“Great, now we will really arrive at work late.” I groaned while staring at myself in the full body mirror that was standing in the bedroom plastered against the wall as I fumbled clumsily with my hair, trying to tie it in a high ponytail. With arms folded in front of his chest, Mark was with his back perched against the wall next to me- wearing a smile that was adorned with tenderness ever since last night.

As I finished tying up my hair, I took a minute to scrutinize my reflection, only to have my face frown disapprovingly at the sight of my crooked ponytail. Exasperating, I yanked out my hair tie to have my before confined hair fall loose like a waterfall down my back.

At my frustrated form, Mark pushed himself away from the wall and sauntered with his long legs to stand behind me. As I was about to retry my attempt at tying my hair, Mark gently took the hair tie out of my hand. “Let me do it for you.” He offered with a smile and I dropped my hands to my side as I watched in the mirror how Mark was seamlessly fixing my crooked hair.

His hair neatly brushed to the back, already dressed in a suit, while I was still only in my black nylon panty with a cream blouse over it. “You know that I am the boss, right? Who cares if we arrive there late?” Mark commented as he gathered all my hair strands in one hand.

“I care.” I said, closing my eyes as I inclined my head back slowly to lean in to his touch. The gentle sensation of his fingers raking through my hair was something that I liked, but never will say, as it will only increase his ego. “I have missed too many working days, so I am sure that a decent amount of work has been piled up for me. And God all these meetings that I have to attend and… and… and…” At the thought of work, I talked excited incessantly, but the more I talked about it the more the heaviness in my heart grew and I felt my speech drawl to a halt. If somebody in the past would have told me I would ever miss going to work, I would have told them they were turning crazy. The number one cause for my sleepless nights before was work, but I don’t know from which point on but that has been exchanged with worrisome thoughts of whether I would wake up next day blindfolded in some room or with a gutted stomach.

Lassoing my hair for the last time before giving it a tug to secure it, Mark took a hold of my head to tilt it backwards and placed a soft kiss on my forehead. “What’s wrong?” He inquired as he noticed my sudden silence.

With a sigh, I turned around so that I could face him. “You know I may have been furious at you for deceiving me and using your power to get me hired by your company- wait no I am still mad,” I scowled at him as I felt my anger rise again. “But,” I continued with an exhale. “The company had taught me a lot of things over the years. I met new colleagues, got even promoted a few times. I may complain about the unfair work policy and at how they slave us, nevertheless I am thankful that the company hired me, a person with no diploma to their name. So, what I want to say is… thank you Mark.” I offered him a genuine smile to see him stiffen in place before he pulled me into a blistering kiss, wounding his arms around my waist before bringing his hand up to rest on my nape to further deepen the kiss.

With my brows furrowed, I moaned against his lips as I was getting breathless from the kiss. Placing my hands against his chest, I gave it a slight push as I felt myself getting light-headed. He finally disconnected our kiss after giving my bottom lip a nib. Our heavy breaths mingled into one as our lips were only slightly apart from each other.

“We should shift our wedding day to an earlier date.” Mark voiced as he stared in to my hooded gaze.

“What?” I said absentmindedly, thinking that I must have misheard him, as I was still in a daze.

Unwrapping his arms around me, Mark pulled out his phone from his pocket. Unlocking it, he opened his agenda. “How does next week sound?” He mused as he scrolled through it.

Feeling the clouds that were obscuring my mind disperse, I shook my head awake. “What!?” I reiterate ludicrously. “That’s too early!” I’ve already yielded myself to the fact that I’ll end up marrying Mark, but that soon is just ridiculous!

Hearing me say that, Mark shifted his gaze from the phone to me, his brows squishing together as his eyes blinked rapidly at me- confusion settling on his handsome face. “Too soon? That’s too soon? If it was up to me, we would be married by tomorrow. I said next week, thinking that you may need some time.”

Feeling flustered, I stammered, “Well, that’s still too soon. What’s the rush?”

“You’re not completely mine if I don’t claim your soul in front of God.”

I scoffed inwardly. Don’t use God as a pretense to put a ring on me to show your owner ship. I went to the closet where half of it was stuffed with my wardrobe and pulled out a black pencil skirt. I got surprised at first when I saw my wardrobe in his closet, but I quickly figured that Snake must have transferred all of my stuff to Mark’s place before she left. “Well, you can claim me in front of God after few months. It’s not like I’m pregnant. And I’m not even sure whether a person who kills people for fun should even mention God.” Murmuring the last part, I swiftly hoisted the skirt over my legs until it sat snuggly above my waist so that I could fasten it with the zip.

“Even more reason to marry quickly.” The small hairs on my neck stood erected as I felt his breath touching the shell of my ear as he skillfully slithered his arms around my waist to pull me back into his chest. Caressing my belly with his hand, he ushered in a low voice, “It’s highly likely that you're pregnant right now.”

Rolling my eyes, I freed myself from his embrace. “Well, that’s highly unlikely.” I retorted.

Now it was his turn to roll his eyes. “Kitten, I didn’t wear any protection and I sure as hell didn’t prevent myself from filling the deepest part of you with my seeds.”

I sighed. “It still would be unlikely. I’m even pretty sure of it.”

At that, Mark furrowed his brows. “Do I perhaps have to evoke your memories of your old biology lessons? The flowers and the bees? I mean sure it may have been a safe day, but with how I have been continuously releasing myself inside of you, I’m sure-”  

Warmth pooled inside the outer shell of my ears as embarrassment filled my body at Mark’s brazen words about his insatiable stamina. Not being able to handle it anymore, I cut him off- shutting my eyes closed as I yelled, “I’m on the pill!”

As if Medusa’s curse was placed on his body, Mark slowly turned into stone. I practically could hear how to wheels in his head came to a halt as he gazed at me with shock in his eyes.

His mouth that hung open closed as the words that he wanted to say got smacked out of his vocabulary and shook his head vigorously. “What?” He inquired in disbelieve, hoping what he just had heard was a lie.

“I’m on the pill.” I reiterated under an exasperated breath.

“But that makes little sense. I have never seen you swallow any type of pill.”

“That’s because I drink the pill in the bathroom, the only place that wasn’t bugged with your camera’s.” I answered. “Although I must say that I haven’t been able to drink my pills regularly because I was being kidnapped all over the place.” I added as I glared at Mark accusingly.

His eyes became unfocused and, as if a wave of dizziness crashed into him, he stumbled a few steps back. “But that still doesn’t make any sense.” He muttered to himself, as he could not progress the new information in his mind. I was puzzled by his behavior, as I didn’t understand what the big deal was. I mean, shouldn’t he be glad about this?

His brows then crushed to each other thunderously, and I watched how his face got contoured with rage. The veins on his face got prominent as they were pumping angrily, and it brought a shiver down my spine as I felt how the surrounding air became stale.

“Ouch!” Mark grabbed my wrist aggressively and pulled me towards him. When my eyes locked with his eyes and saw the thunder brewing behind them, I unwittingly swallowed back a lump, feeling every fiber in my muscle clamp up in fear.

“It doesn’t make sense how you are on the pill when you weren’t even in a relationship. Or were you somehow able to have a relationship behind my back?” The voice that would normally serenade its love for me now hardened as he spoke and I averted my eyes away.

“It’s not like that.” I whispered. Feeling the hand around my wrist tighten, I winced.

“Then tell me what the reason is, because right now it seems like you were expecting to have sex with someone-”

Before he could finish his sentence, my eyes swiftly shifted back to glare at him. Seeing the unshed tears brimming in them, something clicked in his mind. “Your stepdad.” He stated and when I didn’t answer, he let out a sigh. “Talk to me, kitten.” The anger that first plagued his tone was now replaced with worry, beckoning me to speak.

“Yeah, it was because of my stepdad. When his nightly visits became more frequent and his ‘requests’ increased, I felt scared. I couldn’t help but think: what if? So, I got myself some birth control pills.” As I answered him, I couldn’t look him in the eye. The fear of my stepdad violating me one day kept me up at night. But what was scarier than being violated was carrying a child that belonged to that monster. So, I did what I had to do and went to the doctor to have him prescribe the pills for me.

“I see that cutting off his dick was too much of a lenient punishment.” The foreboding words brought my attention back to Mark and for a split second, he wore a murderous expression before it changed to a mellow one when he noticed my gaze.

Did I hear it wrong? I thought, feeling weariful of his smile.

“I’m sorry for getting angry, but now that your stepdad is no longer in the picture, you can stop drinking those pills.” He said as he caressed my cheek. I felt relieved that Mark’s anger dissipated, but my mind was only more warred with confusion upon hearing those words.

With a frazzled expression, I asked, “Why should I stop taking the pills now that he’s gone? Shouldn’t I take them now that I’m in a relationship with you?”

“Obviously because it would be in the way of when we want to have a child. You want a child, right?”

My mouth hampered like a fish as I wasn’t able to give him an answer and instead bit the inside of my mouth as I shifted my gaze away from Mark. Seeing the look in my eyes, he responded with eyes wide yet brows furrowed, “You don’t.”

He retracted his hand and let it fall limply to his side as his shoulder drooped dejectedly. “Why?”

The temperature in the room had decreased significantly, and I wounded my hands around my body to create some friction of heat. “It’s not because I don’t want to have a child.” I answered softly.

Mark scoffed, “It’s just that you don’t want to have a child with me. Why?”

“Mark I-” I tried to come up with a good reason so that we could just peacefully digress from this subject, but Mark had none of it.

“Stop tiptoeing around my question and start fucking answering it already-”

“Would you ever hurt our child?” I shot him a piercing gaze to gauge for his reaction. Mark, who didn’t see this question coming, froze where he stood. As he had said earlier, I could stop drinking the pill now that I am with Mark anyway, but there was this worry in the back of my mind that left me disquiet- withholding me from wanting to have a child with him. Would he use our child as a blackmail material against me? Would he ever threaten the hurt of our child if I ever try to leave him?

Throughout this entire journey with Mark, I came to an understanding; he’s obsessed with me. He will do everything to make me his- no matter the cost. So, isn’t it a plausible thought that he could use our child as an anchor that would forever keep me with him?  

My question completely rattled Mark, “No, of course not-”

“Let me rephrase my question. Would you ever use our child against me in an attempt to keep me with you?” And to that, he couldn’t give me a response. The pair of blue globes that never wavered diverted themselves from my piercing gaze.

Despondently, I sighed inwardly as I lowered my head. I knew it; I thought as I pressed my lips into a grimace. “And there is your answer to why I don’t want to have a child with you.” I laughed dryly, trying to keep my heart from breaking and my tears from leaking. “I’ll wait for you outside.” I muttered before spinning around to retreat out of the room, as I couldn’t stand to be in the same room as him any second longer.