Page 56 of Tarek

I live for power and duty. Duty is what made me lay with Ilyana who is now pregnant with my second child.

“Hey,” Ilyana voice creeps behind me.

I didn’t even realize I was daydreaming. To pull myself completely from my trance my finger tug at the root of my hair.

“Hey. Are you feeling, okay?” I ask, watching my wife walk around the home library, touching the spines of old books.

“I’m tired. Your child is going to be a soccer star.” As she was yet speaking, she pauses and places her hand on her protruding stomach.

I rise slowly. “Are you all right?”

With an outstretched hand, she flicks her hand to me. “Come feel.”

It doesn’t take me long to reach her. “Can I?”

In delight she takes my hand and places it on her stomach. “Say something.”

“Hello, baby…I’m your daddy, Dereck.” As I speak a small bump caresses my hand.

It’s amazing having your child react to your voice.

“I promise to love you till the end of time.”

Again, my child stretches its mom’s belly to touch me.

“Can you love me in time, Dereck?” Ilyana asks, her eyes sadden. Deep down inside she knows.

I move my hands away slowly from her stomach back to my side.

“Ilyana,” I sigh, not wanting to get her upset because I didn’t want to hurt the baby.

Her eyes begin to water. “We haven’t slept in the same bed since our baby announcement. Do you hate me so?

“I don’t hate you.” I put distance between us as I retreat behind my desk.

“No, you just don’t love me as much as her.” Her voice was beginning to rise, her cheeks were becoming bright red. Her wheat blonde hair is tied up in a simple bun. My wife Ilyana is the epitome of elegance and grace. She is also cunning and venomous. If she were a man, she would have been a perfect nominee for the Quarter Masters.

“What does she have that I don’t have? I won Ms. Lakeshore. I am rich, beautiful and intelligent,” she screeches, pulling down a book, clenching it in her hand.

“Ilyana. Think of the baby.”

She looks down at her stomach in disgust. “The baby, the baby. Everyone loves the baby. Fuck the baby. This child is about to get the love that I crave. That I deserve.”

“Don’t do anything stupid,” I warn her.

Tears run down her face. “Why can you love anyone, but me? Me, who made you rich. Me, who gave you power. Me who stands by you. Where is Miranda? Where is that bitch?” She threw the book across the room, it almost hit my shoulder.

One second I am behind the desk. The next, I had her pinned against the library shelves, “Go on. I dare you to utter a bad word about her again.”

The threat remains like a steel wall between us.

She hiccups as tears stream down her cheeks, her eyes search my face. “I only want you Dereck.”

“Wipe your tears, Ilyana. You think I don’t know about you and Aaron?” I chuckle.

Her eyes widen in despair. “Aaron, I would never.”

“Ily, Aaron and the others had bets on the table for you?”

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