Maraïda: The Billionaire's Surrogate (Billionaire One)(Completed)

Jared is a disease.

Maraïda's POV

After the little excitement, a month went by with me avoiding Jared Shenko like an incurable disease. I hadn't exactly made alliances with Sophia but we understood each other, so not really alliances; more like acquaintances. We talked a lot more instead if me third wheeling to her and Jared's display of affection, we started doing baby shopping together; a few times when we encountered people she and Jared were familiar with and they'd want to know who I am to her, she'd tell them I was her cousin and people actually believed it. I mean we were both blonde with blue eyes. As much as it did me a lot of good to be close to someone, enough to tell them a little bits about me by the days, somewhere inside I was still a broken soul, dying slowly but never showing. Some times I felt sorry for her efforts; like pouring water on a duck's feathers. A total waste.

The few times Jared had tried to reach out. Sometimes I felt like he could see it, or maybe even feel it, the chaos in my mind. When he came closer, I'd drift further and when he looked my way, I'd turn the other way. The idea wasn't in anyway to say or hint that I was still mad at him or didn't want to tell him anything. Just that as much as I knew I was only his surrogate, and as much as I knew Sophia was a good person who deserved nothing that could cause her pain; I felt something perverse towards her husband; something even I couldn't understand. That was the chaotic stuff that tore me apart internally. Every time I saw them together, I felt jealous, pained: a kind of pain different from all the ones I have ever felt before, surge in me. Sometimes, I told myself it was due to pregnancy hormones but deep inside me, I knew I was falling in love with a man who wasn't and could never be mine. I was carrying his child; a child I would have to surrender to him and Sophia after birth and that would be it. Our alliances would be over.

What would hurt the most was the thought of giving away my child. I had become attached. I would talk to my growing bump every time I was alone, sometimes unknowingly. Sometimes the thought of how all this would end will take me so far I would forget about everything happening around me.

'One day I'll bring this baby into this world. I look into its eyes and feel nothing but love. I'll be so attached to it that my life wouldn't matter at if its be put on the line. I'll be ready to sacrifice any and everything for my baby, including being its mother. I'll give my precious baby over to Jared and Sophie and will have to walk away and never look, with the consolation that my child's life will be better than mine. He'll come first in everything for me.

Will I be able to give him up?

What if something goes wrong and I'm not there to protect him, who will do it?'

"Mara!!" Sophia's voice snapped me out of my trans. She was stunning as always, dressed in a simple sundress, white heels, her hair held in a ponytail. "Let's go?"

"Go? Where to?" I asked confused. A bowl of Cocoa Pops laid before me on the breakfast bar. It now looked like something that came out of a dog's butt.

How long had I been daydreaming?

"Jesus! I just told barely thirty minutes ago that we were going to a Spar. Why are you not ready yet?"

30minutes!

"Oh! Sorry but I must have missed it." I told her. I started steering the mixture in my bowl absentmindedly. She didn't move an inch. I looked up at her, she furrowed her perfect brows,

"Well?" She asked,

"What?"

"Go get ready!"

"Do I have to? Sophia, can't I just stay home? I don't want to go to some stupid Spar!!!" I grumble, she gasped; visibly shocked. I got up from my seat and took the bowl and emptied it's content inside the sink.

"Know what, on behalf of every other girl on this planet, I forgive you, because you are pregnant. Now, you have thirty minutes to go up there and get ready. We are going to the Spar. You can't just sit in here all day, slouching and looking like..."

"You don't have to say it. Swearing is really not your thing."

"Just please, I promise, it'll be fun."

After two minutes of over thinking, I finally found myself a reason to go. An excuse to dodge from Jared, in case he got back home early. I lazily dragged my ass up stairs to change.

The Spar, as Sophia had promised, was actually fun and a little painful. I can't remember the last time I had my hair brushed or my legs waxed. But as I looked at myself in the mirror up in my room, I felt an aire of satisfaction. I could now see a part of me I thought I no longer had. A knock on my door jolted me back to reality,

"Miss Maraïda, Mrs. Shenko says you should come down for dinner."

I hadn't been down for dinner in weeks. I usually just stayed up in my bed and had my food there, away from Jared and Sophia's display of affection;

Things that made me want to actually barf.

"Can't you just bring it up?"

"She specifically said no excuses miss." The maid answered abruptly and left.

"Face it Maraïda!" I started telling myself as I looked again at my reflection in the mirror, "You can't avoid him forever. Just avoid eye contacts and blast on some music. That'll work."

So I grabbed the iPod Jared had offered me as a peace offering, together with the white earpiece and headed down stairs.

Half way down the stairs, I could hear him complementing Sophia about how gorgeous she looked. As if she didn't look the same everyday. I felt an urge to run back up the stairs, but resisted. I took my hair out of it's ponytail, letting it's thick curls layer over my ears, plugged in my earpiece and blasted some Frank Sinatra; then, I continued down.