Falling Apart
Everyone is already asleep in the mansion except Devon who is sitting on the bed silently rocking the baby to sleep while crying.
Daemon hasn't come home since last night after they have been discharged from the hospital. What was supposed to be a celebration for the coming home of Daemon's twin son turned out to be total waste when she emerged from the car with one baby wrapped in a pink saddle.
Everyone is silent. The guards looked, the helpers stared and murmured, and Daemon's men looked from afar, confused how one of the two babies only survived.
The party poppers went off and blue confetti rained down upon them. The entire mansion is decorated with blue balloons, blue designs, and blue everything.
Feeling out of place, Devon hugged the baby closer to her chest. Head down, she went upstairs to their room and laid the baby gently to the crib filled with dangling car and gun toys. Her baby is unwelcome in a house that longs for a son.
She's mortified too. She’s expecting a twin but God gave her a baby daughter. Yes, her baby daughter. Daemon ran some tests and it turned out that she is really her baby. Furious, he left the room after leaving the results for her to read.
She didn’t know how it happened but one thing is for sure, Daemon believed it was her doing. The way he looked at her felt like he was thinking that she tricked him.
The door opened and Daemon appeared, his eyes instantly darting towards her and the baby in her arms. He looked tired as if he was carrying all the burden in the world.
“Sleep, Devon. Put her in the crib and rest for a while. You have your baby monitor on the side.”
He stepped into the shower and came out minutes after, slid into the covers but did go right into sleep. He stared at Devon who is still in the same position he’d left her, painfully trying to stifle her sob while holding the baby in her arms.
Sighing, he sat up and gently pulled her into his arms.
“Stop crying. You just gave birth. It’s unhealthy for you and the baby. If you really want her, you also have to think about yourself in order to protect her.”
Riding in her emotions, Devon yanked away from him. “Her name is Emily.”
“You named her?”
“Of course! We even name puppies and kittens. She’s my dear daughter. She has the right to be given a name,” she said, finding his question to be preposterous.
“That’s not what I mean. I just don’t want you to be attached to her. Sooner or later, she needs to…” he stopped when he read the misery in her eyes. “Devon, you know we can’t do this now. Eyes are watching. I need sons!”
“You told me it didn’t matter whether she’s a girl or boy. That you will raise him to be a strong woman,” she reminded him. “But now you are disowning her right after she was born. Won’t you even look at her? Kiss her and call her name? You are her dad for heaven’s sake.”
“That’s because I precisely know at that point that you are carrying my two sons!”
She chuckled sarcastically. “So you were just being polite at that time?”
The baby cried so they stopped fighting. Standing up, she grabbed a bottle to feed Emily.
“Are you that repulsive of the idea to have a child with me? Yeah, I get that you hate the fact that your kids will have the blood of your enemy but haven’t I proven my loyalty to you?” she asked in a small voice to prevent the baby from waking up and her feelings from erupting.
"You know what you did and yet I'm not doing anything to you. That only shows how much I care for you.” He rose up from the bed and loomed over her. “Loyalty? When I told you not to be the mother of my sons, did you do that or did you let your delusions get into your head?”
Her tears came running down again. “For what purpose did I become your wife if I do not bear your kids?”
“Devon, let me remind you,” his voice became icy-cold, “that you are not just an ordinary wife. You are my wife. I, who lorded over the entire district. I’ve given you a responsibility that you did not fulfill. If you did not deceive me, we would not have her and things would not be so complicated.”
“I don’t know about that,” she whispered upon realizing that Daemon might only see her as an object, a subject under him, never an equal. “I didn’t know you thought of me like that. Regardless, I am sure that I am going to keep my baby.”
“Our baby, Devon,” he corrected her. “She is mine, too. She is still my flesh and blood. She is my daughter. I get to have a say about her."
“Then act like a father to her. Do not abandon your firstborn, Daemon. Please. Do not let another child end up like me.” She held the baby up to him but he instantly averted his face. Hurt and rejected for herself and Emily, she turned her back from Daemon and grimaced in pain.
"You can’t even hold her and yet you call yourself her father? Fine, you want to get rid of her?”
She faced him back. “I’d go with my daughter. Then I’d go with her. I can’t leave her. I will never do it. Let me leave you.”
“No. I need you.” He said it like he really meant it. “You’re not leaving me. You stay here with me until I say so. Devon, remember our contract. You have to give me sons.”
“What about her? You only want me, not her.”
He scratched his head in impatience. "Dev, please. I'm really tired of it. I already have plans for the baby.”
“No!” She tightened her grip around her daughter. You will not give her to Maddy!”
“What? Where did you get the idea that I’ll give her to Maddy? I’ll put her up for adoption.”
His revelation made her more adamant to keep her daughter to her side. She already promised her the moment she heard her cry that she will not let anything separate them.
“I am her mother whether you like it or not and no, I won’t give her up,” she said firmly.
“This is my last warning to you, agree about this or else…”
“Or else what?”
His face became grim and serious.
“That or I’d do what you hate the most. I’d get the baby adopted by Maddy.”
