“I understand that you don't want to see him, Astrid, but he's drawing so much attention to the house. He swears he won't leave until he talks to you.” Rose explained.Astrid sat on her bed, clutching a onesie she had gotten just three days ago. She didn't want a gender reveal, not even to herself, so she stuck with whatever clothing she could buy.“I don't think I can talk to him, Mum. It's been so long. I've learnt to live with the pain, and he shows up right now. It's not fair.” Astrid shook her head, sniffling as tears streamed down her cheeks.“I know how you must feel, but won't you just hear whatever it is he has to say?” Rose smiled softly at her.“If you really know how I feel, you wouldn't be making such a request, Mum. I can't do it. He's put me through so much.” Astrid refused with a small shake of her head.Rose knew the pleading would go nowhere. Astrid had made up her mind.Just when Rose was about to stand up, loud voices were heard from the hallway in front of the room
“I don’t want you saying things like that to me, Darius.” Astrid drew the line immediately. She was still in the right space of mind at the moment, and hearing him confess his feelings to her would be sure to throw her off balance.“For what it’s worth, I am extremely sorry for everything I put you through, for throwing you out of my life.” He let her know.“Stop it.” She snapped. This time, he gave no reply.After a brief moment of silent, she stood up with a sigh. “I want you to know that if I ever agree to go back with you, it’s for the sake of my child. Nothing’s going to happen between us.”“Our child.” He corrected, earning a frown from her.“I’ll need you to take your leave now,” she told him, opening the door.“You’re not going to let me stay until she wakes up?” He gave her a disappointed look.“It wouldn’t make a difference.” She shrugged, watching him walk towards her.She stiffened as he placed a hand over her head, softly using his thumb to draw patterns on her he
Darius’s friends had come for a visit. They had heard about Astrid’s return to Greece from Darius and had come to see the child Darius claimed to have. Brad was surprised, but he didn’t show it as much as Joaquin. Ki-woo was stunned to silence. Dahlia was fast asleep in Darius’s arms, his friends crowded around him. Astrid had fallen asleep a while ago. “When did you find out she was pregnant?” Joaquin asked. “I never knew she was pregnant. I only found rumors on the internet that she had a child who was always with her and looked like me.” Saying it out loud made Darius feel even more horrible. “You never knew? She never told you she was carrying your child?” Joaquin raised his brows, genuinely shocked and confused. “You must have messed things up way more than I thought you did.” “I did.” There was no point in arguing. He knew it. Astrid knew it more. He wanted to protect Dahlia from that knowledge. Astrid holding it against him was bad enough, he didn’t know what he would do i
“You can’t leave.” He shook his head, grabbing her hands with a distressed expression. He wasn’t sure how he would live with himself if he let her go a second time. “I want to. I don’t want my daughter growing up to think that it’s normal for men to objectify women.” Astrid avoided his eyes. She knew that taking a look was sure to make her believe he deserved one more chance, even when he didn’t. “I am going to make this work. I talked with Selena before you came.” Now that he had her attention, some of the pressure on his shoulders loosened. “She doesn’t want to be here. She wants to raise the child on her own, but I’ll support her financially. I can confirm it.” Astrid hated it. Every moment of contemplating and going back on her thought, she hated. She was being selfish and she knew it, but she also knew that no matter how much she denied it, she had always and would always be in love with that man. What if he hurt her when their child was there? Would they ever be able to make
Astrid knew trying to get Dahlia out of Darius’ hands would trigger both of them waking up at the same time, and there was only so much she could handle, so she decided to have a few minutes – possibly hours – to herself.She found herself joining the staff in the kitchen to make breakfast, pretending not to hear when any one of them told her not to worry about it.“Good morning, sir!” Her back stiffened as they all chorused loudly in unison just mere minutes after she walked around, finding something to busy herself with.She turned around and found Darius at the entrance to the kitchen, holding Dahlia who was still asleep.Darius nodded at the staff, never taking his eyes off Astrid, whose throat was in knots. She kept swallowing, even when there was nothing in her mouth to swallow.“Good morning,” she greeted, her voice cool and relaxed in its early morning state.“Good morning,” Darius replied as the staff went back to work, each one of them visibly nervous with Darius’ pres
Breakfast went by smoothly and Joaquin had left the house for work. For the rest of the morning, Astrid and Darius stayed out of each other’s way, awkwardness brushing through whenever they met.Astrid paced around in her room, wondering how to break the news to Darius. The last thing she wanted was for complications to arise from a conversation she thought to be simple. Things had changed. Darius had changed. She didn’t know what to expect from him as a reaction.After a long while of keeping her thoughts to herself and getting sick of it, she decided to find Darius and have a talk with him. She found him seated in the movie room. She had barely been there, if she had been there at all.He sat, fully concentrated on the show on the television. She was sure he hadn’t heard her enter the room.She sat beside him on the dark sofa which formed a semicircle facing the television. Darius turned to her and gave her a warm smile. “Is Dahlia asleep?”“Yeah.” Astrid nodded.“Do you want
The first thing Astrid heard as she got to the front door of the house was the last thing Selene said.She was moving in.Astrid was torn between throwing a fit over it and accepting her fate. She knew she had to come to terms with the fact that she was never the only woman in Darius’ life, not even now when he wanted to try.“What do you mean you were evicted?” Darius broke the thick silence after he dismissed his security officials. “I made a transfer of your rent to your bank account just weeks ago. We agreed on that.”“Well, unfortunate circumstances came up. I was at the hospital for a while and I had to pay the bills with it.” Selene shrugged with an air of indifference.Astrid did not want to hear the rest of it, but she didn’t know how to leave. She couldn’t just turn on her heels and walk away like she didn’t care, because she did. She cared a lot. She wanted to know what Darius would do about it.“Are you going to let me in? It’s freezing out here. Have some sympathy.”
“Is something wrong?” Astrid asked, my brows furrowed in a worried frown at how angry Cassia looked. Cassia headed for the bed and placed the branded Tiffany and Co. bag on the bedside table as she sat beside Astrid. “Tell me why I decided to come say hi and give you and Dahlia a little present, and the first person I see in this house is Selene.” “Oh,” Astrid said in realization as she chuckled mirthlessly. “Well, that happened. She got kicked out, or so she said. She doesn’t even want him to find her a new apartment. I guess she lives here now.” “And you’re just going to sit here and take it?” She threw her a questioning stare as Astrid shrugged, an attempt at nonchalance. Cassia turned to fully face Astrid, studying her face. Every line and every facial expression in that moment, she was determined to catch. She wanted to know what was keeping Astrid from opening her arms to Darius, for one last chance. “Do you really not care anymore, Astrid? I need you to be completely honest