Like a hurricane survivor, Maxwell Rohan stumbled out of the park.
He looked up and down the parking lot like he was expecting to see her waiting for him there.
He wished she was.
By god, he wished she was waiting right there to tell him that she didn't mean what she said.
She had probably said that out of anger, right?
She couldn't be pregnant, right?
When he remembered that they had been separated for almost four months, his blood boiled at the possibility of all that could happen.
"No, no, no," he growled in pain as he continued walking towards the road.
A kid going towards the entrance of the park inched closer to her mom as she looked at him fearfully.
The mother quickly turned her daughter's face away as she muttered "I need to have a talk with the management."
A kid!
She was pregnant with a kid!
And if what she said was right, that meant someone else had held her, touched her the way he…
"Fuck!" he yelled as he kicked hard at the guardrails.
Oblivious to the askance glances that people were tossing his way, he pulled out his phone and made a call.
"Where are you?"
A Maserati car pulled up in front of him soon enough.
He got in and said, "Find a goddamn gym around here."
The driver nodded and the car moved.
He was going to kill the man.
He was going to break every single finger he had dared to lay on her.
He was going to flay his skin off his damn...
The image of Reyona arching her back as a faceless hand trailed from her throat down to her…
"Fuck!" he smashed his hand hard against the reinforced glass.
The bastard must have taken advantage of her broken heart.
She had left Kayooma with anger and feelings of betrayal because she must have thought that the deception that her husband had treated her with was happening again with him.
Stupid! He had been so stupid to think keeping all those things away from her was going to protect her or make things better!
Instead, he had caused her pain and put her in danger because of it.
He had been fucking stupid, and now he was going to pay for it for the rest of his life!
If she was carrying another man's baby, does that mean she was with the man?
She was probably married to that asshole, and they would have the life that Maxwell had pictured that both of them would have.
She couldn't have easily moved on like that, could she?
His Reyona would not just move on like that, right?
Your Reyona? When had she ever been yours?
The accurate thought only enraged him further.
"Why the fuck is it taking forever to find a gym?!" he snapped at the driver.
"I am sorry, sir. We are almost there. It is…"
Maxwell looked towards his left at that moment and his eyes caught something. "Forget the gym. Go there." he pointed to the building.
"Yes, sir."
He dismissed the driver and entered the dimlit bar.
He ignored the chairs and couches around and headed straight towards the bar.
He sat on the stool and told the bartender to give him a scotch.
"Keep them coming," he said as the man slid the first fill at him.
"You got it, boss," he said as he got back to attending to the others.
Maxwell's phone rang, and he ignored it as he gestured at the bartender to fill more.
When the man returned with the filled glass, he said "Give me the bottle."
The man looked at him in surprise, looked at his colleague and said "Okay, boss."
He took the bottle of scotch for him and said "You were the first I opened it for. I am going to need an upfront payment, boss."
Maxwell took out his card without asking for the price.
He gave the card to the bartender and collected the bottle of scotch from him.
The bartender quickly input the amount, then turned the machine towards Maxwell. "Your pin, sir."
Maxwell punched it in and the latter swiped the card.
The payment went through successfully and the barman smiled before he handed the card back to Maxwell.
He was just tucking the card back into his wallet when his phone rang again.
He turned the phone over to see who was calling.
Unknown to him, a girl behind him was watching his movements as she shared a beer with the man she was with.
She looked away again and smiled at the guy before he caught her looking in the direction of the oblivious Maxwell.
Maxwell's phone rang again, and he picked it up with an exasperated sigh.
"Stop calling, Drew," he said with an exasperated sigh as he drew his glass closer again and poured more scotch.
"And I will gladly do that, you know. But I can't. Celia wants to know if you have been able to talk to her yet."
Maxwell snorted in self-derision. "Yeah, I have been able to do that."
"Well, then, why do you still sound like shit?" Andrew Jordan asked.
Maxwell drained his glass and thumped it on the table as he said "She is pregnant, Drew. She is fucking pregnant because of some piece of shit!"
Before he could hear Andrew's response, Maxwell felt a suspicious softness press against his back just as he felt a sultry whisper close to him "I can get pregnant for you, handsome. Just tell me where and when."
Still brushing his side with her breasts, the girl came forward to directly face him as she looked at him seductively and leaned against the bar while lifting her breasts so that her nipples were almost peaking out of her provocatively low top.
"Like what you…"
Maxwell disconnected the call and said, "Get the fuck away from me!"
She was taken aback for a moment, but then she lowered her voice more as she smacked her lips together and stretched her hands towards him in playful flirtation.
"I am with a friend for now, but why don't you take my number and let's talk later? A hottie like you shouldn't be worrying your head over some bitch. Let me…"
"Let your hand touch me, and it will be the last thing you touch in a while. I say get the fuck away from me!" Maxwell snapped at her.
The bartender's colleague snickered before she could stop herself.
That increased the girl's embarrassment, and she looked around to see that a few others had noticed her antics too.
"Dickhead" she said as she pretended like she was leaving, and knocked her hand against the bottle of scotch.
The drink poured straight into Maxwell's crotch.
"Oh, I am so sorry," she said with a fake concerned tone as she fluttered her hand towards the wet spot.
Maxwell pushed her hands away just as a man yelled.
"Hey, prick. Get your fucking hands off my girl!"
The girl's tears were instant as she turned towards her boyfriend, who was coming from the direction of the toilet.
"I just wanted to get us more drink, and he grabbed me, babe."
The exclamations of those who had seen what happened went unheeded as the enraged boyfriend moved towards Maxwell to defend his girl's honour.
"You motherfu…"
Maxwell's first punch had him knocking into his girl, who was about to start rejoicing.
As she went flying, her boyfriend launched himself at Maxwell.