The Tyrant's Wife

Chapter 365: The elephant in the room (2)

"But..." she shook her head. "What if we miss the window?"

"How could we possibly miss it? There isn’t a single day when you’re not full of me." He reminded her. Prying the box from her hands, he finally dropped it in the trash can.

"Maybe if we get some tests..." she started, only for him to interrupt her with a stern no. "What if there’s something wrong with me and we never find out? I may never make you a dad."

He pulled her out of the bathroom and sat her on the bed in the room. "I’m not going to lie and say I don’t want to be a father—I would be over the moon if that happened—but not at your expense, my love. It’s not the most important thing to me, you are."

"But..."

He kissed her. "I don’t want you to go on with those tests. I mean it."

"You can’t just order me around." She snapped.

"Yes I can and I just did. If I see any of those tests in here, I will throw all of them. I don’t care if I have to shut down every pharmacy that sells them to you." He threatened.

Her jaw dropped open. "You’re not the boss of me, Devonte Lemaigre. I’ll do whatever the fuck I want with my body!"

She burst out of the room.

______

The following day, they paid a visit to the newest parents around and brought tons of gifts. Actually, they each decided to visit on their own and bumped into each other there.

Natalie had slept in the spare room the night before and Devonte knew better than to carry her off that bed and bring her back to the master bedroom—as tempting as the thought of that was.

There were arguments that could end in them kissing and making up but this was not one of them. He had basically told her what not to do with her body, twice in the same argument.

However, this was not something he could compromise about. Natalie was driving herself crazy and him along with her. Each month she had her period, her heartbreak was much worse than the last.

It was not a surprise when she ignored him, but Zaria raised a brow.

"Everything okay wuth you two?" She asked as she gave him a bottle to feed Holden, knowing he wasn’t ready to give the boy back just yet.

"Yes, just a little squabble." He lied.

She glanced at Natalie who was deep in discussion with Rosaly, then at him. "I’d hate to see a big squabble. You two look like you want to kill each other."

That was not quite accurate, he thought. What he wanted was to grab Natalie and pin her down in bed, and fuck her so hard she would forget all about this pregnancy crap. But Zaria didn’t need to know that.

He smiled. "I don’t think it’s something I should be talking about with you. Natalie is your friend too, after all. I don’t want you to have to choose sides."

She nodded. "Well, if you change your mind, you know where to find me."

He nodded his thanks and made a funny face at Holden to make him giggle before he began to feed him.

At the same time, Natalie was watching Devonte and her heart broke all over again.

He loved kids so much. When she came in, he had Holden in his arms and Rosaly telling him all about this new girl in her class. The kids loved him too. How could he say she was more important than him being a dad? Clearly, he wanted it so badly.

Her phone rang and pulled her out of her thoughts.

She frowned when she saw it was her mother calling. "Hello,"

"Hi, Nat. It’s your father’s birthday, today."

She grunted in response. She knew that. But she was no longer the adoring daughter who would get her parents meaningful gifts on their birthdays, Christmas, mothers’ day and fathers’ day. That little girl died when she discovered how much more her parents cared about their reputation than about her.

Perhaps because she realized she would not get the reaction she hoped for, Ava cleared her throat.

"Well, could you come home for dinner tomorrow?" Asked Ava.

Natalie glanced at her boyfriend as she thought about it. "I don’t know, will you try to matchmake me with one of your friends’ son?"

"Nat," her mother sighed.

To be fair, that had only happened once. They had shared some meals with her parents and none of them ended on such unpleasant notes, but that didn’t mean they had buried the hatchet yet.

"When I said ’you’ I mean both of you." She elaborated.

"I’ll ask him." She said and hung up without promising anything.

______

When they got back to their house, the first thing she did was grab the plush elephant Rosaly had given her to help her fall asleep and placed it on the living room table. This way, it was pretty hard to miss.

"The elephant in the room?" He asked when he saw the purple elephant.

She nodded, so he took a seat opposite her. It was as unpleasant for him to not sit beside her as it was for her.

She broke the silence. "My parents want us to go home for dinner tomorrow."

"I’ll go if you want me to." He instantly replied, and she nodded again.

"Devonte," she started, only for him to cut her off.

"Do you have any idea how much I love you?" He asked and didn’t wait for her to respond. "It kills me to see you so sad, baby. It kills me to not hold you right now and kiss you, all because we haven’t been able to have a baby as soon as we started trying."

"What if you don’t want me anymore?" She choked and averted her gaze, not believing how pathetic she sounded. "I know this sounds silly, but I’m already knocking on the door of thirty. And for a woman, that means fewer chances of getting pregnant naturally. What if it takes too long and you don’t want me anymore?"

He looked at her for so long that she thought he was going to laugh at her insanity, but he didn’t. He walked over to her and picked up her hand, pressing it against his bulge. "Does this look like I’ll ever stop wanting you?"

Her eyes bugged out. "Devonte! We’re in the middle of an argument here."

He grinned. "Are we? He didn’t get the memo, it seems."