Chapter 30 The child is mine

Chapter 30 The child is mine
Charles POV

I was about to start the engine when my phone rang. It was Harvey. I ignored the call, pressed the ignition and eased the car into reverse, the quiet purr of the BMW filling the tense silence inside.

I drove slowly toward the gate but Rick stood squarely in front of it, arms folded, his expression carrying a smugness that made my blood boil.

I lowered my window. “Open the gate.”

He didn’t move.

“I swear on my mother’s grave that if you don’t open this gate this minute, you won’t make it out of here alive,” I said, my voice dropping dangerously low.

He still didn’t move.

I turned back to check on Linda and my chest collapsed.

She lay across the back seat exactly as I had placed her, completely still. Her face had drained of all color, a pale, ghostly shade that didn’t belong on someone so full of life. Her lips were slightly parted, her breathing so shallow I had to stare for a long moment just to confirm it was there. The handkerchief she had been pressing to her face earlier had fallen from her fingers and lay crumpled on the seat beside her.

Tears rolled down my cheeks before I could stop them.

I stepped out of the car immediately and crossed the distance between Rick and me in four strides. My fist connected with his face before he could register what was happening. He stumbled backward and hit the ground hard.

I moved toward the gate latch myself but footsteps came from behind me.

“I ordered him to keep the gate shut.”

I turned. John Jenkins was walking calmly from the house, hands relaxed at his sides, his expression completely composed.

“What do you mean?” I roared. “Linda just fainted and needs to be rushed to the hospital before any complication arises and you order the gate shut?”

“What happened to our deal?” he asked quietly, tucking his hands into his pockets.

“Does it matter right now? I have an emergency patient in the back of my car!” I cried.

“The merger is supposed to be concluded this evening,” he continued, completely unmoved.

“I am not ready for this discussion.” I took a breath and forced my voice lower. “Kindly open your gate. I need to take my wife to the hospital.”

He stopped walking. “Your wife?”

“She is my wife,” I said firmly, though goosebumps broke out across my arms. I knew what this would cost. I said it anyway.

“Your family broke the deal from the beginning. Linda gave me her virginity, not Nikki. I got married to Linda at that altar, not your daughter.”

“So?”

“So she is my wife and I love her,” I replied, my voice cracking at the last word.

He let out a long sigh and shook his head slowly. Then with a few measured strides he closed the distance between us and stood directly in front of me. I held my ground and met his eyes without blinking.

He lifted his right hand and placed it across my shoulders.

“Son, I know how you feel right now. And I will advise you not to let your emotions rule you if you want to go far in life. Think about your company. Think about everything you have been building all these years. Are you really going to put it all at risk because of a woman?” he said carefully.

“Every businessman takes risks,” I responded.

A small laugh escaped his lips. “You know I love how tactful you are. But this is not about taking risks. It is about weighing the possibility and the scale of the risk in question. What do you truly know about Linda? Are you even sure that she loves you?”

That question almost found its mark.

Linda had never said those words to me. Not once, not even indirectly. But I had seen it in her eyes every single time she looked at me when she thought I wasn’t looking. I was sure of what I saw. But even if I wasn’t, it didn’t change a single thing.

“It does not matter who she is or whether I am sure she loves me,” I replied. “The one thing I am certain of, and will always be certain of, is that I love Linda. And that is all that matters.”

“Are you aware that this might cost you the merger?”

I paused only briefly. “Very much aware.”

“You don’t have to do this. I can call an ambulance to take Linda to the hospital while we go and complete the paperwork at the office.”

“I have made my decision, Sir.”

He studied me for a long moment then spoke again, softer this time. “I was once in your shoes. I had to choose between the woman I loved and my future. I chose my future. That is why the Jenkins Group is alive today.”

I looked at him steadily. “And did you find true happiness in the future you chose? You barely return to your own home. You don’t have peace, John. That is plain for anyone to see.”

He removed his hand from my shoulder and adjusted his glasses.

“You toil and sacrifice to one day find peace, to finally be happy,” I continued. “Of what use is it to throw away happiness chasing something you can still build even while being happy? If you had chosen the woman you loved, you could have built another business. One that might have boomed even greater than what you have now. But you would have had peace while building it.”

He was quiet for a long moment. When I looked into his eyes, they were misty.

“Enough, Charles.” He turned his head slightly. “Open the gate, Rick.”

Rick scrambled to his feet and moved to the gate, sliding the heavy bolt free and pushing both panels open in one motion.

I nodded once. “Thank you,” I said and turned back toward my car.

“Weak man! John, you are a weak man!!” Jessica’s sharp voice cracked through the air from somewhere behind us.

“Charles.”

I turned back to John one final time.

“Once you drive through that gate with Linda, the merger is cancelled.”

I looked at him. Then at the Jenkins mansion standing tall and cold behind him. Then at Rick, who wore a smirk that I made a mental note to wipe off his face one day. Then I nodded, slowly and deliberately.

“Understood.”

That was the last word I said. Without looking back, I got into my car and drove out, the gate disappearing in my rearview mirror. I prayed, quietly and sincerely, that I would never have reason to return.

I reached the hospital just in time. Linda was rushed immediately into the emergency ward and a nurse met me at the entrance with an outstretched arm.

“Sir, you have to wait at the reception while we run some tests,” she said firmly but kindly.

“I need to see my wife,” I protested.

“I understand, Sir. But we have to follow hospital protocol,” she replied.

“Okay. Just please take care of her. I’ll wait,” I said and she hurried back inside.

I tried sitting but couldn’t stay still. Standing was worse. I ended up pacing the length of the reception hall, sweating through my shirt despite the air conditioning running full blast in every corner. People stared, women, men, children, but I registered none of them.

Then a small hand appeared in front of me holding a bottle of water.

I looked down. A little girl of about five stood looking up at me with wide blue eyes, black hair falling over a flowery dress, completely unbothered by the fact that she had just walked up to a grown stranger.

“Take,” she said simply.

I crouched to her level. “Don’t you need it?”

“You are sweating and I thought you might be thirsty,” she replied, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

“I can get my own bottle. Why don’t you drink yours?” I replied.

“I am not thirsty,” she said.

“Neither am I. Go and meet your mother,” I said gently.

Her face changed immediately. Her lips pressed together and her eyes filled with tears in the way only a child’s could, instant and devastating.

“Okay, okay! I’ll drink it,” I said quickly and took a few long gulps. The brightness returned to her face at once.

As she turned to leave, I slipped a few folded notes into her small hand. “Get something you like, okay?” I whispered and she nodded happily.

“Aura! Aura!” A young woman’s worried voice called from across the hall.

“That’s my mother,” the girl whispered, then waved and ran off.

I watched her go and felt something loosen slightly in my chest.

Just then the nurse reappeared. “Mr. Charles? The doctor would like you to come in.”

I was moving before she finished the sentence.

The doctor stood and extended his hand as I entered. I shook it, confused by the warmth on his face.

“Congratulations, Sir,” he began. “I am pleased to announce that your wife is six weeks pregnant.”

He kept speaking after that but his words dissolved into background noise. All I could see was Linda lying in that hospital bed, and the image forming slowly in my mind of her carrying my child.

Then uncertainty crept in and settled heavily in my chest.

I moved to her bedside and took her hand in both of mine, holding it carefully as though it might break.

The night I took her virginity, neither of us had used any protection. The timing made sense. It had to be mine.

“The child is mine,” I whispered close to her ear, as much to convince myself as to tell her.

My phone buzzed. A message from Harvey.

“You have to come to the office right now. The Jenkins have withdrawn their entire investment. Charles, your company is in serious financial crisis. We cannot even supply goods to our loyal customers.”

I read it twice. Then I set the phone face down on the bedside table and turned back to my wife.

The message could wait.