BETROTHED TO THE BILLIONAIRE

Ryan’s POV

The denial and her expression said it all; she doesn’t want the baby and it takes me back to my shell of grieving.

Hearing about the news of a baby coming made me forget my sorrows for a second and reduced the pain of losing someone who means so much to me.

I am not superstitious but it felt as if the baby was going to be a replacement for my dead Mother. Now, my hope has been shattered by Valerie’s outburst and confidence about not being pregnant.

Her parents were extremely shocked too. It proved to me that I was wrong about her joking over a serious matter like that.

I didn’t say a word. I just remained quiet till when it was time to discharge her and we came home.

It’s been days and Valerie isn’t saying anything yet about the baby. If she doesn’t feel the baby, then am I supposed to wait till her belly begins to protrude before bringing this issue up and resolving it once and for all?

The baby is a blessing.

Coming to us at this time is a blessing, why then does she keep denying the fact that the diagnosis isn’t fake like she is thinking?

I don’t even need to go to another hospital to confirm our suspicions. She is pregnant and that is it.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

I rise from my desk to go to our room where she is always laying down like someone who is about to die. I haven’t been able to go to the office either; because I am still mourning and because I want to make sure that she doesn’t do something rash.

We need to talk. If she doesn’t want the baby, she can tell me. She doesn’t need to hide behind the facade of a fake diagnosis.

Just before I can get to the door, a knock resounds, making me halt and look towards the door.

The maids barely come here to disturb me. Before I can think of who it can be, the door slightly opens and Valerie peeps in.

“Ryan, are you busy?” Her hair is disheveled and her eyes are swollen as if she has been crying all day.

“No”, I purse my lips into a thin line as I reply with a shake of the head.

She comes fully in and closes the door quietly behind her. I was just about to go meet her and here she is but I can’t find my voice. I don’t know what she is thinking but this is definitely one of the moments where I always wish to know what goes on in that big head of hers.

With her hands clasped behind her as she stands, we both remain silent. Her head is bowed but I am staring at her waiting for her to speak up.

While standing there, she looks really timid and it almost makes me laugh. I have never seen her this way and it makes my curiosity go over the edge.

“Val…”

“Ryan…”

We both call simultaneously, our eyes meeting. She bites her lower lip in embarrassment and I chuckle and move closer to her.

The way she calls my name does a lot of unspeakable things to my body. Now, I am realizing just how much she calls my real name and how barely she calls me with sweet names like honey, love, sweetheart, baby, and the rest.

However, I also love calling her Val too instead of something else. I love her name just as much as I love her.

Now, I know what is wrong. I can see it in her eyes.

Fear.

What exactly she is scared of is what I have no idea about. If she is scared, then it means she believes the baby is there. She doesn’t need to feel pregnant to be pregnant.

I know someone who has been pregnant for seven months without knowing. She used to work in my office and when the pregnancy got to seven months exactly, she became sick and had to take a leave. When she came back to resume work, she came with the hospital result revealing how far gone she already was.

She also came to work with her resignation letter. She has been married to her husband for seven years without a child. He was a wealthy man who was ready to go to any length to make her happy.

To avoid becoming desperate, she applied for a job in my company and got it. Being busy helped in bringing her back to her old self and when she was about to give up on ever having a child of her own, she became pregnant.

She left the office happily. She had regained her confidence again because of the baby. She was going back to her new life; her established fashion house which she neglected because of her desperation and her career in modeling.

I was happy for her.

Now that I think of it, I understand how she must have felt before the arrival of the baby and even after. It must be a joyous one for the spouse.

That joy should be what Valerie and I should be experiencing. We should be happy and prepared earnestly for the arrival of our baby. This baby is going to change our status. This baby is going to make us parents.

There is absolutely nothing to be scared about and nothing to be sad about.

“I’m scared, Ryan…”

“I know”, I interrupt her, scooping her face in between my palms and caressing them. With two fingers, I tug back the hair falling all over her face. “You have nothing to be scared about, ok?”

She doesn’t nod. She just remains quiet.

“Do you….”

“I thought you wouldn’t want a baby?” It comes out like a question, making me raise my brows and exclaim in disbelief.

“What?!” My hands fall from her face. “Of course not. I thought you didn’t want the baby.”

Silence ensues. I expect her to tell me she wants the baby. That is the only way we can welcome this baby happily into the world. If she doesn’t want the baby, am I to force her to keep it?

“Of course, I want a baby, Val. Most importantly with you. I want a girl who will look just like you. I want a little you who will always remind me of how lucky I was to have listened to Mom and how you have me hooked to you forever. Is that too much to ask?” I hold her two hands while she looks down. “Don’t you want that too?”

She shakes her head and my heart sinks, stirring up a horrible feeling in me.

She gazes up at me. “I don’t want a baby girl that looks like me. I want a bouncing baby boy that is as calm and good as you, Ryan.”

I perk up at her statement. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought she was about to suggest going for an abortion because she doesn’t want a baby now. I thought she wanted to tell me she can’t go through the pains of labor and the pains of losing her beautiful shape. These are what women are scared of, right?

But then, she never ceases to amaze me. My face lights up in happiness and a tear drops from her eyes.

“Thank you”, I say to her as I embrace her tightly. She pushes me away and begins to cry like a baby.

Instead of hugging her again and consoling her so she can stop crying, I burst into laughter and she stares at me in disbelief.

“Is that part of the pregnancy hormones?” I continue to laugh as I stare at her crying face.

“Ryan, I am seriously crying here. Don’t be such a jerk and…”

“What a cry baby?!” I tease continuously as her tears increase. When it becomes serious, I stop laughing, bite my lips in regret and take a step further to console her when she shoots to her feet instantly.

“You are a jerk. You just made me cry. I will tell the baby to hate you.”

It almost makes me laugh again but I try so hard to contain it.

“Come on, I was just trying to make you feel better”, I spread my arms around her shoulder to stop her from going out of the room. “I’m sorry, ok?”

She sniffles, wipes her tears with the back of her hand, then nods vigorously like a child who had just been persuaded to do a job for a token.

“Come here”, I pull her into my arms and pat her back slowly. A smell whiffles past my nostril and I try to ignore it until I realize it is coming from Valerie.

I stare in horror at her dirty hair. And I begin to wonder about the last time she washed her hair.

I dare not complain about that right now because I am sure she will resort to crying again. I made her this way so I better accept her this way too.

Valerie isn’t one to cry so easily but here she is crying all over the place like a baby. It must be the hormones and it makes me chuckle again unconsciously.

Disengaging from the hug abruptly, she glares at me suspiciously. “Why were you laughing?”

Probably figuring out that it must be her scattered hair or her bad outfit, she tries to adjust her clothes and arrange her hair properly. I look down and bite my lips again to stop myself from laughing out loud.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing?” I nod. “Are you sure?” I nod again. “Look up then.”

I stare up to meet her intense gaze. She searches my eyes to see what exactly I found funny. After a while, she gives up and stares at her flat belly.

Instinctively, I touch her stomach with a smile and she smiles back.

“I love her already”, I mutter with a soft laugh, as I begin to imagine what the baby will look like.

“It’s him. I love him already.” she points out but I shake my head.

“I want a girl.”

“I want a boy.”

“Why do you want a boy?” I question immediately.

“Why do you want a girl?” she asks back as if expecting the question.

We remain silent and watch each other before bursting into laughter. When we sober up, she pushes me towards the wall and pins me there with her two hands beside my face, caging me in.

With a look of disbelief, she utters. “I can’t believe we are going to have a baby from just one night of sex. Is that how easy it is to have a baby?”

I smile.

This must be the reason why she couldn’t believe she was pregnant. We have been married for almost a year now and we only consummated our marriage once. There was no time for more romance after that night because of all the unforeseen incidents that happened one after the other.

Now that everything is resolved, we are having a baby. A baby to put an end to our pains and sorrows.

I catch a glimpse of a mischievous look crossing her face as she winks at me. “What do you think? Should we have more sex, maybe we can have multiple babies since…”

“What?!” I exclaim with a short laugh.

As fast as I can, I get out of her caging and run toward my desk.

And she runs after me.