Marriage by Blackmail - Book 1

Chapter Nineteen

Four months later

Lia

I sat there crying and clutching a crumpled tissue in my shaking hand.

Why does he have to be so hot and cold? Doesn't he care about my feelings? I thought despondently.

I positively hated him but at the same time I couldn't help but love him in those rare moments of sensitivity. I just couldn't keep up with this emotional roller coaster anymore, I had to stop this. I couldn't let him play with my emotions like this.

"Can I have one of those?" Naia asked sniffling, I nodded and handed her the box of tissues, that bastard even got Naia!

Damn you Simon Cowell! I cursed inwardly.

We were in the living room watching reruns of Britain's Got Talent auditions, surrounded by food and bawling our eyes out when those particularly touching auditions got to us. This pregnancy had totally wrecked us, I was super emotional and no way would Naia let me cry alone, so she was right there with me in the waterworks department. I generally had a soft spot for sad stories on talent shows, even more so if the contestant or one of the judges started crying I just knew then I was goner. We had betrayed the thug code.

"Gosh I can't take this, its too much!" Naia wailed, "let's watch something with guts and gore and sex! Please!" She begged.

"Okay! All this crying is giving me a headache and making the baby restless anyway," I quickly agreed, happy for an excuse to change the channel and rubbing my distended stomach in a circular motion to calm the little one.

I picked up the remote and started flipping through the channels to find a scary movie when my eyes caught a particular title. I heard Naia's sharp intake of breath when she realized where I stopped. I looked over at her and was met with wide eyes that mirrored my own.

"Lia, no don't do it, you know what's going to happen if you do." She said in a terrified whisper as if she was afraid that my finger would slip and select the movie if she spoke too loudly.

"I'm sorry Naia but I have to!" I said in despair, as I clicked the channel that the original Tarzan movie was playing on.

We're going to need a lot more tissues, I thought as I allowed myself to get sucked into the movie.

We were sitting on the floor clutching each other and crying when Damian got home, so caught up in our emotions we didn't even hear him come in. I was alerted to his presence when I felt myself being pulled roughly away from Naia and into his arms.

"Baby, what's wrong? Are you in pain? Should I take you to the hospital? Is the baby alright?" He asked frantically searching my body for injuries or anything that would tell him why I was in hysterics. I was sniffling so badly that I got the hiccups and couldn't answer him which only made him panic more. It didn't help that Naia was sprawled on the floor crying where she'd thrown herself at the start and insisted that I join her when Tarzan's parents were murdered. He started to pick me up and I managed to gain control of myself enough to stop him.

"I-I'm okay," I sniffled, "its just that this movie gets me every time!"

He looked at me as if I had lost my mind but then looked at the TV to see what I was talking about before he relaxed and gave me wry smile once he acknowledged that nothing was seriously wrong with me, well physically at least.

"Have you two been doing this all day?" He asked.

I looked at him with wide eyes trying to project the utmost innocence. He saw right through it and cocked an eyebrow at me, I sighed I exasperation.