Chapter 4

"We were both drunk last night Max," I explained. "None of this is my fault and besides you also knew who I was beforemaking passes at me.”

"Hmm," he scoffed, rolling his eyes distastefully. "You know what, just take the money on the dresser and leave."

But I only rammed my leg into the sneaker, brushed past him and walked out of the room, slamming the door behind me. I refused to be treated like a common whore, picked off the streets.

Tears blurred my vision as I descended the long staircase in the hotel, burning my cheeks as they finally rolled down. I didn't think there would have been a better description for shame and embarrassment.

I had met Max at countless charity events, but I had never approached him or spoken to him. He had a reputation for being arrogant and stuck up and I didn't believe the assertion until now.

I walked as fast as I could, fearing that people would now recognize me until I finally hailed a cab and went straight to my home. I regretted not accepting the money Max offered me, it would have at least paid my overdue bills.

I reclined back to my old condition, I even took up drinking,with everyday of my life feeling like a challenge of life and death. Until a week later when I decided to cut my hair and assume a new identity. There was a vacancy in the coffee shop downtown, I would be alright again, pick the pieces of my life again.

ONE MONTH LATER

I stood frozen, staring at the pregnancy test in my hand, my eyes fixed on the two pink lines that seemed to scream at me. My mind reeled as I tried to process the news. Pregnant? How could this be? I had only met Max once, and now...now I was going to have his child?

I felt like I'd been punched in the gut, my breath knocked out of me. I stumbled backward, my eyes never leaving the test, and collapsed onto the edge of the bathtub. My head spun, and my body felt heavy, as if weighed down by the news.

What was I going to do? Tell him? Not tell him?

The tears began to fall, streaming down my face as I felt my world crumble around me. I was alone, scared, and pregnant.

In my fit of dilemma and sadness, I reached for my phone and texted Max, telling him what had happened, that I had gotten pregnant with his child, but there was no response. Refusing to feel stupid, I discarded the text and opted to call him instead, but there was no answer, and after a while,he blocked my number.

Words cannot express the intensity of the pain I felt afterwards or the mini ocean of the tears I shed. My life had turned upside down, but now it had been totally ruined. I didn't have a stable source of income and a decent roof on my head. But now I was pregnant with a child that would be tagged a bastard.

A few more days afterwards, I cleared out my savings account and went to the hospital, I had convinced Mary, one of my co-workers, to sign the consent form. And the operation would finally be taking place.

I sat in the waiting room, huddled up in an oversized cardigan, pale face, and shaky hands. My heart pitter pattered under my chest as my mind conjured different images. I was killing a life, but this was the only way. If I had gotten pregnant for a different person,it would have been different, but Max Hollandale, I was sure to live the rest of my life in misery.

"Miss Clara Daniels, you're up in fifteen minutes."

I let out a short gasp and blinked twice to clear my head as the sharp voice cut into my head. Then I sat straight to behold a nurse standing at the end of the hallway.

"You should meet with the doctor in his office now." She said, flashing a warm smile at me.

"Is there anything else I should do?" I asked.

"No, just head straight there," she said, pointing down the hall. "Take the elevator and go directly to the doctor's office."

"Okay Ma'am,"

I winced as I rose to my feet, mustering all the strength in my gelid veins. I still didn't think I knew how to feel, my heart pounding wildly in my chest as I opened the elevator and stepped inside.

The air in the elevator was warm, and I wrapped my arms around me, savoring the soothing feeling when a pair of hands suddenly grabbed me from behind.

I spun around immediately dazed and shocked, but before my brain could register what was happening, a weird odour engulfed my nose, going straight into my lungs and knocking me out completely.

When I finally gained consciousness, my eyes fluttered open to a dimly lit room. But instead of being on the elevator floor, I was on a bed in a strange apartment. I placed my hand on my face and rubbed the blurriness off my eyes but when I tried to rise from the bed, I groaned in pain and fell back on the pillow.

My body felt like a rock and the constant migraine in the middle of my neck seemed to have spread to the left side of my neck.

"How are you feeling Sienna, did you rest well."

I jerked up immediately, utterly shocked at the strange voice but I froze to stone when I beheld the figure sitting on the chair beside me, arms crossed, lips pursed.

"Max," I yelled, sitting on my back. "What have done to me!"

He took a deep breath as he unfolded his legs and stood up. "I just stopped you from aborting my child and the sole heir to my family fortune."

"What!"

"You heard me clearly Sienna," he said softly, tucking his hands into the pockets of the blue suit trousers he was wearing. "I stopped you from killing my child."

"Your child?"

He took a glance at the confused look on my face and chuckled arrogantly. "I have been spying on you,I had my men follow you the day you left the hotel. I know what you've been up to, the people you've been seeing and your supposed plans after this...." He stopped and gestured to my stomach. "After this.... sacrilege you were about to commit."

"I am not committing a sacrilege.” I shouted. “I can do whatever I want with my body and my life."

"But not with my child," he said again, this time firmer and louder. "How dare you attempt to abort my child."

"You treated me like a whore and had me thrown out of the hotel. You treated me terribly."

"I don't think it would be advisable for you to retain that ugly occurrence in your memory, considering your pitiful condition.":

I had never felt that irritated in my life, but when I tried to stand up, I saw that an intravenous injection had been fixed into my arm. "Ouch," I winced, laying back on the pillow.

"The doctor will soon be here to check you out," Max said again. "And I have had some of your valuable things moved here, you are to live here from now on, with me.

"What!"

I felt as though someone had slapped me across the face, and I cringed in effect.

"I am not interested in having anything to do with you Mr Hollandale." I produced firmly. "I demand to be released from this hostage now. I want to return home."

"To your cockroach infested apartment right?"

"That is none of your business. I do not wish to have anything to do with you, leave the pregnancy aside."

Max curved his lips into a smirk as he took a long stride towards me and sat at the edge of the bed. "I do not intend to raise children outside of wedlock and I do not exactly fancy the idea of having to pay child support and the other stuff. So..."

"So what?"

He took a deep breath.

"I'm asking you to marry me Sienna."

I leaned towards Max with the hopes of catching a whiff of alcohol on his breath, but there wasn't,he wasn't drunk.

"I have made some researches about you,I know what happened to you and your career. Your family used your husband and your manager against you.

But my grandfather is on his sick bed and I promised to provide him with a grandchild before he dies. There is also something for me to gain..."

He stopped and slapped his hand on his head annoyingly. "He locked my trust fund you see"

"Do you understand?"

He asked, and I looked away, hoping it was a dream I could wake up from, and still wishing it could be true. I didn't want to abort the child,I felt so connected to it already.

"We'll divorce and go our separate ways after twelve months," He continued. "You'll give me sole custody of the child and I will help you revive your dead acting career."

He stretched his hand to the chair he was sitting on before and pulled out a file which contained white papers.

"There is also one more thing you get." He said.

"What?" I asked.

"I'll help you get revenge on your family, I am more powerful than you think I am. Do we have a deal?"