Chapter 43

Minerva’s POV

 

Darwin still didn’t pay attention to me, or even greeted me since we arrived from Isla de Rubia.

            Why do men wait for women to approach them? Don’t they know that we women also liked to be approached by men first?

            We were living together like a cat and dog. Though not quarreling noisily, we are in silent battle with each other. Literally a ‘cold war’.

            A month has passed and I am utterly tortured by this setting. I wake up without him in bed, do things that I want or need over the course of the day, then having dinner with him with our utensils’ clanking serves as the only noise throughout the entire meal.

            This is seriously tiring, boring, and infuriating. I want those days to be back where we kissed every time, any time. We can touch each other without asking for a word and the likes.

            And sometimes he doesn’t come home at all. He didn’t even come home for the past few days.

            I felt like a prisoner of my own feelings. I can’t unleash those feelings because of Darwin’s coldness towards me.

            I know that I am paid to the billionaire but this is too much. I am a living, breathing person with a beating heart. I miss his attention and asking my feelings, comforting me even if I am not sad, and him serving as my real-life teddy bear.

            Did Jocelyn finally win this time? The game that I never asked to play and still declares herself a winner.

            Perhaps I should return to my apartment….or maybe I will accept Mariella’s love and live with her. Love is not an automatic feeling after all. It’s like a tree; it takes time to nourish, to cultivate, and to grow.

            I wanted to go to her apartment and ask her personally but my upset stomach wouldn’t let me. “Perhaps I should call her…”

            I only heard ringing, that's why I grabbed my bag and went for a taxi. Good thing that the driver was kind to me and gave me a cute, soft, adorable pillow for comfort.

            I was driving towards the apartment when I felt that unnerving feeling inside me. My hands are shaking. Beads of sweat rapidly flowing from my head despite the presence of the air conditioner. I felt the need to pee but I didn't feel like urinating at all.

            In a blink, all went back to normal.

            “Are you okay?” Glancing at me in the mirror, the cab driver asks. I just lifted a hand and plastered a smile.

            Suddenly, there it is again. The feeling of pressure inside me. I know my back heavily aches since the minute I woke up. But this time, it just gets worse.

            Then my waters broke.

            Even the driver’s eye went wide and he immediately turned his car to the road that leads to the hospital. I can now finally decipher that she’s coming out now. Me and Derrick’s little Hemera is finally going to see the world.

            Closing my eyes, I tried to call Darwin but my fingers went numb. I dialed his number but it only rang. I just tell myself that Darwin and the Grays will just know that I gave birth once I am in the hospital.

            For now, I will just breathe and rest and prepare for the painful labor.

            God gave me strength to do this safely.

***

Jocelyn’s POV

 

The bitch finally gave birth.

            I am the first one to arrive in the hospital since I visited one of my boyfriends that lived near here. Damon cannot make himself comfortable. It looks like he’s more of the father of Minerva’s child rather than his own son.

            “Where the shit is Darwin?” That’s the fifth time he uttered that. And I am just here, casually sitting by the hospital’s hallway, displaying my elaborate beautiful face and figure to the handsome doctors that passed by.

            But they all just glance at me.Their eyes never lingered on my exposed cleavage.

            “Busy, busy, busy…” I stated.

            “What did you say, Jocelyn?”

            “Nothing,” I replied to Damon.

            “Nothing?” He spitted. “Then for heaven’s sake make yourself useful and call Darwin!”

            He tried to peek at the delivery room to no avail. Damon put his hands on his waist and I just continued to chew my bubble gum.

            “Fine…” I said.

            I grabbed my phone and grinned for a bit when I saw that Ridley changed my wallpaper last night into me sleeping soundly while wholly naked. 

I stuck my bubble gum below the chair and got my phone from my Louis Vuitton clutch bag, I dialed my stepson’s number and it only rang. After three attempts, which I endured so that Damon would not stare at me with alligator-like eyes, Darwin answered.

            “Hello Darwin?” Damon immediately looked at me, and gosh I don’t know why I cringed to  his sweet smile. Pathetic.

            “Minerva finally gave birth to your child,” I stated, cringing at that ‘your’ word. “Your father urged you to get out wherever you are and drive here quickly.”

            “You mean Minerva is in labor for her and Derrick’s daughter? We—okay, okay. I will now get there by my chopper.” Darwin’s voice is shaking and I can hear the crashing of waves and…is that Cyrene’s voice?

            Never mind, at least I’ve learned valuable information. That the child she carries is not Darwin’s. It was Derri—

            “What did Darwin say?” Damon interrupted my thoughts and I just uncrossed my arms.

            “He says he will come here by a helicopter,” I briefly answered.

            I trekked towards the nursing station; eager to turn the wrongness of what that witch, who goes by the name of Minerva Miller, did into a righteous one.

            Bribing a nurse has not been common these days, but it isn’t new to me or them either. A little push of a huge amount of money is all it takes for Minerva and her child’s downfall.

            The universe does agree with me as I saw the nurse who was carrying Minerva’s babe from her delivery room into the nursery.

            “Good morning,” I greeted the nurse upon entering the nursery. “What a perfect coincidence, it is Miss.”

***

Mariella’s POV

 

The former love of my life finally gave birth safely.

            I may not be the one to assist but at least I will be the one to watch over her daughter.

            My pussy is still a bit swollen due to Lushan’s recent excavation inside me. It’s a miracle I happen to go to work without so much of alerting my co-nurses that I am no longer a virgin.

            Lushan Angeles is the first man to make me feel this way—the emotion of what it feels to be a real woman who made love to the opposite gender.

            I am holding Minerva’s baby in my hand, while hushing the other pale babe beside her. My eyes felt pity for this child; death is knocking on this pale and thin creature despite life giving her a breath for the past few minutes.

            A woman knocked by the glass window of the nursery.

            She looks very much familiar. I think I’ve seen her before. But she doesn’t remember me, neither do I.

            “Good morning!” She looks in haste. “What a perfect coincidence, it is Miss.”

            She looks at Minerva’s baby, and then the dying babe beside her.

            “Poor baby, it seems she doesn’t want to disappoint her parents,” she said to the pale one.

            “Excuse me?” She blink, “Oh, sorry! I forgot to introduce myself.”

            I straightened my back and braced myself. I have a feeling she has a connection with Minerva.

            “I am Jocelyn Angeles Gray, the stepmother-in-law of this beautiful baby beside the poor one.”

            I glanced at Minerva’s sleeping baby then to the crying one. “Oh!”

            I crossed my arms while realizing that this woman is Lushan’s relative. “Are you related to Lushan Angeles?”

            Her face brightened, “Yes! I am his aunt.”

            “I see,” I held my chin up high, “I am his girlfriend.”

            Though self-proclaimed but not really, I am indeed Lushan’s lover. He told me he wants me to be the partner of his life from now on. I guess that’s just synonymous to being a girlfriend of one.

            “Then this makes our deal easier,” she purred.

            “What do you mean?”

            She touched Minerva’s babe. “I want you to swap this sweet creature into that one.” Jocelyn’s finger is at the one-step-to-the-grave newborn.

            “It can’t be. We have rules in the hospital,” I firmly stated.

            She gave me a breathy laugh then leaned her body to the crib. “A hundred thousand dollars and tell the mother of this healthy one that her child is only days long.”

            I held my breath. My blood thickens. My throat bobbed. My sweat heavily flows from my face despite the coolness but not so cold temperature inside.

            Plastering a seemingly wicked grin to her, I swapped the baby in their cribs.

            “I’ll think about it...” She patiently waited for my other words. 

            “But expect that your desired outcome will be achieved before nightfall,” I valiantly lied.