Innocent Games

PROLOUGE

 

He cooed at the baby girl beaming up at him from the crib, enjoying the musical gurgling sounds the child made out of happiness. He turned around to see Anastasia looking at him with an odd expression on his face.

“Whose child is this?” he asked, and Ana closed her eyes for a moment. It was a question she wanted to dodge.

“Mine.” She answered finally looking at him with a concentrated expression.

“That is very clear I think.” He said, smiling. And it was. The girl looked like a copy of her mother.

 With brown hair and the same facial features. The only differences were the eyes. They were an electric blue…. like me? He thought. But he dismissed the thought. That couldn’t be. His eyes roamed to Anastasia's left hand to look for a ring to find her fingers bare.

“I don’t mean to pry, but who is the father of such a beautiful child?” he asked, turning back to grin at the child whose eyes screwed up as she smiled at him. He felt a rush of affection for her and brushed his fingers down the baby’s face before tapping her chubby chin.

Turning around he raised his eyebrows at Ana, waiting for her to answer. But Ana was speechless, terrified of this moment. Finally she took a deep breath as if to brace herself and then turned to stare at him dead in the eyes.

“Yours.”