Chapter 105 CHAPTER 105
Evelyn’s POV
“Is the baby mine?” he asked.
I wanted to tell him the truth because it felt just right. But I had my conditions too.
“I’ll give you an answer based on one condition,” I said.
He leaned against his seat and stretched his hand over the arm rest. The way he looked at me, it was sending crazy signals to my brain. Signals that were saying I should forget reason and just let myself be loved by whom I loved.
“What condition?” he asked.
“You won’t use it against me.”
He leaned forward. “I won't accept the condition, Evelyn Moon. I know what the answer is. Based on the contract we signed, you are still my wife.”
I gasped. “What? You are engaged to someone else.”
“It can be annuled. It was all done based on lies.” He rose up and paced briefly. Then he faced me. “I don’t want to have you against your wish. You want me as much as I want you, so what is holding you back?”
“You know it, Alpha Michael.”
He moved closer to me and knelt in front of me. He took my hand in his. “I have told you I don't care about that.”
I pulled it away. “Well, it matters to me,” I cried. “You don’t understand any of it because you have never been at the receiving end. It’s easy to pretend to understand.”
He rose up. “I’m not pretending.”
“You are,” I insisted. “My aunt got kicked out of her home. My mother had to leave me as a baby because she was discovered as a nine tailed fox and accused of killing a pregnant woman. I…I’ve had to suffer many things because people think I cannot be trusted.”
He looked at me, his brows furrowed. “Your mother was accused of killing a pregnant woman?"
“Yes,” I said. “All she was trying to do was help…”
“When was this?” he asked.
I was getting slightly irritated. “Why does that matter to you? The point is my kind will always be the hunted and accused of doing everything that goes wrong around them.”
He sat down. “Was your mum ever a contract cleaner?”
I stopped. “I… I have no idea. What is the matter?”
I could see he was trying to choose his words carefully. “I’m not sure,” he said. “I was young when I witnessed my mother’s death. She was killed by a… a woman.”
I raised my brow. “A woman?”
“She used too be a contract cleaner,” he said, pain visible in his voice. “She was -”
“My kind?”
I saw the answer in his eyes.
“You saw it happen? Or you were told, Alpha Michael?”
He ran his fingers into his hair. “This conversation is not appropriate for a night like this,” he said. "I'm sorry for bringing it up. Let's talk about it another day.”
“Did you see it?” I pressed.
He sighed. “I was young. All I remember was I saw her lying in the pool of her blood. Everyone said....” he stopped.
I had lost my appetite already. “When do we return to the dock? I have to work on something important tonight,” I said.
“Evelyn…”
I sniffed. “You can see it too, can’t you? We cannot be together, Alpha Michael. It’s time we accept this and move on.”
His hand rolled into a fist, and he clenched his teeth tightly. “You can’t use that against me, Evelyn. I only believed what everyone thought. Still, that doesn’t stop me from wanting you.” His eyes fell to my tummy. “All of us.”
“It isn’t yours,” I whispered. “I never mentioned that it was yours.”
I knew he didn’t believe me. I wasn’t even trying to sound convincing. I was exhausted.
“The contract still stands, Evelyn,” he said. “And till it ends, you are my wife, and you will live with me. I hope I can prove to you that I deserve to be by your side before the contract ends. That’s my only wish. And if the child isn’t mine, I’m willing to raise it as mine if you’ll have me.”
—
Alpha Michael’s words replayed in my head as I sat quietly in the car the following day. The date had gone in a different direction than I had hoped. I wanted to have fun but now I had more reasons to stay away from him.
Yet what he said about the contract made me unsettled. He was right. The contract period was one year and I had barely used a third of the duration.
I raised my head from the steering wheel and started the car. I wasn’t going to the office that morning. I wanted to see my mum.
She was reunited with her sister, Maya now, and they lived in a very quiet neighbourhood where no one knew them. I parked in their small compound and pulled out the bag of groceries I had gotten for them.
Mum noticed my mood immediately. “Is something wrong?” she asked, watching me place vegetables in the refrigerator.
I turned around. I wondered if I could tell her about the contract I had signed with Alpha Michael. I knew she would be concerned because she wanted me to cut ties with him, romantically.
“You made your hair,” she commented. “Did you go out on a date?”
I laughed gently. Perhaps nothing could get past her. “Yes, mum. I did.”
“Hmm,” Maya said, joining us. “Who is he?"
I faced them and I could see the look of disapproval on my mum’s face. She knew.
“It was supposed to be just for fun,” I said, walking away.
She followed me. “Supposed to be? So, what happened?”
I stopped and faced them. “Did you ever work as a contract cleaner, mum?”
“What?”
Maya looked at me. “Why are you asking her that?”
“I don’t know,” I said, wiping the sweat on my forehead. “I heard something.”
“Who told you that?”
I sighed and looked at my mum. “Did you?”
Her face was frozen and she looked at Maya.
“I…”
“Yes,” Maya said, cutting her short. “I worked as a contract cleaner for Alpha Raymond many years ago.”