before, but not so much that he was unrecognisable. And he's eyes. Then. Ava caught her breath the moment she saw them.

They were the same startling blue she had recalled, difficult to mistake and nevertheless just as unnerving now as they had been years ago. For a dizzying moment it was as though no time had passed at all. Those eyes had been her favourite thing about him. She had lost many hours in them, trusting every promise they made, every future they claimed to provide. Seeing them had once made her believe that eternity was not just a dream but something real and possible.

Liam Stone was only a few feet away, the love of her life, the guy who'd broken her heart. No matter what had happened, no matter how many years had passed, no matter how far away he'd gotten or how hard she'd tried to forget him, he was also the man she'd spent the last five years trying and failing to forget.

Neither of them moved or spoke for a moment. Ava glanced at the man standing in front of her, the sounds of the café seeming to fade into the background. Her pulse pounded in her ears and she stopped breathing for a second. This shouldn't have happened. Not here, not now, not after five years."

Liam's expression showed shock, too, as if he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. He stared at her for a long period before speaking.

"Ava."

He spoke her name, so many years in that whisper that neither of them could erase. Five years had gone by, but he still uttered her name the same way. Ava gulped hard, her throat dry suddenly.

"Liam. Hello."

All they weren't saying hung thick in the air between them. All at once memories were coming back to her. Suddenly late nite chats, whispered pledges, shared dreams, the engagement ring she had never worn came up. With them came the recollection of a goodbye she never wanted, and a heartache she had spent years trying to put behind her.

Liam was the first to come around.

This joint yours?" 

Ava nodded. "Three years now.

His gaze wandered around the café, the warm lighting, the busy tables, the constant flow of people.

"Good."

"Thank you."

Again there was silence between the two, awkward and strange. It was the silence that only comes between two people who once knew everything about each other, but who suddenly find themselves on opposite sides of years they will never get back.

Liam cleared his throat.

I was in the vicinity.

Ava almost giggled. Liam Stone was many things, but casually going into neighbourhoods like this was not one of them. He was featured in business periodicals, on television and in commercial campaigns throughout the country. 

Everywhere he went people knew him. He was now one of the youngest self-made millionaires in the country, a man known for his success, influence and persistent drive. Everything he had ever dreamed of being and everything she had ever imagined him being.

"Can I get you a something?"" Ava asked, keeping her voice professional.

I didn't miss the purposeful remoteness in her tone. She saw it in the quick flash that crossed Liam's face before he concealed it, albeit not quickly enough to hide the hurt.

"I'll have a black coffee."

"Large?" 

"Yes, please," he replied and nodded his head.

Before he could notice the little tremble in her hands, Ava turned toward the espresso machine. What was he doing here? Why today, after all these years? Of all the cafes in all the cities in all the world, why did he have to go into hers?

She concentrated on making the coffee, happy for the familiar routine. Measuring and pouring and moving through rehearsed motions offered her something to focus on except the man standing only a few feet away. It was no help. She could still feel him there.  Some things, it seemed, had never changed.

When the coffee was ready, she took it and handed him the cup. Their fingers touched. It was the briefest of contacts, hardly more than an accidental brush, yet it shot a shock through her anyway. They both pulled back immediately. The years between them folded in on themselves for a time, and left a familiar aching that neither had ever really escaped.

Liam put his hand around the mug and looked about the café. His eyes slowly swept the room, and then settled on the children's drawings pinned on one wall. A moment later he saw the toy basket put down next to the reading spot.

His lips curved into a tiny smile.

"You've always dreamed of a place like this."

Ava's chest clenched.

He recalled that. Of course he did.

She'd told him about her dream café years ago. It was more than a coffee shop. It was a gathering place for people, a place where families could feel comfortable and a place where you could feel the warmth of home in every corner. A place that felt comfortable, lived in and pleasant enough that people never wanted to leave. And yet she had constructed it, after everything that had transpired. I did it without him.

"Dreams change," she murmured softly.

Liam's eyes found hers again and neither glanced away for a moment. And those years felt so lost under the weight of all that was unsaid.

He tilted his head a little then.

"Is it?"

Before Ava could respond, a familiar voice echoed from the other side of the cafe.

"Mommy!" 

Her heart almost stopped.

Noah

The small boy ran to them, clutching his colouring book, darting between tables and chairs with the tremendous enthusiasm only a toddler could have. Right at them. Liam, right there. Ava's stomach tightened. Noah caught up to her and immediately put his arms around her waist, holding his colouring book aloft with unmistakable pride.

"Look what I did!" 

Ava smiled and looked down at the page. "It's beautiful."

Noah smiled at the compliment, then turned his head. His eyes found Liam, and a flicker of curiosity crossed his face as he openly regarded the stranger by his mother's side.

Ava felt a cold run through her, and Liam looked at Noah, too. Something flickered for an instant across his face. First there was confusion. Then intrigue. Then something that she couldn't identify but instantly feared. Her pulse throbbed against her ribs and neither of them looked away.

Noah peered back with the naive wonder of a kid who'd never learned caution, Liam with an escalating intensity that made Ava more and more uncomfortable. There was silence for a few long seconds, then Noah grinned and Ava's breath hitched. She knew the smile. She'd known it for years. It was bright and easy and impossibly familiar.

And Liam took note.

She saw the very instant it happened. A flash passed behind his eyes; his demeanour changed, almost imperceptibly. The alteration was so small that most people would have missed it. Not Ava. She saw the interest change to something much more deadly, and a knot of fear grew hard in her chest.

"Hi," Noah said with a smile.

Liam blinked, as if bringing himself back to the present. "Hello."

"My name is Noah."

Liam gave a weak smile, bending down a little to get to the boy's level.

"Good to meet you, Noah. I'm Liam."

Noah smiled.

Ava wanted to draw him away, to create some distance between them before either of them noticed too much, before what was happening in front of her had the chance to become something she could no longer control. But she couldn't move. She froze, Liam's eyes still on Noah, because for the first time since coming into the cafe, Liam was actually looking at him. He was watching him. He looked and looked and looked, taking in every feature, every emotion, every little thing and Ava knew exactly what he was seeing. The black hair. The blue eyes. The smile I see. Gradually the likeness became impossible to miss, and with every second that passed a cold knot of dread clenched in her chest.

Her heart was pounding painfully against her ribs, a quiet prayer running through her mind. "Don't notice, please. Don't look at it. Not now, please"

Liam was still staring at Noah across the café and with every second that passed Ava's anxiety grew. Even if neither of them had uttered the truth out, she could almost see the pieces falling into place. Noah then scowled. He regarded Liam with an uncommon intentness, his little brows knitting. He looked for a moment, as if he were attempting to solve a conundrum that only he could see.

Ava's stomach sank.

Noah raised a hand, slowly, and pointed right at Liam. Ava stopped breathing as the chatter around the café faded into the background. Noah glanced at Liam and then at her and then back at Liam. Confusion and interest played across his features.

"Mommy..." His voice was as gentle and innocent as the day. He frowned, looking at Liam again. "Why does that man look like me?"