Chapter 38: Chapter 38

Sharon was working in her office later that day when Bryan walked in with a fat dossier on one of their new clients. He dropped it on her desk with a resounding chunk.

'You asked for that, I gather?'

She looked at the name outside of the box file. 'Oh, Rhenco, yes. Thanks. It wasn't urgent if you are still working on it.

'No. I'm leaving early today. You can send it back to my office when you have finished with it', he said curtly.

'Of course'. She waited for him to leave, her eyes on the dossier cover, tracing the bold handwriting she recognized as his.

He stood there, restlessly moving his feet, then said in a tone etched with acid. 'Very touching sight, David leaning his head against you like that. I could almost hear the violins. The office grapevine tells me that he's become obsessed with the baby and whenever I see him, he can talk of nothing else. They all believe he is going to crack and marries you, in order that it might bear his name. Are they right? Ate congratulations in order?'

She looked up at him, her green eyes dark with pain. 'No, they're not'.

His mouth was a hard white line. 'Too bad'. And he was gone.

She sat for a long time staring at nothing but she had grown accustomed to pain during these long months. She pushed the pain aside and concentrated on her work. She would not let him keep hurting her the way he just had. One day she was going to wake up and find that she was over him. That he no longer possessed her body and soul and she could start forgetting about him. She couldn't wait for that day.

While she was busy thinking all these and wishing for the day Bryan would lose his firm grip on her heart and body, Bryan was in his flat restless. He just could not stay at a place. When pacing seemed not to do anything for him, he got into his car and drove round the city. He needed relief from the pain he was feeling.

He had to admit that though he had wanted Sharon from the first he met her, he hadn't realised that he would feel this deeply for her and in waiting for her to come to terms with how she felt about him - he knew that she felt deeply about him as well, be must have waited too long and now someone else had made her pregnant and had taken the place he wished to occupy in her life. He could not bear it. As a result of his hurt, he found himself hurting her as well. He knew that he did. Just this afternoon, he had wanted to say more. Much more than he had said but had to walk away because of the pain he had seen in her eyes.

If only she had had the courage to accept him and the simmering desire in their veins and allowed them throw caution into the air and had a steamy affair, it would all have turned out differently.

He had had to move away from David's office when he saw that scene. He had felt cheated and didn't know why he should have felt that way except that he realised that pregnancy or no pregnancy, he still wanted her.and could not bear any other man coming close to her, let alone touching her intimately the way David had been doing but who was he kidding?

If just touching his cheek to her tummy got him so upset and worked up, then what they both did that resulted in the pregnancy would definitely kill him for sure.

He had not allowed himself to think about that. He could not believe that while he found it difficult being with another woman after having Sharon, she could easily sleep with another man and delibrately get pregnant for him because of her ambition and security but she had not looked the type to him but then she had spoken of how she had been betrayed and it must have made her such a coward that she would rather settle for less in terms if happiness and sensual fulfillment than be heart broken again.

He didn't blame her though. Afterall, he had made her no promises.

He was so absorbed in his thoughts that he lost concentration and saw the car coming at him a little later. He swayed to the side to avoid any collusion and there was screeching of tires as he skidded to a stop with heart thumping.

'You better watch it. Whatever is taking your concentration can definitely not be better than your life'. The driver of the other car said as it slowed down beside him.

'Sorry. Pay me no mind'. Bryan said still shaken.

The driver shook his head and drove off . He was an older man and he thought to himself, 'These you her generation and their excesses and reckless living will not be the death of us'.

And Bryan was thinking, Sharon you will not be the death of me!

He felt that he had had enough driving and contemplation for one day and returned home. He had to try and comport himself so that nobody knows the pain he had in him. If Sharon were to know, especially now that she was pregnant with another man's child, she just might laugh him to scorn.

And in the office, Sharon was through with the dossier and some other works. Bryan and his taunts was getting too much for her to bear. She had to think of her welfare and that of her unborn child. She tidied up her desk and thought hard as she did and arrived at a decision.

Afterwards, she approached David's office.

'I am through for the day and have cleared my desk', she said hesitantly.

'That's good. Is there anything you want?'

'Yes and no', she said contemplatively. She hoped that she had made the right decision.

'I want to go away for sometime, just till I give birth to my baby. I shall return a few months after delivery'.

'It would seem that I trouble you alot about my obsession with your baby. If that is why you are leaving or the fact that I keep haggling you about marrying me, then I shall stop that. Do not allow me deprive you doing what you enjoy doing be ause I know that you love your work'.

'You are right about that. I love my work but right now, I am in alot of stress and I can assure you that your fascination with my baby and your desire to marry me so you can help me out is very generous of you and have made all the trouble bearable', she said sincerely. 'But I need to leave so that I could have some rest before and after the baby arrives. I promise that I shall keep in touch with you and tell you the day I go to the hospital to bring forth the baby so that you can be there if you are chanced provided that you will let the secret out to no one's.

'My lips are sealed!' he said.

They reached the agreement and Sharon left that day and the next day being a weekend, she packed her things and left the city for another where she was sure Bryan could not find her and his taunts could not hurt her.