Chapter 66 Twins?
Natalie’s POV
“What are you doing here?” Rafael growled.
“Hey, son. Is that how you welcome your mother after so long?” Nicol retorted with a smile and a hint of pain in her expression.
Rafael gently guided me to a chair beside him after I froze upon seeing his mother. After sitting down, he said, “It’s not like you were trying to reach out all these months, Mom.”
Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment, but she smiled confidently. “Oh, Raf, you know how busy I am,” she said, lifting a strand of her stunning hair with her carefully polished hand.
“Yes, I know,” he replied simply, sipping his coffee nonchalantly.
Silence filled the room. Even Grandma and Tobi were quiet.
I felt sorry for her; after all, she was a guest here. Even though I knew she didn’t like me or my mother in the past, I still smiled at her and said, “It’s nice to see you here, Nicol.”
She hadn’t been here since Dad Matt’s funeral.
She glanced at me, raised an eyebrow, and said, “Oh, sorry, I didn’t notice you before, dear. Are you still living here with the Merrins? I thought you might have left after Matt passed away!”
Her reply shocked me, and before I could say anything, Rafael slammed his cup of coffee on the table and exclaimed, “Left to where? This is her house.”
“Maybe searching for her biological father!” she said.
“Dad Matt is my father, and I don’t want to know any other father,” I replied with a smile, not willing to show her my true expression.
She rolled her eyes, smiled with closed lips, and said, “I see.” With a hint of amusement in her eyes, she added, “I heard about that night in the nightclub, you…”
“Mom!” Rafael growled, cutting her off.
She turned to him and said, “Raf, honey, can I have a word with you in private?”
He didn’t reply for a long moment, making me feel as if he hadn’t heard her. Finally, in a hoarse voice, he said, “I don’t have much time. You have ten minutes to tell me what you want.”
After they left the table for Rafael’s study, I stared at the pancake, feeling like I had lost my appetite. I put down my fork and knife, and as I was about to stand up, Grandma said, “Why didn’t you eat your breakfast, dear?”
Tobi sniffed, “That evil woman must have made her lose her appetite!”
I smiled at them and said, “I’m already late for work. See you this evening.”
I shook my head after I sat in the car, unwilling to think about what Nicol had said. However, the thoughts of how I would face the employees at the company after the nightclub incident kept playing in my head.
Once I entered the vast building of Merrin Group, I felt all eyes on me. I even heard some whispers, but I raised my chin high, not bothering to give them my attention.
“Hey, happy to see you,” Rosalinda, my personal assistant, cheered as soon as I entered my office.
I smiled at her, nodded, and said, “I hope everything has been going well these past few days.” Flipping through the huge number of files before me, I noticed her silence.
I snapped my head up and asked, “Rose? What’s wrong?”
An awkward expression crossed her face as she replied, “Most of our agencies have sent warning notifications. They’re saying that as the person responsible for the company’s social relations, your involvement in the nightclub incident has made them doubt your professionalism. They’re thinking of cutting ongoing work with us, claiming it could affect their reputation as advertising agencies.”
I let out a deep sigh of frustration and said, “Set up an internal meeting for our team.”
She nodded and turned to leave, but before she exited the door, I asked, “Is this matter spreading among the employees?”
If it is, that would explain a lot.
She turned back, an awkward expression on her face, she replied, “Yes, boss.”
I waved my hand, signaling her to go.
That man from that night disappeared, vanishing like salt in water. Who was behind him? Could it be Debbie? Is she trying to set me up? But why? Does she know about my relationship with Rafael?
When I went through the files before me, I noticed that Raf had closed the propaganda campaign plan that was supposed to focus on his personal life.
That propaganda campaign was where everything started to become complicated between us.
The meeting wasn’t good; all the statistics indicated that most of the projects had failed recently due to that incident. It was the first time something like this had happened to me. My team’s projects had been crowned with success over the two and a half years I had been head of this department.
“Rosalinda, I have to step out for thirty minutes. Please answer all the calls,” I said, then rushed out of the office without another word. I felt suffocated and needed some fresh air. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the pregnancy or the work problems.
I took a cab, not willing to drive, and headed straight to the hospital.
On the examination bed, I lay on my back, following the doctor with my eyes as she examined my abdomen with the tool connected to the screen after applying the cold gel to my skin.
With eager eyes, I scanned the screen as the doctor moved the tool over my stomach, but I couldn’t make sense of anything. The doctor smiled at me and instructed, “Miss Natalie, please stay lying on your back.”
“Your pregnancy is still in its early stages. Everything seems normal, but you have to take extra care of yourself. Two pregnancy sacs mean double the care,” she explained.
My eyes widened, and I exclaimed, “Two?”
She smiled, “Yes, new mommy, there are two.”Belongs to NôvelDrama.Org - All rights reserved.
“Twins?” I asked in astonishment.
“Yes, but in separate sacs.”
“Non-identical twins?” I asked again.
Awe, happiness, and fear all filled my heart.
All the bad news and events that had happened to me recently vanished from my mind. All that was important now were the two lives growing inside me.
I wished I could run to Rafael and tell him. I wished we were a normal couple. I wished he could be happy about the twins.
But he made it clear last night. He didn’t want even one child, let alone if I told him I have two.
“I’m going to write you some instructions and supplements. You have to eat healthily and avoid anything that requires physical exertion or pushing,” she said, writing on the prescription. Then she lifted her head, staring at the bruises covering various visible parts of my body, and added, “No rough sex, okay!”