A Baby for the Billionaire

31

JULIET

Mr. Deniz is standing in front of me at this dinner that has brought us together. I've decided to work for Mr. Ian who just wants me to call him by his first name and my ex-boss isn't too happy to see me here knowing I'm with one of his friends now. I should have told him when we had the chance, but I made the mistake of getting carried away with one last kiss that should never have happened, but which highlighted that the tension between him and I would never lead to anything.

I try to run through the crowd and hide, but he's after me and I try to escape, finding a side door that leads outside the main hall. It is an internal patio where there is no one, it is dark, obviously not prepared to receive other people, but he still finds me.

Standing in the moonlight that envelops me in relief from the lights of the main hall, I see him as a creature about to attack and destroy me. My heart is pounding inside as I stare in utter dread at the scene before me.

Is he? His hands clench into hard fists as his eyes are on me, bloodshot.

I try to take a step back, but I stumble against a pillar and have nowhere to go. He approaches me with lightning and his screams make the veins in my neck stand out, making my heart clench like never before.

I have always been one to answer, to not remain silent, to never feel any fear because of a man who is not worth it at all, but he is a beast loaded with fury who puts in check each one of the fears that potentially run in me.

"What the hell are you doing here, Judith?!"

"Juliet...! My name...is...Juliet!"

"I don't give a damn what your name is, I told you not to appear in my life again!"

"Mr-Mr Deniz... Enough, please."

"You ruined me!!! My wife did not deserve me to do that to her!!!"

"She's dead!" I say without further ado and my heart freezes in my chest as soon as I release those words. "Zara... She won't be back. She is not here anymore. She has died. And the best thing will be that you learn to move on, you and your little... son."

At first he seems to process what I say, but he immediately lunges at me, clamping his hands tightly around my neck and lifting me up until darkness closes in around me, pushing me into a void of utter blackness.

The cell phone rings and pulls me out of this nightmare.

I'm still agitated and short of breath, I don't know how long I was without breathing while I was sleeping. It's still night outside and the clock on my mobile shows dawn when I try to squint, watching the screen.

It's Neville.

He is calling me.

Did I sleep in and is it time to take the plane? They changed the flight by asking for one in advance and I didn't even get a notice?

Did they plan to leave me lying here and now I have to go back on my own? I don't think Neville would ever do that. Surely the horrible man that Kerem is wouldn't doubt it for an instant, but it's possible that his assistant has a better heart.

Holding the phone to my ear, I speak,

"Neville..."

"Sorry to wake you, Juliet."

"Don't worry, it's barely almost four in the morning."

"Yes, but you don't have to worry about the flight. We have postponed it."

"Sorry?" His words make me wake up suddenly.

"Do you have a moment to come and have a coffee in the hotel restaurant?"

"I...is it open at dawn?"

"It's twenty-four hours with all services included."

"Alight. I'll be there right away."

"Thank you."

"N...Neville...are you sure everything's alright?"

"I didn't say that everything was fine, only that we have decided to postpone the flight."

"Okay," I answer and hang up.

The conversation continues once I sit across from him. His gesture suggests to me that it's time to go to sleep, but he hasn't slept a wink.

"How about a coffee with cream?" he offers me as soon as I sit in front of him.

"In fact, if I have the chance to continue sleeping later, I think I don't exactly want a cup of coffee."

"Pillows are useless."

"Ufff, how bad."

We both laugh.

Then he elaborates:

"Two reasons make me want to talk to you alone, Juliet. And first I prefer that you give me your word that we will keep this meeting confidential."

"Hmm, just because it's you, shame on the man you work for. But yes, I give you my word of confidentiality."

"Good. Thank you very much. First... I apologize to you for the way my boss has behaved towards you."

"Mr. Deniz is an ogre."

"He can be. But before he was already very cold...before Zara."

"Did you know him before her?"

"I worked for his father."

"Wow."

"He was someone very intelligent, alert, but cold. He gave almost no room for his feelings. Mr. Deniz's family never gave him the love he might have deserved in his childhood, and they had too high expectations of his sporting, artistic, and intellectual performance."

"Wow, similar to what he has in store for his own son."

"It is probable. But Zara came into his life and completely changed him."

"Oh yeah?"

"He hadn't even planned a marriage at twenty-nine. Then Ali came along, and he seemed to be on his way to becoming a completely different man."

"But Zara died..."

"That's right. And we don't know if he recognizes it, if he has accepted it or how he handles it, but you... There is something in you that reminds him of her and makes him notice you too."

"Me...? What...can I have...like her...? She was an intelligent, beautiful woman, who wore very expensive brands and with immense perspective. Wait a minute, did you just say that he noticed me?"

"It's not something you don't know."

"Then what do I have in common with Zara?"

"That's the part I can't tell you."

"You're kidding?"

"Please, I'm just asking you to be patient with him. And with your plans that will come next."

"My plans?"

"Yes. You will continue with Ali, but as soon as the trip to Silicon Valley is over, you will receive a proposal to go to Italy to work with Massera, while Mr. Deniz and Ali will return to their lives in Turkey."

I think...

I think that was...too much information to process.

What...?! And what decision-making power do I have in all this?! What about my career?! What about my friends and family?!

What about Ali and his father when we're too far from each other and I'll still have many days to grow fond of them, or Mr. Deniz finds me and strangles me like in my dreams.