A Baby for the Billionaire

61

JULIET

Ali is a beautiful boy. In fact, more than that, he's perfect (and I'm not just saying that because his dad is a hottie). He has huge honey-colored eyes, he claims affection from those he genuinely appreciates, and with a smile he seems to have the ability to make you forget each and every one of your problems. Besides that he is very funny, he likes music and has the ability to recognize or babble songs that one proposes to him, making my task easier, in addition to getting him to grasp all the precepts much sooner than my language proposal implies. I can't help but squeeze him and hug him every time he tries to steal my heart with one of his laughs or when he extends his little arms in my direction.

"Little man," I say, after stopping the rhythm of my song while we play on the floor, on top of a blanket and he follows me when I sing and dance to him. "You're definitely going to be a hunk and have the whole world eating out of your hand when you grow up, with those eyes, that giggle, and your moves!"

"Boooubbbbbbuuuuummmaaa!" he screams, crazy and I give him a new squeeze with my arms and then torture him with tickles that make him laugh non-stop.

Or so, at least, until the sound of the doorbell outside my apartment wakes me up. Kerem took it upon himself to bring Ali home by ordering Neville. They have things to do, and so do I, but it doesn't really bother me to be in his care, and it's not bad that he completes the hours I need to finish my job.

Anyway, could it be Kerem? But he doesn't have a key to the bottom gate and I have the handle on the outside of the door, which is my exclusive security system. So I don't see logic to who it could be.

I get up and head for the door, Ali in my arms. He remains silent as I approach and ask "Who is it?"

They do not answer.

Instead they bang on the door again.

God, I knew I had to put a peephole. I go to the kitchen and try to peek, but I only get to see the stairs. This space to see the door has never worked for me. They hit again, this time with greater insistence.

What if it is Kerem who is angry for some reason? Well, I know him and every time he gets like this, reactions appear in him that are absolutely inexplicable to me or that seem to have no logic, when in truth they hide something much darker than I thought. No, I still wish it was easier to decipher sometimes, but that's already asking a lot.

"Okay, okay, that's it," I say, turning the handle on the inside of the door and opening it to see who's on the other side.

A tall man in a white T-shirt, black jacket and dark jeans appears, bursting into the house as if it were his, but I nail myself with the boy to stop him because he is not welcome.

"Ian" his name leaves my lips with a hint of fury and disgust. "What the hell do you think you're doing here and who do you think you are coming into my house like that?"

"I'm here to find my son."

"What? What are you talking about?" my voice comes out in deep horror.

His eyes are on fire, he is not at all the womanizer and casanova type that I met during the trip to Silicon Valley.

In fact, this is his true version, the traitorous and despicable type who is finally beginning to show who he really is.

"I'm here to find Ali. I have the paternity tests. He is my son," he assures without any proof to prove it to me.

The words tumble in my mouth until I finally manage to articulate a barely understandable sentence in the midst of the shock of his appearance "Get out of my house!"

"First you give me my son! I will not miss another day with him. He has to be with his real father.

Ali cries.

I hold him tight.

I turn him away from Ian.

"Don't you dare!"

"Juliet, I'm not going to repeat it."

"Get out of my house or I'll call the police."

"If you don't want to do it the easy way, it will be the hard way."

I sigh, concern evident, though my breath catches in my chest and my eyes start to burn.

"Even if you had the paternity tests, he's not your son. You only fathered him like many others that you must have left along the way, try not to at least be a married woman because you end up ruining the lives of many people!"

"Mind your own business, you don't care who I sleep with."

"GO! NOW!"

Ali continues to cry.

More and more.

Suddenly, he steps back, letting the door swing and someone else walks into my apartment. My chest weighs a ton when I see it.

He has a black eye and it looks like he's had stitches on his lips.

That idiot! He should be in jail!

"I think you and I have something going on, Juls."

"Jordan... Son of a bitch..."

"I warned you that if we didn't do it the easy way, it would be the hard way," Ian warns. "Now give him to me!"

"Noooo! NOOO!"

Jordan turns to me as well, holding me. Ian pushes me away and clings to Ali. I try to hold him tight, but Ian ends up ripping him out of my hands. My screams hurt my throat and the life drains out of me as Ali pulls away from me, crying painfully.