Extra Chapter

Arthur

She just shook her head and soon I was pouring myself into her mouth and she did exactly as I commanded her to do, standing next to me and looking quite pleased with herself.

"Did you like that, honey?" she asked, sitting down on my desk.

"Very well," I praised, "You can start working here tomorrow."

"Work?" She didn't seem to understand what I was saying, and I made a point to explain it more clearly.

"Yes, Bruna," I confirmed impatiently, "You came here asking for my help, and I'm offering you a job at the nightclub."

"But I thought..."

"You thought I would simply support you in exchange for sex?" Her expression clearly indicated that she had indeed thought that. "Not at all! You will work in exchange for a salary, just like everyone else does."

"That's not fair, Arthur!" she protested indignantly. "I work, and you get free sex, simple as that?"

"If I wanted to pay, I would go to a brothel, Bruna," I pointed out cynically, and I almost thought she would blow smoke from her nose out of anger.

Bruna stomped her foot on the ground, behaving like the spoiled and shallow woman she is, crossing her arms in front of her body.

"And what kind of job will you get for me?" she asked grumpily.

"To clean the nightclub every morning."

"You can't be serious, Arthur!" Bruna said skeptically.

"Of course, I am," I confirmed nonchalantly. "You can start tomorrow."

"I'm not going to do that."

"It's taking it or leaving it."

Bruna even threw a tantrum, but I wasn't really concerned, and I even invited her to come to my apartment to have some fun before her first day of work at the nightclub. Despite seeming angry with my proposition, she accepted and the next day she began cleaning the club alongside the rest of the cleaning staff.

Two years later...

I was feeling too shaken after the test result, and I wasn't even sure if I could drive in such a disturbed state. I seriously considered leaving my car in the clinic's parking lot and taking a taxi home. I wouldn't even need to explain anything to anyone since my aunt was at the country house with Ethan's parents and brother, while Ethan himself had left last night for important matters in Curitiba and wouldn't be back until the next day.

I reflected deeply, sitting inside the car, my head resting on the steering wheel, unable to make any decisions at that moment, no matter how simple. I have no idea how long I stayed there in that same position when someone tapped on the car window, catching my attention.

"Ethan!?" I asked, truly incredulous.

"Open the car, Mariana," he requested, gesturing intensely and seeming a bit agitated.

I complied and unlocked the car, and quickly he was sitting beside me inside the vehicle, and I would say he looked like a man in despair.

"Don't be like this, my love," Ethan said, embracing me.

I didn't understand what was happening, but the fact that Ethan was hugging me, along with those words filled with affection and love, unleashed a never-ending torrent of tears, and I cried copiously for long and anguishing minutes.

"We are happy, regardless of anything," Ethan tried to console me. "And this result won't change the love we feel for each other."

"How did you find out?" I asked, pulling away from his embrace to look directly into his eyes.

It was evident that Ethan had already found out about the test result; he had just confirmed it himself, even though I had no idea how he had discovered it.

"I received an email from your doctor, and even though I didn't understand everything, I put the pieces together," he explained, scrutinizing me carefully.

I took a deep breath, feeling a bit upset about how Ethan had found out, but at the same time resigned. After all, he would have found out one way or another because I would never be able to hide something so important from him.

Even before we got married, Ethan had made it clear that he wanted children and even made me promise that we would have three. It was quite funny at the time, but it had become a burden over the months when I couldn't get pregnant.

Although I had never been directly pressured, I felt incapable because my long-awaited pregnancy had not occurred. It was stressing me out and making me nervous, and the doctor suggested that could be the cause of the problem. But I felt it was more than just that.

Two years had passed. Murilo and Virgínia already had two children, Manuela and Marcelo. Aquiles and Lavínia had their own child, and even Artémis, who had recently married Joshua, was already pregnant, expecting their first child. Meanwhile, I couldn't get pregnant.

And only now did my doctor request some more specific tests, and I took advantage of Ethan not being at home to discreetly go to the appointment without telling him anything about it. It had become a delicate subject that always caused a lot of tension between us because my husband insisted that our babies would come at the right time. But there would be no "right time." I am infertile.

"I thought you were in Curitiba," I preferred to pretend that he hadn't said anything and just change the subject.

"I finished the meeting as quickly as possible and took the private jet to come back right away," he explained. "Something was telling me that I needed to be in São Paulo, and the email from your doctor confirmed that my intuition was right."

"Let's go home," I requested. I didn't want to talk about this right now.

"Okay," Ethan promptly agreed.