Thalia’s Pov
My baby was in my arms and my breast in her small mouth as I sat in my hospital bed. I always wanted to be a mother, and it was because of that goal that I lost everything. However, I had closed that chapter and was holding the new one in my arms. Maggie sat in the chair across from me, advising and instructing me on all aspects of parenthood. I’m not sure how I would have survived without her.
They let me breastfeed my baby a week ago, but she had been away from me for too long and had no concept of how to suck on my breast. When I tried to feed her, she would move away.
I was about to cry because I felt she had rejected me. After all, she only wanted to be fed from a bottle, but Maggie was there to teach me, and the baby eventually learned with patience.
She would smile every time I slid my breasts in her little mouth. Sometimes I would even do it when she was full, receiving a scolding from Maggie. That was the joy of a mother and I did not care whether my boobs were going to shrink or not but I nearly lost her and bottle feeding was out of the question.
I could not understand how some mothers never enjoyed the art of breastfeeding, I was enjoying it but sometimes I pumped into the bottle for Bradon who liked feeding her. It was something that he did every time after his session, together with uncle Nestor. He was getting used to being called Uncle Nestor.
As for Josh, I had not seen him or his lawyer. He got discharged the other week and he visited the baby when we were all asleep. We were lucky we had guards everywhere and he had to plead with Nestor to allow him.
It became his trend for the past week, he was avoiding Brandon and Me. He never wanted to see our faces. I heard he named my baby Amber. It was not a bad name but he had no right to name her plus Brandon insisted he had slept with a lot of Ambers so we rejected the name.
Josh even had the audacity to ask for my daughter’s birth certificate so as to put the s*upid name. However, thanks to Brandon, he shut him up and dared him to sue us. I waited for the lawsuit but just like the last threat we never received a court date.
Every time I asked Brandon what threats he used he would ask me to concentrate on the baby while I left Josh to him. He swore he was not doing anything illegal so I dropped it.
What was more irritating was the fact that Josh always knew when I was asleep, sometimes I thought Nestor was helping or Maggie but I never brought it up because Brandon would not spare them and he had become so close with Nestor that sometimes they were inseparable.
Out of nowhere, the two became obsessed with video games and they would play every time Brandon was having a session. Sometimes I was jealous, I was used to Brandon making me the center of his attention so I learned to play and I would join in when I was not busy with office work.
I was officially discharged but chose to stay and wait for my baby so the hospital became my home somehow and work was piling up at work so I had to work from the hospital.
But the special moments were when the baby was brought to me, I cherished every moment and finally, I got an idea for her name. I was very sure Brandon had not slept with a girl with that name. If he was so cautious about naming our girl with any name I was very sure when he was manwhore he was so particular with that name too.
With the baby in my arms, I sneaked to the top floor as soon as Maggie took her leave. The nurses always hated it when I did that but the little angel was no longer in ICU, and Brandon’s room was very sterile, Nestor made sure of it.
I walked in and found them in a heated football game, Brandon was losing and he was very worked up. I greeted them but they did not even spare me a glance. I waved again and when they completely ignored me I walked straight in front of the screen.
“Thalia what are you doing?” they both yelled at me.
“I need your attention,” I replied.
“Thalia, later, can’t you see that we are busy? Move now!” Brandon yelled at me.
“I have finally come up with a name but if you are busy then it’s okay I will just name her alone,” I replied and began moving away.
“Yes finally, calling her baby was getting on my nerves,” Nestor replied, putting the pad away. At least I got his attention. However, Brandon still had the pad in his hands as he stared at me.
“What’s the name?” Nestor asked?
I cleared my throat and began explaining, “We all know the reason why the baby has no name? It is because someone in here used to sleep around so bad that they literally slept with every girl in this town,” I stated.
“Except for you, Jessica, and Maggie,” Brandon replied.
“That’s disgusting,” Nestor shot some daggas in Brandon’s direction for putting his mother on the list.
“So we are only left with one name and I’m sure he has never slept with this name,” I said in excitement. I was expecting them to begin giving me names but they were blank.
“Brandon, have you ever slept with a girl named Kendra?” I asked.
He stared at me still confused, Nestor smiled, he caught up faster while Brandon took longer to register. When it finally pooped he dropped the pad and emotions filled his face.
“I do not know how we never thought about it and from what I have heard I think your mother was a good woman. So I want our daughter to be named after your mother Brandon.”
A tear dropped on his face, “No, I do not believe I have slept with Kendra before, that was always a turn-off,” he finally replied wiping his tears.
I moved to the bed and took a seat, “Then it’s final, Brandon Fraser, meet Kendra Fraser,” I said, handing the baby to him. He was literally shaking, I could only guess that the name brought so much emotion and memories for him. Nestor always said he was a Mummy’s boy. “Thalia… are you sure?” He stammered.
“Very sure, I want her to be named after your mother. You made me rethink my decision about life and it’s all thanks to the woman that raised you,” I replied and moved on top of the bed holding him. He wiped his tears, “There seems to be something in my eye,” he lied. I looked up in Nestor’s direction, we both knew how he hated pouring out his emotions publically.
“Thalia I never did anything that I did not benefit from,” he replied.
“Whether you unintentionally helped me or not, that does not hide the big heart you have inside in there,” I pointed at his chest.
“No wait Thalia, I’m a very evil man.”
Before he could finish, I placed my hand on his mouth. He was not going to ruin the beautiful naming moment. He always did that, trying to reflect and hiding his emotions with the wrong things he did.
“A bad person would not have allowed Josh near the baby but you allow him every night. Deep down there is a big heart somewhere,” I replied.
He chuckled and smiled, and turned his attention to the baby that had her brown eyes fixed on him. “Hi Kendra?” he waved at her. She smiled like she had heard his voice or something, forcing his eyes to shed more tears.
She was his Princess and it was just a pity that he was running out of time. Previously, Several ideas had popped in my head about his condition and I did not like where my ideas landed, he wouldn’t agree so I kept my mouth shut and waited for us to first get discharged.
“Hell Kendra?” Nestor moved over, waving and snapping me out of my thoughts.
“Now we have to get the doctor to discharge us, this hospital is killing me.”
“Soon we will go home, we have not talked about this but I think we should go to the city mansion,” Brandon announced, his eyes fixed on Kendra.
Nestor stared at me surprised, we both stayed quiet and watched as he played with the baby. He noted our quietness and looked up. “The beach house was meant to be a sex dungeon and my daughter will not be raised there,” he stated and went on to play with her.
“Of course, of course,” I replied.
There was a way in which he said it and I knew it had nothing to do with the place being a sex dungeon but I had no idea what. Maybe he was trying to run away from the bad memories the place held even though it had a lot of good memories as well.
I moved closer to him and cuddled him, “Is it okay if I redecorated the place, it looks like a 1950s house,” I stated
“My mother decorated it,” he replied.
I felt a lump in my throat, while I waited for the embarrassment to wash over me.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…?”
“It’s fine and you are right, the place is too dull to raise a child in, you can add some colors,” he replied.
“Are you sure? Your mother’s memories and everything?”
“Mum always wanted to redecorate that place but dad was so old-fashioned. He was always talking about heritage and maintaining the house as it was when it was handed to him,” he explained.
It was the first time that he was going into details about his family, especially his father, he never talked about his father. He once talked about his mother and her morning breakfast but never his father. Nestor took a seat and we listened as he talked about his family, even Kendra had her little eyes focused on him like she was listening to him.
Another week passed and we were finally discharged. I was so excited, Kendra was going to be sleeping in a normal house, surrounded by family. Nestor was busy getting Brandon transferred into the house while I and Brandon were packing my stuff and busy singing to ourselves.
We found that singing to a baby increases a baby’s laughter and happiness so we taught ourselves a lot of baby songs. We were still looking for a Nanny and Brandon was in charge of that, he was good at reading people and spying so I trusted him to find someone we could trust with Kendra. Maggie was in love and high in the clouds.
She and Wilfred were arranging a trip to Italy and we did not want to hinder her happiness. She had spent so many years looking after Brandon and his family and it was time for her to live her life. So we let her be.
We finished packing and we were about to walk out when Josh burst into my room ruining our moods.
“My baby is getting discharged and you did not have the decency to inform me!” he yelled.
“You never left your number,” Brandon replied.
“Shut up!” Josh yelled at him. “Where are you taking Amber? Are you going to hide her from me!”
Brandon moved and placed himself between Josh and me. ”Her name is Kendra, we named her after my mother,” Brandon mocked.
“Are you s*upid! You are not the father, I will sue you for the name, I’m the biological father?”
“And that’s what you will only be,” Brandon replied.
There was going to be a bloodbath and could smell it as both men folded their arms into fists. Nestor was nowhere too near, I put the baby on the bed and moved in between them.
“It’s funny how you really want this baby when you made it your life mission to make sure I never had your child,” I spat out. He looked away but yelled at him to look into my eyes.
“We are not going into hiding, we will be living in Brandon’s Mansion, Pine vine 246, 1st street” I replied with so much venom. Brandon held my back and tried to speak but raised my hand to stop him.
“The doors are always open if you want to see Kendra and respect her name or if you want to serve us any lawsuit,” I added.
He stared at me breathing heavily, possibly tongue-tied. They were both not expecting me to hear the words that came out of my mouth. “You have two minutes to say goodbye to her or do you prefer arguing with my boyfriend and scaring the s*it out of KENDRA.”
“I’m going to sue for that useless name,” he replied probably because he was too ashamed that I was not tapping in his anger for me.
“You know where to find us,” I replied.
He moved to the bed and picked up the baby. I and Brandon Maintained our positions without glancing at him. I was breathing heavily, Brandon moved closer and wrapped his arms around me.
I relaxed a bit as I continued to count the two minutes in my head. We could hear him promising to take her away from us, he even dared to swear. My tummy tightened up, it took great restraint for me not to turn around and slap the s*it out of him.
The two minutes clocked and I turned marching to where he was standing and yanked the baby out of arms without warning. I could only guess the force was too much and it scared Kendra a bit, she cried out and that was the only thing that stopped him from yanking her back from me.
“You could have hurt her;” he yelled at me but I ignored him and disappeared through the door. It was suffocating that I had to stomach his presence but there was a limit to my maturity. I could hear Brandon following me but I did not turn around until we both entered the elevator.
“Why on earth would you give him our address?” Brandon asked.
“He does not have the balls to sue us and neither does he have the balls to be seeing my face every day. We remind him of the things we took from him, things that he can never take back,” I replied.
