Thirty Nine
Ruby
“Wow, this is interesting,” Bryan said with no form of excitement in the tone of his voice. I eyed him sternly as he backed away from Mrs. Cook whose neck was now wearing a faint mark thanks to Bryan’s hold.
“Is everything okay here?” One of the doctors who had rushed over asked and Adonis stepped in without delay.
“There’s a minor misunderstanding, I’ll handle things from here, Doctor.”
After a small, assuring nod from Adonis, the team shared a common glance, then they left.
With great force, silence fell into our midst and each of us started to look at one another as if we were paid huge amounts of money to be suspicious of each other. That went on for about a minute before Adonis stepped in again.
“You almost killed her, Bryan.” Adonis squared his shoulders as he confronted Bryan who was wearing a big frown. “Why are you so problematic?”
“Why are you in a hospital with her?” Bryan spat and Mrs. Cook let out a tired sigh after which she walked into my ward and had a seat on my bed. “Did you do something to her?”
I hated how Bryan was looking at me as if he had the right to and that made me want to follow Mrs. Cook’s steps but I found the tension around the situation very interesting. So, I stayed.
“I am not you, Bryan. I don’t find it easy to pin a woman to a wall and strangle her out of anger.”
“Well…” Bryan shrugged. “… I am certain you have done something similar, so you don’t get to lecture me at all.”
From the corner of my eyes, I watched as Adonis’s jaw clenched with purpose and I hoped he wasn’t considering pinning Bryan to the wall.
I mean, it wouldn’t be bad if that happened, but some things are better saved for times when they are best needed.
“Go inside,” Adonis said firmly as he nodded toward the room.
“Why?”
“Trust me, Bryan Lockwood, you don’t want to ask me questions right now. So…” I did not miss the temper in Adonis's voice. The narrowed look on his face didn’t escape me either. “… do yourself a great favour and go into that room.”
“Fine.”
Bryan's reluctant footsteps filled the room and I could tell that got on Adonis’s nerves and that was confirmed when he slammed the door quite loud after we both entered the room.
“Mrs. Cook,” Adonis started once he found his stance by the end of the bed, his arms crossed in a way that made him look intimidating. “Can you tell me what is going on?”
Mrs. Cook closed her eyes and I perceived her regret. With silence riding the room, we waited for her response- well, apart from Bryan who looked disinterested in a sickening way.
“I think you heard most of it,” she started with a barely audible voice. “I am pregnant for Bryan and he doesn’t want me to get rid of the child.”
“It shows that you are ashamed of me, why would you be ashamed of me?” Bryan butted in, anger in his voice.
“I did not ask you to speak, Lockwood,” Adonis's voice carried so much authority. With a small gesture in Mrs. Cook’s direction, he urged her to continue.
“I know it might be cruel of me to want to do this to an unborn child, but it is the only way I can save my marriage. My husband will know this child isn’t his if I keep it and I don’t want that to happen.”
“How will your husband know? The child is yet to be born. He is yet to see that there’s no resemblance,” Adonis pointed out.
Mrs. Cook’s head danced sadly and her lips tucked into each other to hold back the tears welling up in her eyes.
“He- My husband hasn’t touched me since we got married and it will be so obvious that I have been with someone else and I can’t let that happen. What do I do, Mr. Klaus?”
“It seems that you have made up your mind, why are you asking me what to do?” Bryan made an annoying noise from where he was seated and I rolled my eyes. “It’s because of him, right?” Adonis asked Mrs. Cook. “You do know that he is a deadly person, right?”
My brows knitted at those last words.
What does Adonis know about Bryan and could it be information useful enough to nab the bastard?
I made sure to push my questions to a part of my brain that would remember to ask them later on.
The look on Mrs. Cook’s face suggested that she did not think of Bryan as deadly or problematic and that bothered me.
“I don’t want him to be hurt and at the same time, I don’t want to lose my husband,” she replied with remorse.
“What exactly do you want? What do you want more? Having a child or being with your husband?” Adonis asked her and conflict befell her. But, before she could reply, he said, “Think about it, Mrs. Cook, and come back to me with your response. Till then, try to steer clear of Bryan. If you want, I can get a restraining order against him.”
“No.” Her reply was sharp and I had to wonder about the feelings she had for Bryan. “He won’t bother me, I promise.”
“You can’t speak for him, Mrs. Cook. But don’t worry, I will keep my eyes on him and I’ll ensure he does nothing to hurt you. Okay?”
She nodded and closed her eyes for a second before getting off the bed. As she did, a piece of paper dropped from her body and Bryan was quick to pick it up.
“Plans for Mr. Klaus’s twenty-eighth birthday,” he read out and I was about to scoff at the fact that our teachers haven’t dropped their idea of throwing surprise birthday parties for each other when it hit me.
The paper says the twenty-eighth birthday! I snatched the paper from Bryan’s hand and it really does stipulate that Adonis is presently twenty-seven years old.
Oh my God! I am dating a man that is eight years older than me.
I know he flipped his ID card in front of me when we first met, but it never occurred to me that we had such distance between our ages.
“What are you thinking about?” Adonis snapped me out of my thoughts and a quick look around made me realise that Bryan and Mrs. Cook had left.
“You are twenty-seven years old?” I asked cautiously.
“Uh… yes. I thought you knew.”
I let out a gasp filled with disbelief. “I didn't know! I thought you were twenty-two at first."
He chuckled. “Why did you think so?” My eyes followed him as he walked to the bed and sat down. “Do I look twenty-two?”
“I don't know..."
“Well Ruby, I think your calculations went wrong somewhere.”
I shook my head. "I guess. But you do look like a twenty-two-year-old."
He cut through my distraught. “Why are you bothered about that? It doesn’t change anything.”
“Yes, it does!” I threw my hands into the air. “It changes a lot. You are eight years older than me!”
His relaxed state didn’t break and his hands extended to the back as he assumed a new position. “How is being five years older different from being eight years older? It is more or less the same thing, Ruby.”
“But…”
My thoughts kept multiplying as seconds passed and while I burdened myself with that, Adonis reached for my hands and pulled me towards him.
“But what?” he asked while his hands went around my waist in a way that caused me to look down at his ridiculously handsome face.
“It is risky.” His brows lifted. “Being with you is very risky,” I completed my sentence.
“What’s a little more risk when you are already taking one?” he asked with ease and I damned my inability to have the last word.
“It is just….” I sighed hard because it became harder to express how I was feeling.
“What?”
“I don’t know how to explain it, Adonis.”
“Okay. Let’s do this. How about I convince you that a little more risk isn’t a bad idea?”
“How will you do that?” Is it weird that he was already convincing me without doing anything? There was just this thing with his face… His lashes looked alluring, his lips called me without moving, his eyes bewitched me slowly and I think I have officially lost my mind.
“It is something simple.”
Before I could ask what, my back was hitting the bed and Adonis was hovering over me, his face looking more radiant in a way that made my running heart race.
Words failed me, so I just waited patiently for what he planned to do.
A gasp escaped me when he initiated his plan by running his fingers over a portion of my right lap. That graze felt good. Somewhat strange, but no doubt good.
Smiling grandly, Adonis withdrew his hand and adjusted his position till our eyes were firmly locked. Then, he concluded his statement from earlier, “All I have to do is make your dream a reality.”
And, I tell you, that answer alone convinced me and woke something up inside me... Something ferocious and needy.
