“Oh for fucks sake.” I cursed, tiredly rubbing my temples. “Why can nothing ever go drama free for me?”
I knew Liann’s family was rich, I knew that they were from around here. I vaguely remember her telling me her great grandfather invented some everyday item, and her grandfather and father just reinvested the money in startups and real estate. I would have never made the connection to what Robert had told me about Dennis Wright, I hadn’t even really bothered to google him. Maybe that was naive of me, I surely did curse myself for it now.“You know him?” Robert asked me, his eyes switching between me and Dennis.“He is Liann’s uncle,” I told him. Robert clearly didn’t remember who Liann was, so I quickly elaborated. “She is my sister in law. The demon.”“That didn’t come up on your background check.” Robert said. I couldn’t blame him for that comment. HimRobert’s marketing team was very happy with our outing to the art exhibit. The following day I saw pictures come by of us on the red carpet, as well as the photos that were taken when I was fangirling over art. The latter really did turn out great. I was pointing at the art and clearly talking, while Robert was looking at me, with a small smile on his face. The art exhibit used them to show how interesting their art was, the gossip magazines used them to show how Robert was in love with me. It was a win-win.I didn’t feel any pain, besides the regular pregnancy ones, after the party and it was making me a bit bolder. I still kept to mostly resting, but I wasn’t putting off things until after the birth anymore either. Sure, it was still six days of rest and then one appointment on the seventh day, but it was more than what I did before.Back when I first moved into this apartment I had already bought a coffee machine. Pregnant women really weren’t su
Doctor Ward was always in a much better mood when Robert wasn’t here for my appointments. He even wore a funky tie today, with little green dinosaurs on them. Clara would love him, that’s for sure.“No pain,” I confirmed for him. “Outside of my back and my feet, of course.”He nodded and wrote it down, though I knew he must already know about all of this. I was still on a decently strict schedule to tell doctor Ward everything I felt in regards to the pregnancy. I think most of my messages never made it past the nurse, but they must be in my file at the very least.“We are slowly heading towards your due date.” Doctor Ward said as he was writing. “Nervous?”“Well, the possibility of horrible pain and death doesn’t really make me look forward to it.” I joked. Doctor Ward smiled and finished writing his sentence before putting the clipboard down. We were in the oh so familiar examination
I didn’t tell Robert about Mr Price’s visit. I didn’t want to add to his stress and the only interesting thing he mentioned was that he knew about my diagnosis. He could have spoken to one of the nurses at the clinic or maybe Robert did tell his family, I didn’t know and I didn’t really care. Maybe if people knew I was supposed to rest they would actually let me do it. Kiara texted me this morning that she wanted to come over, so I was quickly going through the house to clean everything up again. I had long cleaned up our little zoo, but since then Clara and I had also played princess and vet, so the house was in a constant state of mess. I didn’t really care, I wanted Clara to have the type of childhood where she was allowed to make a mess when she was being creative. The whole ‘nothing out of place’ aesthetic really wasn’t mine. I had just finished transferring the last of her stuffed animals and miscellaneous toys
No matter how angry she was with me before the pains started, Kiara put all of that aside when she noticed my discomfort. She was well aware of the pains of childbirth, as it was the reason that she put her plans of having a large family with multiple kids aside, so even though we were not sure if I was going into labour she was nothing but great at keeping calm.“Everything will be okay, Dalia, remember to take deep breaths.” She told me, occasionally glancing over at me. She had luckily driven to my place today, so there was no waiting time for a car to arrive nor did we need to call an ambulance. Kiara put the keys in the ignition and before I knew it we were off.I think we broke the speed limit more often than we stayed under it, but I could not bring myself to care. If we got a ticket Robert would have to pay for it, if we got pulled over by a cop they could very well join us and escort us to the hospital. The pain was still roaming around my body,
I had to stay in the hospital for a few days while the doctors checked to see if my situation stabilized. Even doctor Ward came in to speak to me and consult with my doctors. The pains occurred when my blood pressure rose and after fighting with Kiara, they had simply gone too far up. Eventually, they deduced that a hospital stay was still quite stressful, and they preferred me to sit out my pregnancy in the comforts of my own home. Once again, I was told to do nothing but rest.I hadn’t spoken to Kiara since, but Robert had brought Clara to visit me every day. At first, she got really scared to see me in the hospital, but when I explained it was due to the baby she calmed down. It was funny to see how she related everything back to the animal kingdom, and luckily for me, she had seen a documentary where the doctors closely monitored a pregnant rhino. Before we knew it, Clara was back to her cheerful self. “I’m not completely useless you know.” I s
The powerpoint did not turn out to be so bad, in fact I quite enjoyed the many special effects and pictures she had used to illustrate why we should move in with Robert. I don’t think I got the point across that we would probably move back into our own place after the baby is born, but that was a worry for later. I messaged Kiara to try and make up with her, but she had not responded. I didn't even tell Robert that I had done that, because even though he wasn’t saying it, I knew he blamed Kiara for my lengthy hospital visit. Luckily for me, he was smart enough to keep that opinion to himself, and I just wanted my best friend back.His finger traced from my thigh to the curve of my hips and onto my ribs. Even with the fabric separating my skin from touching his, I still thoroughly enjoyed it when he touched me. His body was pressed against mine, my back against his front. We had fallen asleep like that and I always enjoyed it when he stayed in bed long enough f
The chef never disappointed, especially when he was told beforehand that there would be guests coming over.I had been raving about him to Kiara for months, so when the food was brought out she happily took a bite of the green mush, even if it did not look super appetizing. Elijah poked at it for a bit longer, until he saw Kiara’s eyes light up. He then also tried it and for the next five minutes, neither of them really gave any long answers.“I think we have unsuccessfully tried to keep business and our friendship separated.” I finally broke the silence. “So, knowing that, was it a mutually beneficial talk?” Elijah had taken a page from Robert’s book, so when they came back down I could not read from either of their faces whether or not they hated each other or were beginning to at least form a friendship. Kiara and Elijah were seated in front of us and Robert was to my right. Yet, Elijah was too busy with his food, so Robert answ
I had been fussing over what I wanted to wear for days. That was really a perk of having absolutely nothing to do and only being allowed to rest, I could worry over the little things.Too dressed up would make it seem like I was showing off, my regular ‘home’ outfit would seem like I did not care. Though Kiara had extensive knowledge of clothes, I did not. I had no idea which maternity wear came straight from the designer and which came straight from some knock off brand. I did not want to over do it, I did not want to under do it. It needed to be perfect.“You look nice.” Robert commented when he saw me. I stopped dead in my tracks.“Not too nice right?” I asked. He was sitting on the couch, with his tablet in front of him. I could not really see what he was doing on there, but I doubt he was playing Candy Crush. He looked me up and down.“You look… very nice?” He guessed. “Very pretty.”I r
Clara had never been one for lullabies, she preferred bedtime stories even before she could understand what the stories were about. Flynn was the opposite in this. If you spoke to him, he cried, but if you sang to him he would fall asleep.I finished the third Disney song, all three coming straight out of Tangled because I lacked originality, and stayed for a few more moments to watch if he wasn’t actually faking me out and was still awake. Not that I minded whatsoever, I could look at him every minute for the rest of my life and never get bored.His chest rose and fell, his face all scrunched up to deal with whatever dreams he was having. He had taken to Robert’s old crib like it had been his own for years already. He was only a few weeks old and already smart enough to know that he should not fight his father on this. God, this baby is going
“Drive slowly.” Robert warned him. “Or face her wrath.” The driver smiled politely at the joke, probably not realizing how much truth there was in it and that it wasn’t a joke whatsoever. The baby and I were finally both cleared to go home, but that did not mean that I was feeling fine and dandy again. I had a big c-section scar on my lower stomach, one that would surely turn into an ugly scar later on. The doctors had encouraged walking and moving around far quicker than I really wanted to. I could walk out of the hospital myself, but at a slow pace. After placing the baby carrier in the car, Robert helped me sit down. I felt like I was eighty years old with how much help I needed with everything, but Robert never once complained about it. I must have really scared him with the whole ‘my heart stopped beating’ moment in the operation room. He was never
In books and movies, they always depicted unconsciousness as this great dark abyss. Like it was a black hole with me floating around in the middle. I thought it would be similar to being underwater, floating around like I was weightless and free. But as always, the books and movies were wrong. They gave me the false hope that I would receive some sort of tranquil experience in the middle of this chaos. In reality, it felt like I blinked. I remembered looking up at the bright white surgical lights with plenty of doctors by my side. I couldn’t feel anything, even if I did see the occasional blood soaked gauze come by. It didn’t register that that blood was mine. The room was spinning, until I finally heard my final call to let go. I heard the sharp cry of my baby, my first born. I allowed myself to close my eyes. I wasn’t allowed to rest for long. T
Robert POVThe night my child was born happened in heartbeats.The first beat, I was at home. Dalia and I had a fight, even though I knew we shouldn’t have. She was important to me, but my child’s safety was at stake. We both knew it was just weeks of frustration and worry building up and overflowing. Tomorrow I would go back and we would make up again, and I would sit through another day of complaints and silence.I was reading Clara a new book. Dalia had reread the same ones to her a million times, so in her absence I decided to outshine her and buy the young girl some new ones. Tonight she wanted to hear about farm animals going on an adventure, even though she had already heard it last night. I wasn’t in the mood for another argument, so we got to reading.
Sleeping was so difficult. My mind was in turmoil, my body was in constant pain. I could never get comfortable enough to fall asleep and even if I did, one kick from the baby caused sharp pains to wake me right back up again. I thought that was what had happened when I woke up again. I opened my eyes and tried to turn a bit to the right to get comfortable again. That was really all I did these days, slight adjustments in the hope that it would be enough to fall asleep again. I had been in quite a deep sleep for once and I wanted to return to it, but something else was bothering me this time. My mind was half asleep so it took me some time to figure out that I could hear some sort of obnoxious beeping, and then even more time to realize that the beeping wasn’t coming from any of the neighbouring rooms, it was coming from the machine next to me.&nbs
I stared up at the grey ceiling. And then I stared some more. The pain was pounding through my body and it felt like it had been months since I had last been able to rest comfortably. Any movement made it worse, laying still did nothing to fix it. I just wanted it all to be over already, nothing could cheer me up anymore. Robert placed a kiss on my lips, but I wanted to slap him. It was his fault I was in this position anyway. If he hadn’t wanted a baby, then I wouldn’t be pregnant, then I wouldn’t be in this much pain. It was all his fault, not mine. “Doctor Ward is coming this afternoon.” Robert said when I didn’t respond much to his kiss. It had been a few days since Mr Price’s visit and Mahlia had confirmed that the FBI case against Robert
The pain never really went away. Though the doctors reassured us, and with us I mean mostly Robert, that both the baby and I were safe, it still did not make for a very comfortable stay. I was either high as hell on pain meds, or cranky because of the pain. It was very much taking a toll on my psyche, and then being told that I would need to stay here until I gave birth only made everything seem worse. “There is no need really,” I said. “Nothing exciting is happening, and Robert is constantly watching me like a hawk. Honestly, I never even have a moment to myself anymore.” Robert smiled at me and flipped me off, while I heard my brother laugh. In the spirit of our renewed relationship, I figured that I should probably tell him I had been hospitalized. He was luckily not brave enough to ask if he should take care of Clara, because that was really not a decisio
Robert POVThe examination room was more spacious than I had expected it to be. It clearly was designed for a pregnant mother who needed to bring her child along, as it featured both a bed with stirrups and a small play area for the child. The doctor’s chair was now occupied by a woman with light blonde hair and a windbreaker jacket that read ‘Child Services’, while Clara was in the play area, but touching nothing. Her head snapped to the door when I walked in. Her big eyes welled up with tears and she got up from the floor. She didn’t dare run to me, as she would run to Dalia. Instead, she hesitated, waiting for me to make the first move. I got down on my knees and opened my arms for her. She realized it was okay and ran to me. She was clearly in hysterics, her eyes were red from crying and rubbing her eyes so often and her hair was half in a ponytail, half like she had been in a tropical hurricane. She only cried more when she hugged me. I
My mind was broken into a thousand pieces. I could usually be calm and collected in the face of stress but now I can barely will my legs to move. “The driver will be here in five minutes.” Steph said to me. “Too late,” I responded. “I will drive myself.” Steph nodded and turned back to her own desk to continue working from there. I was almost at the end of the hallway when I forced myself to stop and turn back.“Steph?” I said. She looked up from her desk, as calm and professional as ever. “I am leaving you in charge. Dalia is my priority right now.”“Yes sir.” She answered and went right to it while I headed for the elevator. The truth was that even in a building filled with Harvard educated lawyers and the best business people in the world, the only person I would entrust my life’s work to was Steph. She knew how I ran it, she knew my vision for it and most of all: She was fie