Chapter 44 — He Is Coming

“Are you busy?” I entered Henry’s study room. He was working on his laptop. I wanted to tell him about my pregnancy and it would be better if I told him sooner.

“I’m always busy,” he said without glancing at me. I set his coffee on the table.

“Work pressure, huh?” I remarked.

He glanced at me with a small smile on his lips. “You know the fashion show is near.”

“Ok, I’ll be back after a while,” I said and was ready to leave him alone.

“No, sit here beside me.” He patted the space beside him. I sighed and took a seat next to him. “How was your day?” He asked while keeping his eyes on the laptop.

Shocking, truly shocking. I didn’t understand how to start my pregnancy conversation. “It was good.” I forced a smile.

He frowned. “But you look tense.” He sensed my tension without even looking at me at once.

I dropped my gaze on my lap, refusing to meet his intense gaze. “Um, I need to tell you something.” My heart was racing with every second.

He shut down his laptop and turned to me, giving me his full attention. “I’m listening to you, Alice,” he said softly.

My eyes kept on my lap. I didn't dare to look into his eyes. “Henry I’m…” I swallowed.

He held my hands gently. “Alice.”

“I’m…” I looked into his eyes but quickly broke them away. My heart was throbbing like a gong in my chest. I closed my eyes for a few seconds as I gathered the courage to confront him. “I’m pregnant.”

Suddenly his grip loosened around my hand as he froze in his place, watching me without a single blink. His expression was unreadable as always, only his eyes were different.

He looked at my reaction, his eyes glued to my face. He didn’t utter a word, but I knew he was going to burst on me at any second. He would get mad at me. I was just waiting for him to say something. The heavy silence filled the room, and it was suffocating me.

“Alice,” finally he said, “I’m…”

Before he could complete himself, I cut him off. “I didn't even know that I was pregnant with your baby. I know you are not ready to be a father and somewhere I am as well. I-I wanted to spend more time with you, but all this happened. It was an accident. I…I…” Before I could finish my words, he quickly hugged me.

“Everything is going to be fine,” he said and kissed my head. “You don’t need to panic.”

“You aren’t mad at me?” I didn’t expect this reaction from him.

“Why am I?” He rested my head against his firm chest, and gently ran his fingers through my hair, and stroked the side of my face. “He or she is going to be our child, our flesh and blood. Then why would I be angry at you?”

“But you don’t like kids?”

“Yeah, I don’t like kids, but I can try. I can try to be a good father.”

*****

I was so happy that Henry accepted our baby. It was shocking to me but when I looked into his eyes, pureness, love, and affection for his unborn child, it was real. My heart melted seeing him like that. I rubbed my tummy. It was flat, but I could feel the life growing inside me. Oh my god. I’m going to be a mother. My heart was fluttering with joy. Henry told me he would take a few months off after his fashion show and look after us.

Suddenly someone knocked on the door, interrupting my thoughts. I went down and answered the door. My eyes widened with surprise when I found Ava. “Ava,” I whispered.

“Hey, Alice,” she said with a genuine smile on her face. “Can I come in?”

“Sorry, come on in.” I let her in. “How are you?”

She walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. “Just the same old, same old.” She smiled widely. “And you?”

“Pretty good,” I said. “What would you like to take?”

“Nothing, I’m good, thanks.” Her voice was weak. She glanced across the garden, viewing the past behind me before looking back at me. “I've come here to talk to you. Five minutes is all I need.”

I sat across from her in the chair. “You can take as much time as you need.”

“I came here to apologize to you, Alice.”

“Apologies?” I never expected it from her.

She nodded. “For everything that I did to you. I lied to you and insulted you. I’m sorry, Alice.” She looked away as guilt was clearly visible in her eyes.

I held her hands, squeezing with comfort. “No! Ava, you don’t have to apologize to me.” It broke me when she shouted at me at the party in front of her guest. She made me feel so low that day. She lied to me and Henry and created a misunderstanding between us. She had done so many bad things to us but I knew from deep down she meant it. She loved Henry and a natural evil side came out of her. I was not that cruel and I knew how to forgive.

“No, I should be sorry. I should have to understand that Henry loves you, not me. No matter how many times I tried to tell myself, my heart has always stopped at him.” She shook her head as tears gathered in her eyes. “He never accepted me, Alice. Since childhood, I had tried and tried to make him fall into me, but no! He never understood my love. I was twelve when I met him for the first time. He was so silent, broken, and lost. And my heart always wanted to make him happy. I wanted to be happy with him. But he was so hard and stiff, he didn’t let anyone come in his way. You know what the happiest day of my life was?” She faced me with a sad smile. “The first time he asked me to be his girlfriend. I was on cloud nine even though he didn’t love me. There was a rumor he was gay, so he had asked me to be his girlfriend.”

She continued. “And after that, we got closer to each other. I spent my entire time with him as his assistant, as his girlfriend, and sometimes as his friend. What I missed about him was his happiness. I had never seen his smile, the spark within his soul, but darkness.”

I was hurt for her. She deserves love.

“You know, Alice, when I asked him what’s so special in you that not in me. Do you know what Henry's answer was?” She held my gaze. “He said, ‘Ava, you wanted me happy, but Alice made me happy. That’s the difference between love and friendship,’ and that is right. I always tried to find happiness in him but never tried to make him happy and you…” She swallowed, smiling. “You changed him, Alice.”

“Ava.” I stood up and gave her a tight hug. “I misunderstood you.”

“No, I was wrong. Henry deserves you. You are perfect for him, Alice.” Her voice was constricted. “I’m moving to California.”

“What!”

She wiped away her tears. “I’m moving to California because…” Before she could finish, someone knocked on the door.

“Let me check it,” I said and headed towards the door. I jolted when the knock turned into a loud bang! And the next moment a heavy body flew in the air and landed on me.

“Alice!” Ava screamed from behind and immediately approached me.

For a few seconds, I didn’t understand what was going on. But when I saw the dead body of my bodyguard, I screamed out in horror.

I shoved the body away, gasping for air.

“Oh my God…!” Ava covered her mouth with her hand.

We both gazed at the body with horror. He was black and blue and bruised all over his body. “A-Ava, let’s go.” I knew who did that. I knew he was coming. Kian Taylor was coming! Henry wasn’t here with us, so we were the only people who could save themselves.

Ava froze in her place and didn’t move a bit watching the dead body with wide eyes, fear witnessed on her face. “Ava, let’s go,” I barked, and grabbed her hand.

“A-Alice, is he dead?” she asked shakily.

I ignored her questions and dragged her towards the door, but before we could run away, two big men blocked our way.

Shit! No!

“Well, here they are.” A man said with amusement.

We slowly stepped back. “What do you want?” I maintained my body posture defensively, even though I was weak from inside. My whole body was shivering in terror.

The second man pulled out his pistol and aimed at us. “Your one more step would take your life so you better surrender yourself to us.”

“No!” Ava protested. “You don’t know about my brother if he comes to know about you two, believe me, you could not find your body parts so it would be better to get out of this house, you sick bastards!”

“Bitch! What did you say?” He pulled the trigger on a gun and shot on the flower vase behind us. “Oops! I missed it, but next time I will make sure of my target.”

“We don’t want anything from you. We want this woman.” Another man said, pointing at me. “We want Alice Robinson, Henry Robinson’s wife. And we know about your brother Vivian Miller so we won’t touch you.”

“Ok take her,” Ava said and pushed me towards them. “Anyway, she is my boyfriend’s wife and I will be very happy if she gets out of my way, and why do I risk my life for her?”

I didn’t say a word, just watching her, dumbfounded. I couldn’t believe she was doing this to me. I lost my word. Tears rolled down my face as I thought about my husband and my unborn child. It was painful; she betrayed me.

Before I could do anything to defend myself, they grabbed both of my hands and locked them behind my back, pushing me towards the door roughly. I stumbled to my feet and fell on the hard floor. My knees were sore, but I didn’t feel pain like the pain in my heart.

“Get up.” He gripped my hand and pushed me forward. But suddenly something happened. The man who grasped my hand was frozen in his place. “Fuck!” He grunted in pain and the next moment, blood gushed through his neck.

“Let her go,” Ava growled at the second man and pushed a large knife towards him. She ripped the throat of the first man with that knife.

“Feisty isn’t you.” The man hissed at her and clutched me even tighter. But before he could control me, I kneed him in the balls as hard as I could. “Bitch!” He hissed at me and cupped his ball.

“We should call the police,” I said, and we jogged towards the house. We should call the police before they could do anything to us.

But after a few seconds. “A-Alice,” Ava whispered weakly, and the next moment her body collapsed onto the floor.

“Ava,” I cried out, watching her back was covered in blood.

“You bastards, you can’t even handle two women.” I heard the familiar female voice and saw Jessica stood in front of me with an iron rod in her hand.

She raised her brows. “Shock! Sorry, Alice, but she won’t die, but you definitely will,” she said and grabbed me by my throat, and threw me hard against the ground.

“Henry,” I whispered his name before falling into a dark world.