Page 131 of Bastian

Picking up my phone again, I take a quick shot of the giant teddy bear that sits on the floor next to the nursery’s window and post it on social media.

I stopped posting for a while, not wanting Sebastian to track me down by using my social accounts, but after all that has happened, I find myself posting more of my life there. I have an even larger following than before, but I honestly don’t post for the audience.

I now post for my sister, Mila.

So she can be a part of my life even if she’s just seeing me through a screen or a post. The second the post is up with a teddy bear emoji as a caption the notifications from my followers pop up in large amounts.

The world still doesn’t know I am pregnant, and I am planning to keep it that way until I can’t hide it anymore, but it has been fun to read the news articles that speculate and lie about our lives. I might be in the same business, but I swore to never publish something that hasn’t been fact-checked or confirmed. Once I see the heart notification from my sister’s account, I smile and place the phone back down on the table.

“You’re so beautiful when you smile, darling.”

I gasp when the father of my sweet spawns startles me. Grabbing my chest, I breathe out. “Dammit, Sebastian. How long have you been standing there like a creep?”

“Long enough.” He smiles, enters the nursery, and shuts the door behind him. I narrow my eyes at him when I notice he has ditched the cane which I point out a second later, and he just shrugs, walking towards me with confidence no one but he possesses, wearing a full three-piece suit. He looks so handsome and so alive.

So mine.

“I do not need a cane to walk. You are being irrational.” So I forced him to use the thing so he would have help and didn’t put too much pressure on his body. Sue me for caring. Although, I enjoyed the way he cringed when he saw the offending item. He gave me an ear full of how that shit made him feel old.

I did enjoy that, I won’t lie.

“You are so vain, Sebastian.” I shake my head at him.

“And you are a bully, my darling.”

Shrugging, “You know what you were getting into…”

“I did.” He smiles wide, leans down over me, and places a kiss on the top of my head. “You smell like strawberries…” he sniffs me like Ella does her mutt.

“You really need to stop sniffing me, Sebastian. That’s just weird.” I scrunch up my nose.

“As weird as you watching me sleep at night when you’re supposed to be getting sleep yourself?”

Oh, so he noticed.

Giving him a bored look, I tell him. “I am making sure you don’t leave me with two kids and an ugly dog to fend for myself.” I try to make a joke out of it, but my fear transmits.

Sebastian drops to his knees and forces me to look down at him. That’s when I noticed a medium-sized white box that he placed on my lap. “I am not going anywhere, love.” He says this with such ferocity and sincerity that I can’t help but believe him, even knowing he can’t control that. Not when he has enemies gunning for him.

Smiling, I nod, not wanting to dampen the mood. “What’s this?”

“Open it and see.” He gently taps my nose, and I never thought that would make a woman like me swoon, but dammit it does. Everything this man does makes me feel like the heroine in a romance novel. Very cliche, I know.

Crazy curious, I open the box to find a black chocolate heart inside.

“Sebastian, you menace.”

Offering me a crooked smile. “You did ask for chocolate…”

“I did, but this is too much.”

“Nonsense.” He hands me a small wooden object. “My heart, go ahead and break it.”

Once, I would have taken this chocolate heart that symbolizes his beating one, and smashed it on top of his head, but now… now, I just want to treasure it. Treasure him.

Smashing the chocolate, I notice something sparkling inside. This man…

Using my hands, I break some more pieces of chocolate until I find what hides inside.

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