Substitute Mother

Chapters 74. Red Yarn

It had never occurred to Tyona before that there would be a time when she would follow where Jeffrey was going. Now she had to sneak around to follow where her husband's car was going, in the taxi she had booked a day earlier.

Kiran's words the other day, like a slap that brought Tyona's awareness that her marriage was not doing well. All this time he denied, considering his quarrel with Jeffrey lately is just a normal misunderstanding.

Now Tyona doesn't want to spend the day in prejudice or denial. He had to make sure with his own eyes if Jeffrey was a traitor. Whatever the outcome, he will accept even if he is sick. Again, would it not be better to know one painful fact than to live a thousand lies?

Last afternoon, Jeff said he was going to visit his mother's house. Tyona just agreed, and said that she had a night watch schedule. Of course he lied, lucky Jeff didn't ask questions.

Sure enough, Jeffrey's car did not lead to his father-in-law's house, but rather entered the residential complex area before stopping in front of one of the houses. Tyona's cab stops at a distance of two houses, hoping it doesn't invite Jeffrey's suspicions.

A young woman came out of the house and greeted Jeffrey. Welcoming here is not only a sweet smile, but also hugging him. Jeffrey, returning the hug then kissed the woman's forehead.

As if not painful enough, Jeffrey lowered his head, rubbing his opponent's stomach gently while talking as if to talk.

Enough, Tyona is no longer able to.

“Please turn around the taxi” he said in a vibrating voice.

**

Judith was accompanying Aera on a bike around the city park when her net caught a familiar figure sitting on one of the benches. The woman sat behind him but from her figure, she knew that the figure was someone she knew.

“Aera, isn't that Mommy Anna?”

Aera stopped her bike. “Oia Mommy Anna. Let's go there, Mama”

“Mommy!”

When the call was uttered by a familiar voice, the figure turned his head. It is true that it is Tyona. But his expression was not as usual. There was no friendly or happy aura as usual, his eyes were puffy and wistful, his nose was flushed and there were marks of tears that had not dried up perfectly on his cheeks.

“A-aera?” Tyona replied to Aera's embrace which directly scattered to her. He exchanged glances with Judith who seemed to understand that something was wrong with the doctor.

“Mommy what are you doing here?”

Judith approached, touching Aera's shoulder. “Darling, can you have time to talk to Mommy Anna? Aera wait at the ice cream shop with Uncle Pram, want?”

Aera nodded without refuting, after Judith confirmed to Pak Pram aka Jeanno driver, the man drove and waited for Aera at the ice cream shop across the street.

After Aera's departure, Judith takes her place next to Tyona. “May I sit here, doctor?”

Tyona nodded weakly. His eyes looked straight ahead.

“Doctor.... being not okay, yes?”

At first Judith wanted to ask how Tyona was doing, but anyone who saw the woman's appearance would have realized that she was not okay.

Tyona smiled blandly. “See ya?”

“I'm here, if the doctor would like to share the burden with me. I'll be a listener here. But if the doctor wants to be alone, I can per—“

“My husband cheated on me, Judith”

The clear beam is rounded. Unbelieving what Tyona said, but too tongue-tied to respond.

“My husband, the man I know a dozen years old. Who's been with me since we've been nobody. Who has made a holy promise to me, has betrayed me. Now I have to how..”

Tyona uttered her heart in her usual tone, but the tears did not stop flowing from her pair of beautiful eyes.

Tyona's shoulders trembled along with her deep stuffing. Judith shifted her seat closer, gently patting the back of Tyona's hand. He doesn't respond to anything, because Judith believes all Tyona needs now is a listener.

“I'm like a fool. Struggling for myself how to get pregnant, blaming myself for not being able to give offspring to my husband. Not knowing if it was out there, my husband was happily rubbing the stomach of another woman who was carrying her seeds. Am I not that valuable, Judith?”

Judith's outstretched hand grabbed Tyona's shoulder, hugging her tightly. The woman was crying on her shoulder, a crack that broke until her shoulder gulped. Judith never imagined if Tyona, the woman she looked at with all her perfection, was harboring wounds caused by her loved ones.

Well, isn't he the same? hurt by the people he loves? They are hurt in a different way.

**

“Why daydream?”

Judith lifted her gaze from the plate towards Jeanno who had just finished eating. “Ya?”

“I asked why you daydreamed. Your food is not spent either. Are you sick?”

Judith shook her head, choosing to devour her own food. His mind was still focused on his brief encounter with Tyona this afternoon. The woman spent a lot of time crying in her arms. Until he had to apologize many times for wetting Judith's clothes and wasting his time listening to her curses. But of course, Judith said it didn't matter. Instead offer help if Tyona needs a friend, or listener.

“Aera said earlier you met Anna at taman”

“Yes, we met with doctor Tyona”

Jeanno put white water on her glass. “Is she okay?”

“Meanour?”

“No, it's just that I rarely see her posting photos with her husband. It's been a long time since the last time”

Judith berdehem's. “Master knows her husband closely?”

“Not” Jeanno shakes. “In fact, I feel like her husband doesn't really like me”

“Why can it be?”

Jeanno's gaze was over. “There are two possibilities. He was jealous because Tyona and I were close friends, or he didn't like Tyona being too considerate of Aera”

“What's wrong if Tyona's doctor pays attention to Aera? Isn't that the same way Mark pays attention to his nephew?”

Jeanno smiled faintly. “It's not that simple, Judith. Tyona and her husband have been married for more than five years, but have not had children. From what I caught from Tyona, I guess the party who was always eager to try to have offspring was only from Anna's side. So maybe her husband doesn't want to have children, or doesn't like children. And with Tyona often taking Aera to stay overnight, it could be Jeffrey thinks that his wife takes care of someone else's child”

Judith stopped the movement of her bribing hands when one name was thrown out by Jeanno. “Guister says who?”

“Jeffrey. Tyona's Husband. He is a psychiatric doctor who also works in a hospital with Tyona”

Like a flashback moment, the memory in Judith's brain rotates circuit after circuit that turns out to be connected to each other. Drawing the conclusion that it turns out..

Renatta's lover is a man's husband, a psychiatrist in Pelita who is also the same doctor who handled his trauma several years ago. Psychiatrist Jeffrey Geraldo.

Tyona is weeping over the fact that her husband has impregnated her affair. Drawing the conclusion that..

Renatta is the third person in Tyona and Jeffrey's marriage.

**