"Why is he like this, dad? I thought we were doing fine... we were doing fantastic actually. I was waiting for him to ask me to move back to the mansion. Then why... why would he go look for his Kimmie now?"
"That's not the case, Ruhi. He didn't go around looking for her today. He has been looking for her for years. Today happens to be the day the men we hired found her."
"Does he... he---" Ruhi started sobbing. "They found her with the kid, didn't they? So now Rafael doesn't want me anymore."
"She was a few weeks pregnant when she ran away, so yes, they found her with the kid. We weren't sure she would keep the baby, but she did. But that doesn't and shouldn't change things between you and Rafael."
Ruhi dropped the car keys on the ground and left the door open absent mindedly.
"I guess he doesn't want to see me anymore. So he just decided to ignore my texts and calls. How is that fair to me?"
"Stop using this 
"So when was the last visit?""Tuesday," Harry replied as he started his car to follow Ruhi and the others.'Oh shit!' Rafael realized she wanted him to go with her to the gynecologist's office when she asked him to free his 3 PM on Friday. 'For a surprise.'A rush of excitement surged through him instantly. Running to the elevator and pushing three employees out of there, he used the master key to go straight to the basement leading to his private garage and was out on the road in a few minutes. It was already 2.40 PM and Ruhi chose a gynecologist quite far from his downtown office.By the time he veered through the heavy, bumper to bumper traffic and got out of the city center, it was 3 PM. For the first time, he felt his fastest car wasn't fast enough.Pulling into the parking lot ten minutes later, hecalled Ruhi.'She must bewith the doctor.' He dropped the idea of calling Harry and dashedthrough the buildi
"Ruhi, your mom's been calling you while we were asleep." Rafael checked the time and woke her up. He couldn't believe he fell asleep in the middle of a busy Friday afternoon without notifying his PA.With half-opened eyes, Ruhireached for her phone and switched it off."Your mommust be worried. Don't ignore her calls. Didshe already know you were going for the checkup today?"Ruhi didn't care to answer him. She wasn't prepared to relay the bad news to her mom and cry some more.Rafael knew he would do anything to have his mom call him, even if only for thirty seconds. He didn't have her around for long enough to take her existence for granted. A tight feeling grew in his chest as he watchedRuhi turn her face away and look out of the window at the setting sun.It wasn't too long ago when she was in his room wearing this same whiteshirt, giggling and wrestling with him when he got mad at her for sleeping in his room. Th
Ruhi went down to the home gym in the basement. What she expected was a single room with lots of fancy equipment. She was taken by surprise when she saw that it was bigger than the most popular gym she used to go to in Florida. There were several rooms and every one of them was occupied by the bodyguards who were training hard.Harry greeted her and offered his sympathieswhen he saw her looking around."Most of these are for heavy exercise. It may not be a good time for you to exert so much right now.""Oh, I'm just looking for Rafael. But there are so many rooms here. I feel lost."The number of different basements the house came with never ceased to amaze her. There was space to park Rafael'sdozen cars and another half a dozen of the bodyguard vehicles, hold people as hostages with dangerous men guarding and torturing them, and still have enough space to build such a sophisticated gym. She wondered what else lay buried and which part of the
"So, where are we going?" Ruhi buckled up and put her sunglasses on as Rafael chose his Rolls Royce Dawn to take her for a ride in.He watched her in amusement whileshe applied sunscreen and checked her face in the mirror. She had tucked all her dyed hair inside a colorful silk wrap."Does it look soo bad?" He commented, pointing to her head and laughing.She threw the lotion cap at him. "Oh, shut up! It looks awesome. I don't want the sun to bleach it or the wind to ruin it and grow split ends. You men never think about our hair when you drive fast in your fancy convertibles.""Right! When you said, 'away from people and traffic,'Ithought you wanted open skies and the sea views. How else will you see them if not from a convertible?""Normal people roll their windows down and drive slo--- Oh my! What is that?!" She was excited to look at Harry pass on a bag to him that smelled mouthwatering."You wanted this, didn't y
FLASHBACK| SEVEN YEARS AGO"What the hell is this piece of shit?!" Rafael was baffled when he saw that his dad tookaway his fancy Lamborghini Spider and replaced it with a Subaru Forester.Antonio had just finished signing a hefty check as a donation to Rafael's college while Rafael stormed into his dad's study. Every time Rafael messed something up, his dadwrote checks to shut people up. The scholarship amount he offered every year in his wife's name for the last fifteen years is also the largest among all contributors and patrons."You don't need a 400,000 dollar car for gallivanting all over the town.""Yes, I do... Can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to drive an SUV as if I have a child in the back seat? I need my supercar back! Else, I'm dropping out of college right now.""There's no need. It's the third time this year the Dean warned me he will kick you out. Go talk to him and explain what happened. Give an officia
Rafael saw her falling down, but he didn't bother stopping her. The Dean talked for over twenty minutes, telling him how he should be ashamed of himself and that he should do everyone a favor and drop out ofcollege.He was ready to take out his anger on the stupid girl who dared to touch him without his permission. She tried to hold on to him to keep from falling."Can't you fucking see?" He asked her even though it was him who suddenly appeared in the hallway out of the Dean's office.He took the papers fromher hand and threw them down the stairs when she started crying."Shut the fuck up! What's wrong with you?" He hated anyone who didn't have the guts to make eye contact or started crying instantly."Hey, Rafael!" Aaron came out of the elevator just then and saw Kimberley's lowered head. He wason his way to the Dean's office. His dad found out he had been sleeping with a college of medicineprofessor, a woman n
Rafael watched Ruhi and Eva as they ate ice cream, ignoring his existence. Ruhi introduced her new friend to everyone in the house, including the goldfish and angelfish.Oreo was overjoyed to meet Eva, while Chunky Monkey raised his nonexistent brow to scrutinize thestranger, just as he did when Ruhi first met him."He doesn't like me much either. He just looks scary but actually, he's just a big lazy boy. I took away many of his resting spots by placingmy ceramic plant pots which he can't move.""Oh!" Eva got up to take her plush toy from where Chunky Monkey was standing so that he could lie down."Aren't you a sweetie pie!" Ruhi couldn't say why, but she loved Eva already.Every word that came out of the little girl's mouth was very cute and she wanted to pull her into her lap and kiss her. She wondered why she never liked kids until that point.'Maybe because she's Rafael's?' She felt a tightening in her chest at the mer
FLASHBACK"Dude! What the hell? You told Kimberley you will pick her up at seven. Didn't you?" Aaronfound Rafael playing basketball with Dylan. He almost forgot about Kimberley and what he said to her."Are you kidding me? I just wanted to get rid of that, what's her face?" He asked Dylan who was now dating his dumped three month long girlfriend. He already forgot her name."Samantha... no wait, Savannah.""Yeah, she was acting a little too possessive.""But Kimberley has been waiting for you since 6.30, getting all excited.""Is she stupid or what? I didn't tell her where I will pick her up from, so she should obviously know I didn't mean it.""No, she doesn't. I have seen her wear only faded jeans and free t-shirts that she collected at the Med school events. But today, she put on a nice dress and came to the library to ask me if you were okay because you never asked for her number or texted her.""Exactly! I'm not goin