Brandon’s Pov
As we flew to the hospital, we watched Victor and Jessica step out of sight to discuss something. I had no idea what it was, it was as though the fool was aware that he was being watched; he was far too astute.
Anyway, I blamed myself; I should have recognized his unwittingly counter-attacking my strategies and returning me to square one.
The man had mastered the art of firm takeover planning. It was my profession, but I’d never met somebody quite like him.
He was a man willing to wait years for a takeover while on the side I had no time. That was the main difference between him and me.
Thalia kept questioning what was going on, but I told her to focus on artificial insemination and not to worry about Victor. I was going to find out what they discussed sooner or later.
Soon an email popped up, my private investigator, who had tapped all of Josh and Victor’s lawyers and associates’ communication systems, sent me an email alerting me to the revisions of shares that Victor ordered.
My heart stopped, but I didn’t show it. I didn’t want to worry Thalia. I had their associates tapped instead of the two because it was the best way to throw off suspicion.
Victor’s change in share ownership meant there would be no takeover, which meant Thalia’s pregnancy would be futile. And eventually, she could give up on hope. I had no intention of abandoning her to her fate. I closed my eyes and thought to myself.
I needed to distract Victor, I needed to keep him busy. I sent an email to one of my men instructing him to sabotage one of Gentex’s medical gadgets in one of the country’s largest private hospitals, a sabotage that would nearly cost a life.
We needed a big enough lawsuit for him to devote all of his attention to together with his lawyers. That way we would buy time and by the time he would remember or recover the damage would be too big.
I knew it would be difficult for Gentex, but I had enough money to rebrand it once it was in Thalia’s hands.
“Is everything okay with you, Brandon?” Thalia inquired.
“Everything is fine,” I said with a smile. “I think we should focus on your insemination for now. Have you thought about the child’s name?”
She chuckled, “Brandon, I haven’t even been inseminated yet,” she said.
“What happens if I don’t wake up tomorrow? I’m curious,” I stated. She bent down and took my hand in hers. “Please don’t say something like that, can we just forget about your situation for today and have fun?” she requested.
I said, “Thalia, whether we talk about it or not, the fact that I have Brandon Frazer Autoimmune Macroglobulinemia will never change,” and inquired about the name once more.
“I don’t know, maybe if it’s a boy, I’ll name him after you. Please take note of this not because you are assisting me in exacting vengeance on my enemies, but because you offered me hope and made me reconsider my life choices,” she stated.
A surge of emotions washed over me out of nowhere, and my eyes began to water. “I have something in my eye, I suppose an insect got in,” I muttered quickly as I looked away. She burst out laughing and hugged me, her stunning cleavage rubbing against my back. She teased, “How big is that bug?”
“Thalia,” as I wiped away my tears, I added, “This is serious.” When I turned around, I saw that we had landed.
I whispered a brief prayer since things were getting a little weird. I was never the emotional kind, and the fact that it was over a name made it much more embarrassing. “Sir, are you okay?” Nestor questioned when he opened the door for us.
“He’s simply emotional because I told him I was naming the kid after him,” Thalia explained, irritating me even more. When I looked up at Nestor, I noticed that he had raised eyebrows. I yelled at him, “Get out of my way!” He moved fast without saying anything.
“Come on, Brandon, it’s natural to be emotional,” Thalia murmured as she exited the chopper, but I disregarded her and continued walking away before my eyes further embarrassed me.
But I came to a halt as the roof grew noticeably quiet, and I turned to see Nestor standing in front of Thalia as if he were blocking her path.
He moved away after she said something to him. I could tell she was irritated by whatever he said by her facial expression. She grabbed my hand as I hurriedly approached him. “No, Brandon, I took care of it,” she stated
I gave Nestor a stern look, but he just glared back, placed his hands in his pockets, and started walking towards us. “What are you doing? Where do you suppose you’re going?” I requested him to wait in the chopper.
“Who is going to pick you up when you become unconscious?” he asked, mockingly, as he walked away. My blood began to boil. I didn’t want to waste any of my remaining energy on him. I was exhausted from the pointless flight and lacked the energy I had when I woke up.
“Please disregard him, Brandon; you know he’s trying to help,” Thalia said. Let’s get this over with before we hit a setback,” she added.
She was correct; the one thing we lacked was time, and wasting it on worthless Nestor was not ideal. So I put on my scarf and heavy eyeglasses as Thalia wrapped her arms around me.
We were certainly a couple with reproductive difficulties heading for insemination. We entered Doctor Moyes’s office through a secret passageway, avoiding patients and employees.
I noticed the man appeared to be exhausted because of a lack of sleep. I had deliberately dispatched him to Canada to harvest the sperm and deliver them back himself. He appeared so fatigued.
I didn’t want any mistakes or bad sperm to end up in Thalia. We exchanged pleasantries and began the process, the doctor began by explaining the procedure. There were two types of insemination; Intrauterine insemination (IUI) and intracervical insemination were the two most used methods of artificial insemination (ICI).
He was going to conduct intrauterine insemination which involved inserting the sperm all the way into the uterus unlike the other one which involved inserting on the cervix and was less effective
He made it clear the insemination was not on the books and Thalia did not have to go through any drugs, monitoring, or procedures. We were going to cross our fingers and hope for the best. Doctor Moyes told us, however, that he had plenty of sperm in case the initial insemination failed.
The standard procedure required six attempts, but we were hoping to conceive on the first try. We didn’t have time for the other tries because Victor was already setting us back.
But something didn’t add up, concerning how fast Victor was moving. He was frantically calling his lawyers while his son lay comatose.
To make any changes, Josh’s signature was required, not his. Something was up and technically, killing Josh while Thalia was pregnant with his child would deliver the company to Thalia, but I wasn’t going to give her that option since I knew she’d take it because she’d already declared she wouldn’t mind killing him.
“Brandon?” she called, jolting me out of my reverie. “Is everything fine?” she inquired. “Are you having doubts?” “Everything is fine; are you prepared?” I enquired.
“I think so?” she responded.
“Thalia, there’s no going back once you are pregnant?”
“Abortion is an option,” she responded. The doctor and I exchanged glances. We’d gone to tremendous measures to get her the sperm she needed. People’s lives were on the line, and a lot of people’s jobs were on the line, yet she was talking about abortion.
“Thalia is not a game,” I informed her.
“I’m sorry Brandon, I was just thinking out loud, but I’m ready,” she added as she stood up and inquired about her hospital gown.
“It’s okay, Miss Nash, if you’re having second thoughts. A baby is a huge burden, and many people in this office are always changing their minds at the last minute,” the doctor said.
“I’ve wanted to have Josh’s baby since I was sixteen,” Thalia chuckled. “I set aside my ambitions and packed my Ph.D. in order to raise our wonderful children. He took away that opportunity and wasted four years of my life.
I’m here to retrieve that,” she remarked, as she inquired about the insemination room. The doctor locked his gaze on me; he had a lot to say, and I was thinking the same thing, but I had assessed Thalia and she was perfectly fit to give a baby.
“Mr. Fraser, may I speak with you privately?” he inquired.
“Simply perform your duty and ensure she conceives,” as I stood up, I stated. I kissed Thalia on the cheek and walked away, allowing her some much-needed privacy.
I stepped out of the room, exhausted, and went to the private waiting room, where Nestor was seated.
“I still believe this is not right,” he declared. I shifted my weight to face him. He was never a talker and only spoke when prompted. But he’d had a big mouth ever since he met Thalia.
“Guess where I first met Thalia?” While toying with my scarf, I questioned him.
“At first, I assumed nightclub, but she didn’t look like a nightclub girl the second day I met her, and you stopped going to such places years ago, so I assumed she walked into your beach house,” he responded.
“I wouldn’t have let her in if she had knocked,” I said with a smile.
“So, how did you two meet?”
“On an old rusty bridge, I woke up that day with plans to kill myself and screw time,” I murmured, raising my eyes to him.
He froze but said nothing as if he knew I had planned to end my life. “Guess who woke up that same day to commit suicide?” I asked, turning away. As his mouth remained open in disbelief.
“We fought for that bridge and who should jump first until we both gave up cowardly,” I explained. “She told me her story, and I laughed so hard, I don’t think I’ve ever laughed like that.
So you want to know why I’m enabling her to inject that idiot’s sperm into her? Simply put, I want her to have a reason to live once I’m gone. That child will not erase her past, but it will shape her future.”
“But why can’t it just be random sperm, given how many men donate sperm?” Eventually, he inquired.
“That’s uninteresting, but Josh’s baby will be like a prized possession for her; she’s even naming him after me. In short, I convinced her I would help her get revenge on her ex within a month,” I stated.
He tried to protest but I stopped him, “The promise also involved us going back to the bridge and jumping if we still felt worthless. What do you think she will do the minute I’m pronounced dead?” I posed a question.
“Some people need something to fight for, and that baby is what she needs and not the company. I already offered her mine and she refused.
So getting her company back won’t solve anything, she was never interested in her company, to begin with, but was always wanted a useless baby with that useless man,” I added and searched my pocket, retrieving a flash and handing it to him.
“When I die, promise to finish what I have started?” I said in a low tone and not an order. He stared at the flash knowing fully well it contained details of the plan.
“Am not saying you should fall in love with her and marry her, I will come back and haunt you,” I added in a serious tone. He nearly choked to death and got up. I always noticed how he looked at her and what type of girls he was into.
Thalia was exactly his type but because I was alive, he couldn’t cross the line.
“Sir I wouldn’t cross the line and I don’t think I can pull the scheming and manipulation,” he stated.
“Yes you can, just study the file and you will be alright, and do not tell Thalia that you know how we meant,” I ordered him.
He looked at the face and nodded. I knew he was not fully convinced but he needed to know how delicate Thalia was.
