Chapter 75: Chapter 75

At the right time, Bryan drove to David's home but was disappointed that he was not around yet. He called him to tell him that he had some things to discuss with him and could he come right away?

David came almost immediately and it was evident that he had left whatever it was that he had been doing and left in a hurry.

He found Bryan waiting for him in the lodge.

'Bryan, you scared me. Have you found your wife?' he asked his cousin.

Bryan shook his head.

'Why would Sharon do this now? She is really melodramatic.'.

'David, why did you not marry Sharon when she was still working at the bank? Everybody was sure that you were the one responsible for her pregnancy'. Bryan asked looking at him with such hurt that David was staggered.

'I wanted to. I asked her but she rejected me slot if times'. David said regretfully.

'I wonder why that is when she was carrying your baby?'

'She is the only person who has an answer to that but I think that the reason might be because she did not love me enough to marry me'. David smiled wistfully.

'Were you in love with her?'

'I do not think so but she is a marvellous woman and I wanted her by my side'. David was beginning to be weary of all the question his cousin Bryan was asking him.

'You did not love her because you were still in love with your dead wife but you made her pregnant?' Bryan asked incredulously. 'Snd she did not love you enough to accept your proposal and yet she allowed you to be one her lover and became pregnant with your child. It just does not make sense. Something is definitely wrong here. What are you not telling me David? Was Sharon such a loose girl as all that?'

'Oh no No she was not. What exactly do yo want to know? Where is this questioning leading?'

'I want to know sincerely, whose child Sharon was carrying when she worked at the bank?'

David had been expecting this question for some time but after their marriage, he had rested assured that the couple would sort out the differences themselves. Evident that had not been the case. He knew he could not escape from this now and though he was very find of Sharon, he felt Bryan should know the truth of the paternity of his child

He had told Sharon this on many occasions but she was just as stubborn as the man she just married and now she had put him in a tight corner.

'You are married to the woman and you left her to come to ask me who the father of her child is? Is that not hilarious? The best thing to do is to sit her down and have a heart to heart talk with her!'

'But she had taken flight like she did the last time I wanted to have a talk with her and the last time was for three years, who knows how long this time will take though I am determined that it should not take up to two days if I can help it. She had help the last time, this time she will have no help whatsoever so that she would be forced out of hiding. Imagine a woman who is carrying my baby and had just got married to me running off with my unborn child'.

David was a conservative man and he felt for Bryan not just as a cousin but as one man to the other. He saw what he passed through the last time Sharon disappeared and what he must be passing through this time as well.

'But Bryan why all these questions all of a sudden?'

'If you know the father of the child, let me know. The dispense is killing me. Since I saw Deborah, I have this pull in my heart towards her. I feel a string connection to her which I do not feel with other children and she feels the same be ause she was drawn to me immediately. The first time we saw she asked if I was her father, shoeing that she must have missed her father though being surrounded by male figures in her life and then she told me that she loved me. There is something there. Her colouration is different from yours and hence cannot be yours and neither could it have been Gerhard's, so except Sharon had an affair I do not know of during her time in the bank, then the child is mine because her colouration is exactly like mine and in all modesty, I find other similarities and semblances between us as well. And so I ask again, is Deborah my child?'

David felt like the weight of the whole world had fallen on him and he slumped into a chair in the lodge. He had not known that he had been standing all this while and so had Bryan, with a stance of war.

'Yes, Deborah is your daughter. I hope Sharon does not have my head for this. I have kept her secret for a long time now. She said it was from the night you both spent in Rome'.

'But I took precautions'.

'She said the same but she must be one out of the millions the precaution did not work on'.

'You are my cousin and a man fir that matter and yet you allowed her to keep such a secret from me? You did not think that I had a right to know?' Bryan said as though it was being torn from him.

'I told her various times to tell you about the baby because you had equal right with her where the baby was concerned but she said she did not want your money,your help or sympathy. She would rather do it all alone. Though I must confess she never told me that she was running off. You know she was one of my best bankers and I did not want to lose her. It came as a shock to me as well as when she told me she was marrying Gerhard until she told me the reason for the marriage'.

'And her reason was what?' Bryan asked though he already knew, just comparing notes, not that he did not trust her words.

'The man was dying and it was what he wanted and being so selfless, she accepted so that his last days could be full of happiness. It must be so because Gerhard had indicated his interest in her several times in the past when I travelled with her and she turned him down. I even tried to force her in him but she would not bulge because her heart, it would seem was occupied else where and you know where's.

Bryan cursed under his breath.

'I cannot forgive you, David, You caused me to lose the memorable time I should have used to bond with my child. You took my place and made me an onlooker. And it never touched you to feel that I should know about her and get close to the baby even if I were a monster, would I not have wanted to be close to my own blood? I watched you listening to its heartbeat, caring for Sharon, doing everything that I should have done and I guess you even went to the hospital with her on the day of her delivery. You were the one who told us she had given birth and to what sex, everything that the father of the child should be doing and you did not feel that it was wrong to take my place? You must have enjoyed it so much. Was it that you were jealous of my fatherhood or what?'

David recalled that he had been seriously I'll at the time and had thought that Bryan may not want the baby and did not want to betray Sharon's secret and yes, the child gave him a new lease on life but he was not going to say all that to Bryan. He would not understand.

'Yes, I was jealous that you were going to be a father and I and my late wife could not get around to that before the accident. I grew attached to the baby as though she were mine and I loved her dearly. If you had let go your arrogance and coldness for a bit, it could all have been different but you didn't and I thought that maybe you did not want either Sharon or the baby if you came to know about the. I am guilty as charged and I can only ask you to forgive me for depriving you your right to your child's growth all those months of pregnancy and not telling you later all. Everything became so complicated that it was no use fighting up dirt but to allow sleeping dogs lie till Sharon decided to tell you herself'.

Bryan swore again and stormed out of the house in rage.