Maraïda: The Billionaire's Surrogate (Billionaire One)(Completed)

Loosing another child

Weeks had gone by with me trying to lock myself out of the life of Jared Shenko, inside his on house. My feelings for him were growing and as they did, I slowly came to the realisation of what was possible and what was impossible. Jared Shenko was happily married. He loved his wife so much he hurt. Even if I was there, he never failed nor faltered in the way he demonstrated his love for her; they never failed to demonstrate their love for each other. It was not like I was important to him or anything, or I had some issues with their explicit display of affection. I wasn't his ex girlfriend or at least a concubine. I was just his surrogate. Some times, it would hurt; a lot! so I started keeping my distance.

I used to think I was done! Finished with feelings and emotions but I still couldn't understand what this man had on me the drove me to the brink of the sanity I already lost.

I was four months in now and my bump was still tiny; visible but really small. An oversized hoodie or T-shirt could hide it. I guess that was my luck for being smaller than my age actually said. Issa had been visiting me a lot but lately, I had started doing all the visiting. Sometimes I intentionally slept over for weekends just to avoid the Shenko's mansion. Me living with them now didn't so much seem like a good idea. I tried bringing it up with Jared once but he had completely cast out the idea of me going back in with Issa. He wanted me by his side where he could keep watch over me. I didn't want him to watch over me, I wanted him to love me. I knew he partly had said that because of my sanity which was a flip away from falling of the cliff. But I wanted to encrypt other meanings in there; like he cared more than he showed. I wanted to believe he felt something other than responsibility and pity for me.

Well I was only fooling myself. Jared Shenko was head over heels for his wife. He bought for her the latest Range Rover model that still hadn't been release to celebrate her opening of a new branch of business in Singapore.

Jared's noodle soup was still the only thing I could eat; that, ice cream, pizza and coco pops for breakfast. He still made it for me and stocked it in the refrigerator. In fact, 80% of his refrigerator comprised packed noodles soup.

After the car part, I made up my mind to just leave and stay at Issa's; with or without Jared's permission. I had decided already.

The first two days back at Issa's, he would call morning, afternoon and evening. He wanted to know when I was coming back. He wanted to come pick me up. But I'd just lie and say Issa was going through some hard stuff and needed my support. He would say he understood and wait for the following to call again and ask the same damn things.

It was during one of the nights at Issa's, a cool and calm night, we were having pizza and watching an episode of Gotham. Issa had just dropped in back from work and was half dozing off, half watching the series. I started feeling something that made me very uneasy. Not wanting to bother her much about anything, seeing how tired she looked, I kept to myself. I gave myself a pep talk and declared the feeling nothing to worry about. We had both fallen asleep on the carpeted floor, snuggling under a blanket. Suddenly I felt wet. I felt something soaking from my underwear. Then there was a sharp pain that shot through my abdomen. I yelped myself up with a hiss, waking Issa up too in the process. I reached out my hand to my panties;

Blood! There was blood.

I was bleeding.

I wasn't too dumb to not know that bleeding during pregnancy wasn't a good sign at all. If anything, it was a terrible, terrible sign.

Apart from the pain I was feeling, I felt something else, something that was starting to get familiar, something I hadn't felt in a long while till I met Jared Shenko: fear. I don't know what it was that frightened me but I was very afraid; and loosing consciousness. The initial shock of what was possibly happening to me and my baby got me so bad that I found my self loosing consciousness. I could only hear fleeting sounds of Issa's crying and calling someone. I think an ambulance.

In a very slow motion and movement drill, I saw the world crumbling around me. I heard fleeting sounds that were fading even more into cold silence. I don't even remember when we got to the hospital; or when Jared and Sophia arrived.

The feeling at that moment was becoming very familiar.

'I remember entering the hospital that day and seeing the nurses dragging her out of the room, covered in a tin layer bedsheet. I grabbed a nurse by the shirt and showed the amount I had gathered for Marissa's treatment but she just nodded sadly and walked away. Then the doctor followed them out and told me she was no more')

I remember vividly how I felt, the thunderbolt that hit me upon hearing those words: 'we lost her' I didn't want to hear those words ever again.

But it was happening. I was laying on a stretcher, getting dragged into an ICU, the sounds around me fading into the bright lights that surrounded me, the people's faces looking like framed pictures on white walls. Nothing was making sense at all. I don't even think I was even comprehending what was happening to me. But one thing was for sure, I was certain, very certain, I was loosing another child.

My life would definitely end after this time.