A Baby for the Billionaire

43

KEREM

When I get out of bed, I look at the window of my room and discover that it has not yet dawned as is the custom in my case. I usually start the day at five in the morning. Juliet is lying on my bed in her pajamas, uncovered and cornered in a fetal position at one end of the bed. I go over to her and cover her with the blanket, stopping for a moment to look at her. I can't help but let out a sigh on my part when I see her with her lips parted and her eyes closed in a deep sleep. When she is awake, she looks so firm, so determined, and above all in her life, while when she sleeps, on the contrary, she is a vulnerable woman, or so she suggests to me, awakening a certain protective instinct... but in reality, she is the one who should protecting me from my own dreams, her image moving me out of a nightmare flashes through my head like lightning.

I look in my closet for a towel, I put today's clothes on two hangers and I leave the room so as not to make a noise and let her rest. I won't take a shower in my bathroom, I'll find another one in another room. It's not worth the noise.

On my way out, I walk down the hall and stop at the half-open door to Ali's room. I push it slightly and look inside the cradle where some noises come from. Is that my son? I thought he was sleeping, but he's laughing.

Yes, they are giggles.

What is my son doing laughing alone in his crib at five in the morning like a real madman? I knew he's a troubled boy, I knew it!
However, as I get closer to him, I discover something that makes me regret thinking that last thought, Ali is laughing in his sleep. He waves his chubby little arms and legs as he shifts in place, laughing out loud and his little eyes are still closed.

It goes on like this until little by little it stops.

Apparently the dream has transported him to another place.

A happy place.

My son, if you only knew the things that are happening around you. I hope that when you grow up you will still be as happy as you are now...

...and that you continue to be my son.

I check his breathing and his heart. Both are fine. I cover him with a blanket and rest a kiss on his forehead, something that I hadn't dared to do for a long time. I inhale his baby scent deeply and slowly head out for the shower. Once I'm alone again, I leave the towel and my things hanging outside, turn on the hot water and get in there, evaluating the activities I have during the day after my daily meditation. I have decided that today I will resume meditation, something that I have not done for a long time, but a part of me has the illusion of, little by little, being able to recover normality in my life.

I want to try it.

Today I want it to be a new day and I long to find some peace, but a voice inside me plants the question in my brain "do you really think that is going to happen?"

Oh my GOD.

JULIET

"Hellooooo!"

Oh!

I quickly hang up the communicator with the intercom and unlock the door so Thammy can enter.

As soon as I let her in at the entrance, I wait until she comes up and appears at the door.

"You almost ripped my eardrum out," I tell her. "Who tends to have that energy this early in the day?"

"What time is it now, seven o'clock? It has barely dawned."

However, her countenance has changed dramatically. She has been transformed. She is practically another person who in no way resembles the person who called before at the entrance. I look at her through narrowed eyes and add "Is everything alright?"

"There was someone else waiting at the entrance," she warns. "An old family friend."

"What?"

Thammy comes looking for Ali because today we have to work together with the little one due to Neville's provisions, however, someone just got between the two of them.

It's a tall man who comes in a suit and something suggests to me that I don't know him any differently than this.

Oh jesus.

"Kerem. I need to talk to him."

To begin with, one should say good morning, but finding a person like him who decides to come to this house is not worthy of saying "good morning" to anyone. Of course, it's not that I'm used to wishing bad days to anyone, but with him, aasshhh I don't know what to think.

Are things as Kerem told me before?

When I checked his wife's social networks, there was no doubt that he was a great friend of the two, and knowing Kerem, he is very decisive when he thinks something about someone or simply makes a decision.

"I...I'm sorry, sir," I say to Ian, "but I think it would be a better idea for you to leave. You shouldn't have come here."

"Sir?" he asks.

Yes, I have decided to put some distance between the two of us.

Thammy walks in, but I can see the weight in his gaze as he judges why I'm treating him this way.

"It's cool, Juls," Thammy says to me. "It's just Ian. Has Mr. Deniz already left?"

I swallow thickly and take a step back.

Sigh.

"He left early, Thank God" I add to myself. "But I don't think it's a good idea for you to be here."

"Then you know. But how...?"

"Juls, is everything okay?" Thammy asks me.

And I force myself to push the door, but he stops me.

"Juliet, please! This problem is not with you, please don't mess with it. I have to solve it with him, tell me where I can find him!"

"I'm sorry," I tell him. "But it's none of my business, you're right, so you'd better go and keep me out of the way."

"I have to talk to him."

"Sir, go away."

"I tell you it's important, Juliet!"

"No..."

"It's about Zara! I have a message from Zara for Kerem and he needs to know!"