Alisha: A dark Romance Ch. 05

Ali paused, watching me, a human dam in the increasing flow of humanity crossing the bridge. I watched her, and she seemed to come to a decision. She turned again and made her way across the bridge and down the steps that led to the marina. There was a cafe at the bottom of the steps, and after glancing at me, she went inside.

I didn't need to consider my options for very long. I checked that the girls were still asleep, and then I made my way over to the cafe and opened the door. Steam and the heady aroma of coffee and warm pastries assaulted me, and I blinked, looking for Ali.

She sat at a table, a coffee cup and a pain au chocolate set down in front of her by the waitress. I sat down on the vacant chair and asked the waitress for a coffee.

While I waited she nibbled at her pastry, her eyes never leaving my face.

"Do you want to tell me what happened?" I asked her.

"Not yet, wait until the girl brings your coffee."

"You've cut your hair," I said with a sad twinge to my voice. I'd always loved her long hair. "It doesn't suit you that short."

She said nothing, just kept looking at me. A coffee cup appeared in front of me and the bill was placed under my saucer.

I kept my voice low, yet I spoke as forcefully as I could. "No more prevarication, just what the hell has been going on for the past few months? If this is some form of sick revenge because I walked out on you all those years ago, then so be it, but do you know how much you hurt your daughter? She on the boat by the way."

"I'm pregnant," she said. "And there a possibility it's not yours."

Well shit, that wasn't what I'd even considered the problem could be. "Why do you think it might not be mine?" I asked.

"I'm three months gone, and I slept with Jamie when I was in New York in September."

"Why would you do that? I thought we were a couple again." My face must have shown her my disappointment.

"I don't know why I did it, I didn't mean to," she said softly. She continued, obviously eager to explain. "After I took Julia back to school, I needed to go to New York on business for a few days. While I was there, an old friend invited me to a dinner party she was holding. Unfortunately, she didn't know about you, and Jamie was over there looking for a photo shoot. She thought she'd do me a favor and invited him to make up the numbers."

"So, you fucked him," I said bitterly.

"I don't know, I ended up having too much to drink, and he took me back to my hotel after the dinner party. He was in my bed when I woke up the next morning. I hadn't told him about you, either, so he thought he was still a friend with benefits. I'd always insisted he uses condoms in the past, but I've no idea if he did that time. Christ, I don't even know if we did do it, I was so out of it."

"Jesus, you must know if you did or you didn't."

"Don't you think I wish I did know? Christ, I was so happy when I found out I was pregnant. I was set to call you; then the obstetrician told me I was a month further on than I thought. That's when I remembered the night in New York, and my world crashed around me. I thought about not telling you or having an abortion, but I couldn't lie, and there's no way I'd abort your baby. I couldn't that to you."

We looked at each other. "So, what do you want to do now?" I asked her.

"I want you to hug me, tell me you love me, and then let me go. I need you to tell Julia I love her. I must go away and have this baby. I'll be back in six months. If the baby is yours, there will be two of us."

"And if it isn't!"

"Then you'll never see it; I'll give it up for adoption. Even if you could bring up another man's child, I don't think I could. I just couldn't bring myself to love it."

"What are the chances the baby is mine?"

"If the dates the obstetrician had worked out are correct, then better than evens. The dinner party was right at the end of the fertile point of my cycle. We slept together every night until the trip back to the UK. I was only there one night before flying to the states, and the dinner party was two days later. My doctor thinks I was already pregnant when I arrived in the states, but..." Her voice trailed off.

"I think I like those odds."

Ali looked scared, "Even if you do, I can't risk the chance, it's not yours. Please, Ben, I need to do this. It took all my courage to come here today, but I had to tell you the truth."

"I thought there are ways to do paternity tests in utero,"

"There are, but in my case, it's very risky because of the issues I had when I was pregnant with Julia. I've checked with a number of doctors, and there's an enormous chance I will lose the baby. I had problems when I was pregnant with Julia. As there's a good chance that this baby is yours, I won't take the risk."

"There's no way we can find out?"

She gave me a regretful shake of the head. "I'm sorry there isn't.

"If you insist on doing this then you need to talk to your daughter. I'm not going to do your dirty work for you. She's the innocent party in all of this, and she's convinced it's something she did that made you run away."

Ali put her hands on her face and silently sobbed. The morning rush had tapered off, and the cafe had emptied. I ordered more coffee for both of us, and Ali wiped her face. She held out her hand, and I took it.

"I'm sorry I've fucked it all up, Ben. Just when I thought my life was going great, I screwed up again. I'll call her, I promise. I'll make something up, and I won't let her think it's anything to do with her."

"You better."

She drank her fresh coffee and stood up. She hugged me and gave me a long kiss before stepping back. "I want you to stay here until I've gone."

She gave me a piece of paper on which was written a phone number. "My new phone number, it's only for you and Julia."

"Where are you staying?"

"At a clinic, I'll be well looked after, but I'm not going to tell you where it is."

She gave me another hug and then walked out of the cafe without a backward glance. I moved to the window and watched as she walked across the bridge and disappeared from my view.

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Six months later.

Julia's summer break had started a week earlier, and she'd joined me on the boat. Pete had offered to look after my vineyards, and I'd been cruising on Never since the early spring. I'd cruised down to the Mediterranean, and now I was island hopping in the Aegean. It had taken me six weeks to make my way around Italy.

The hot June sunlight bore down on the two figures lying on the deck of the boat. A gentle sea breeze was the only relief from the heat.

I didn't open my eyes as Julia asked, "When was the last time you heard from her?"

I didn't need to ask who "her" was. "A week ago, no, it was Saturday, so six days."

"Oh. Is she ever coming back?"

"Of course she is, you just need to give her some time."

Actually, that wasn't true, but I couldn't tell Julia that. I had a text from her three days ago.

'It's time' was all it said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ali had been as good as her word; she'd call Julia the day after she saw me. She'd made up a story about opening an office in Australia, and she needed to be there for the next six months. There had been no mention of her pregnancy, and I'd kept the secret.

Ali and I had talked on the phone while she was staying at the clinic. She kept professing her love for me, but I was having some trouble reconciling her statements with the results of her recent actions. She was pregnant, and the child might not be mine, a set of unfortunate incidents that had conspired against her. This wasn't the first time that she'd fallen foul of a set of unfortunate incidents, and I was worried it would happen again. My biggest issue was that I was still in love with the woman and I didn't think I could survive another of her falls from grace.

My discomfort must have been evident to her. She promised it could never happen again. Her modeling career was over, and the past few months had convinced her that she could step back from the day to day organization of Ali Mac.

"All my problems occurred when I was under immense pressure from work," she had told me. "I want you to talk to Dr. Sigvart, my Analyst, I've given her permission to discuss my case with you. Please talk to her."

I said I would if the woman got in touch. Her analyst called a couple of days later. She wanted to meet me but as I pointed out I was somewhere along the south coast of Italy.

"Can you fly to Switzerland?"

"No, what part of I'm on a boat somewhere off the south coast of Italy don't you understand."

She complained and fussed, but finally agreed that a Skype call would suffice. She spoke, and I listened for the better part of two hours. Did she put my mind to rest? I guess so. The biggest revelation was that Dr. Sigvart was convinced that Ali showed the traits of a sexual submissive.

"She's a very strong business woman," I was told. "Usually, that enough to let her feel in control, but very occasionally a situation occurs where she feels isolated and that's when her submissive side comes to the fore. There are very few incidences, and I guess you know the ones. Those are where I think she allowed her submissive side to get her into trouble."

"This isn't exactly easing my concern. What's to stop it happening again?"

"It only works if she wants it to work, and that's when the pressure of her job reaches such a point that for a brief moment, she wants someone else to take charge of her. Alisha knows what the triggers are now, so it won't happen again."

"How does she know that?"

"Two reasons; in the first case, she's selling her company. Whatever the outcome of her present situation, she wants to become the wife and mother you deserve; to replace the pressures of business with the stability of marriage. Her words, not mine. And if she does feel pressure then we've discussed this, and we came up with a plan. If Alisha was to feel like that again, she knows that she has a simple solution. She'll come to you, and she knows you will tell her what to do. She only got into trouble when she didn't look to you for help."

"So, you are saying it's partly my fault."

"No, that's not what I'm saying. Your wife said you'd think that. I'm to tell you that it was never your fault. She should have trusted you to look after her when she needed help, rather than believe people who understood her submissive nature and had their own agendas."

The call left me upset with myself, I had known Ali had a needy side to her love, but I hadn't picked up on her submissive nature. Yet as I considered our relationship, I knew I should have picked up on it. Ali's love for me had been a fixture of my life.

Ali's next call to me was tinged with a lot of recrimination from both of us. We both tried to take the blame for the issues that had beset our relationship. I asked and then pleaded for her to come home.

"I can't," she said. "I love you so much, but I need to find out who the father is before I can come home. The clinic offers the best medical care money can buy. If this is your baby, then I want to give it the best chance in the world to be born."

"Well, come home as soon as you can, love."

~~~~~~~~~~

Never, was currently moored in the center of a small harbor on a tiny Greek island. The only other boats were a couple of fishing boats and a 32ft yacht.

Julia stood up and stretched; then she dived over the side of the boat into the crystal-clear seawater. Moments later she was climbing up the ladder and back onto the deck.

"Dad, there's a boat coming in."

A large motor cruiser was nosing its way around the point and entering the harbor. We watched as it eased up to the harbor wall and tied up.

In the wheelhouse, my phone buzzed, and I received a text message.

'Come and meet your new son, you need to give him a name.'

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The end