The Married CEO and I

"Hush! Stop creating a scene. Aren't you ashamed, being pregnant at your age?", Rosa scolded in a series of harsh whispers as she hurried along beside the gurney on which Mara was being rushed off to the delivery room. But instead of keeping quiet, the girl only kept screaming in pain.

On a normal day, such a scolding from her stepmother was enough to silence her, but this time, she couldn't help it. She was in serious pain and her stepmother had kept her too long at home when it all started, more concerned with dumping curses on her than anything else. It was only when she found that the baby could actually be on its way that she called her husband who angrily instructed her to call an ambulance immediately.

Being childless and with absolutely no experience of pregnancy or childbirth, she had gone on to make things even more inconvenient for the 19-year old Mara. But now that they were here, she was relieved that it was out of her hands. Yet, her biggest worry was not for the girl's safe delivery but rather, the fear that her cries might attract everyone's attention to the "scandalous" situation.

"Please ma'am, you'll have to wait here," one of the nurses said to her, shutting her out as her colleagues rushed off with the still screaming Mara.

Rosa ground her teeth and clenched her fists in impotent rage, wishing she could strangle that little brat just to keep her quiet, but the girl was far away from her reach now, so she simply contented herself with sitting down in the waiting room, but not before scanning around with her eyes to see if anyone was staring at her. She didn't want to be seen as the mother of a pregnant teenager.

Luckily, no one seemed to take the slightest notice of her, so she sat down with a sigh and brought out her phone to listen to some music.

She was in this position, enjoying herself with her earbuds in both ears blaring out her favorite music, when she suddenly heard a man burst into the waiting room, his booming voice filling the area.

"Mara Johnson! Is she here? Where are the damn nurses?!"

Rosa immediately recognized her husband's voice and she quickly hid her phone with the speed of light and donned a mask of sadness and anxiety on her face.

"Oh honey, thank God you're here!", she wailed, tears in her eyes as she rushed up to meet her husband with wide open arms. But the burly man pushed her aside and then turned to face her again.

"Where is she? Is she being attended to? Why did you have to call me first before bringing her to the hospital, eh?! Answer me!", he roared, drawing the attention of everyone in the waiting area.

Left with no other resort, his wife promptly burst into tears. "Y... you don't know what I've been through for that girl since the moment we found out that she's pregnant," she sobbed, letting the tears fall freely. But her husband was not at all moved.

"Oh please, spare me your theatrics. Just tell me where the hell she is!", he barked at her, eyeing her with unspeakable disgust.

Still sobbing and sniffing loudly as if her heart was about to break, Rosa pointed wordlessly at the closed door. He got the message instantly and marched towards the door, ready to break it down if necessary. But he was stopped in his tracks by one of the nurses suddenly rushing out of the theater.

"How's she? Where is she? Is everything alright?", he blasted out the questions, grabbing the nurse by the arm as if he would lift her up and fling her away if she didn't give him the answer he wanted.

"Calm down, sir. Who..."

"Her father... I'm her father. Just tell me, how's she doing?"

"Take it easy, sir. Please let go of my arm. The baby's fine an..."

"Oh hang the baby," he cursed angrily. "Just fucking tell me about my daughter!"

"She needs blood and..."

"Well, here's mine. I'm her father. What are you waiting for?", he fumed, already rolling up his sleeve in record time.

"Then come with me."

Even before the nurse had finished the statement, he was already rushing off ahead of her.

*****

Rosa kept very quiet as she watched her husband keep up a steady but feverish marching pace right in front of her. Once in a while, he'd mutter threats and shake his fist at her with clenched teeth, promising to wring her neck if anything happened to his daughter. Rosa couldn't help but shudder. She didn't dare try to calm him down or he might just not bother waiting for any bad news before keeping his promise about wringing her neck.

He'd been restless and continually marching from one end of the room to the other since he returned minutes ago from donating the blood that Mara badly needed. All of a sudden, a nurse rushed out of the theater and hurried past him. Without thinking twice, he took off after her.

"Sir!"

He stopped and turned around to see who was calling. It was the doctor. With a muttered oath, he ran back again and nearly knocked down the doctor.

"H... how is she?", he demanded breathlessly.

"Take it easy, sir. Calm down. We have requested for blood and..."

"You need more blood? I'm ready." He was already rolling up his other sleeve when the doctor stopped him.

"Not yours, sir. I'm sorry, but yours was not a match."

Colin was thunderstruck. But he recovered himself immediately.

"What rubbish are you saying? But I'm her father!"

"I'm sorry, but you're not," the doctor replied calmly, even as Colin's hand began to tighten on his collar.

"Wait, wait... tell me something," Colin murmured, his shaking hand now tightly holding on to a handful of the doctor's coat. "Are you... are you talking about my blood or yours?"

"Calm down, sir..."

"Don't fucking tell me to calm down!", Colin roared, his entire frame shaking as he breathed like an injured bull, sweat pouring down his forehead and temples. But he hurriedly wiped the perspiration off his face and pulled the doctor closer. "Whose blood did you say was not a match, eh?"

"Yours, sir," the doctor answered calmly. He thought the man was going to faint or something worse, but instead, Colin slowly let go of his coat and looked wildly around him. Rosa flinched as her husband's roving eyes lighted on her. She'd seen him angry before, so many times, but she'd never seen him look like he looked now: like a trapped beast. She was already prepared to jump up and run for her dear life, but instead of coming at her, he simply dashed past and made for the exit like a man possessed by demons.

"Whew!", Rosa breathed in obvious relief. Her heart was still pounding, but she was glad and grateful to still be in one piece. As she worked on calming down her heart rate, her eyes encountered the doctor's and it quickly came into her mind to act her part. Immediately, she jumped up and rushed over to him with tears in her eyes.

"Doctor, please tell me. What's the problem with my darling? Is she okay? Why did my husband rush out so quickly? What happened? Please tell me, please!"

"You know what happened, madam," the doctor calmly replied and turned around and walked off, thinking he had just shamed the mother of the girl. If only he had turned around, he would have seen the smile that was slowly spreading over the face of Rosa!

Mara woke up to the sound of a gentle humming. She lay on her back on a soft bed, quite unlike the one she was used to sleeping on at home. She lay still for almost a minute, staring at the white ceiling as her current situation slowly dawned on her.

She was in the hospital. She had gone through a lot in the delivery of her child and had passed out in the process. That was the most she could remember. Her first thought was the child and she quickly turned to see if it was beside her. But unfortunately, that was the wrong direction. Instead it was her stepmother she saw.

Mara's heart skipped a beat, knowing what that woman was capable of. Certainly, she would soon receive an earful of verbal abuse, so she tried to pretend as if she was still unconscious, but ooops! Rosa chose just that moment to glance at the bed.

"Oh! So you're awake, bitch? How do you feel now, eh? Don't bother to answer that. I have only two things to tell you. One, the piece of trash you gave birth to is on the other side."

Mara quickly turned and her eyes encountered the beautiful form of her sleeping baby and she sighed with a full heart. Tears welled in her eyes as she thought of what this all meant. She was now a mother! She was now responsible for the life and future of someone other than herself. It was both a thrilling and depressing thing for her. But her stepmother didn't let her have this moment in peace.

"Now that you've seen the trash, here's what I have to say next. Listen very closely. I've been waiting here for hours for you to wake up and hear this directly from me. Your mother was a filthy worthless whore, just like you are."

Mara flinched and shuddered at the force with which the insult was launched, but Rosa went on, glad of the effect her words had produced.

"Do you know you're not my husband's child? Yes, you're not. Your whore of a mother had you for some tramp somewhere and imposed you on my husband. Now, listen and listen good. My husband and I do not want to see your worthless face ever again! Don't come to the house or we'll have you arrested. Don't call us either. And don't come anywhere near us forever!"

***

And don't come anywhere near us forever!

And don't come anywhere near us forever!

The words were still echoing in her head even though they were said 24 hours ago. Since then, a lot of things had happened. After her stepmother left, she had spent the next few hours crying bitterly and bemoaning her ugly fate. What was she going to do now that she was rejected by her only family? Where would she go with her child? Since neither her father nor her stepmother had paid the bills at the hospital, she was also indebted to the hospital. But the doctor that delivered her of the baby had been kind enough to allow her stay till the next day.

Mara knew she would have to leave eventually, but it still came as a shock when, the next night, she was asked to quit the bed to make space for another patient. One thing led to another and when it was found that she would never be able to pay her debt, she was turned out immediately. And now, here she was in a shopfront, on a dark cold night, the wind howling like a legion of demons. She sat with her back to it, trying her best to keep her baby away from the chill. Even though she covered it with every spare piece of material she had on her, it still cried unceasingly.

Mara was at her wit's end. She had only a thin gown on and her teeth were chattering due to the icy wind blowing endlessly against her back, but all she thought of was how to keep the baby comfortable.

She had absolutely no experience with child care, being barely an adult herself, so all she could do was rock the infant and press it against her bosom while chaffing its hand with her mouth to try to keep it warm. She was so engrossed with this activity when all of a sudden, she felt a searing pain slash across her back.

"Aaah!", she screamed aloud and began to shiver uncontrollably. Obviously, a speeding car had splashed ice-cold water on her!

Now, she knew it was raining and stormy too. She had not noticed the rain since she had been so focused on comforting her crying baby. She turned her head around and saw that a vehicle with its lights on was parked right there on the road. It was probably the same vehicle that had splashed water on her back.

A clap of thunder struck, completely illuminating the road in a massive flash of lightning. What Mara saw made her heart sink. No matter what happened, this image would forever reman stuck in her head. A man was standing beside the car in the rain with a gun in his hand. And he was looking in her direction!

The first thought that came to her mind was that her stepmother had sent someone to get rid of her and her baby just to make sure she never bothered her and her husband ever again. In an involuntary act of protectiveness, Mara hugged her baby tighter.

More and more peals of thunder struck, but there was no lightning to illuminate the area and the lights on the car were now turned off, but Mara still kept her focus on that direction. She was too numb to be scared. She was not afraid of death at all. She knew it would come eventually and it was better to die quickly through a bullet than slowly through cold and starvation which was what was certain to happen to her and the baby.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed on her face, momentarily blinding her. But it was not lightning, it was torchlight. Mara flinched as she saw what she was staring at: a hand holding the torch and another hand holding a gun!

"Holy Mary! Wh... what on Earth are you doing out here with a baby?", the man exclaimed, quickly putting the gun out of sight as he saw that he was pointing it at a defenseless young woman and a little crying baby.

But Mara said nothing in response. Not that she could if she wanted to because her lips and throat felt frozen. She could only sit there, shivering and holding the baby close to her chest as if she was a statue on a shaky foundation being blown by the wind.

"Hold on," the man said and then rushed off. In a few seconds, he returned with a coat and a large cloth. Without wasting time, he threw the cloth around Mara's shoulders and covered her head with some part of it. Next, he tried to take the baby and wrap it in his coat, but Mara refused to let go.

"I just wanna help. I won't hurt it," he admonished. But it was in vain. Mara still refused to surrender the baby. So he settled for covering it with the coat.

"Can you walk?", he asked, shouting above the noise of the thunder peals. Even though she heard him, Mara didn't or couldn't respond. The man took her for a deaf and dumb girl, so he simply helped her up to her feet with the baby in her arms.

The moment she gained her feet, the girl swayed helplessly, the cold seemingly overwhelming her as she began shivering even more than ever, her teeth chattering like castanets. But through it all, she held on to the baby with no thought of letting it go.

"Come with me, please," the stranger begged, but as usual, Mara made no indication that she had heard him, so he took matters into his own hands and held her tight, shielding her and the baby from the howling icy wind and slowly led her out of the shopfront onto the road and towards his car.

It was not very easy getting her into the car since she still insisted on holding onto the baby, but somehow, he managed to get her into the front passenger seat and then he jumped into the driver side and pulled the vehicle out of the area in record time.

"I was attracted by your cry. I'd thought you were in danger," the man soliloquized as he drove, occasionally glancing at the mother and child beside him.

The car was now as warm as it could be. The baby was now sleeping peacefully and the mother had stopped shivering. He wondered how she had come there, where she came from, if she had expected to meet someone or if she was lost. But how would he find out all these since she was deaf and dumb? He'd have to take her to the police station by morning. Hopefully, they'd be able to get useful information from her.

"I wonder how you ended up in such a situation though," he murmured beneath his breath. "Glad I came just in..."

"Thank you," Mara murmured softly and the man's eyebrows shot up in surprise.

"Y... you can hear me? I thought... Well, how did you end up in that place in this crazy weather? Where are you from?"

Mara tried to speak, but she couldn't place the questions in the right order in her mind. Her senses were only just beginning to thaw. The best she could do was look down at the baby in her arms and that action alone spoke volumes.

"Whose baby is it? Your mother's?", he asked softly, alternating between watching her face for a reaction and keeping his eyes on the road.

"My baby," Mara mumbled almost inaudibly. For the second time, the man's eyebrows shot up and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. Her baby??? She looked small and young enough to be someone else's baby herself. But he knew better than to pursue the topic any further even though he was burning with curiosity. It was obviously not a happy one for her.

"So... what's your name?", he questioned instead.

"Mara," she said and turned to glance at him for the first time. But that brief glance was enough to tell him that she was as beautiful as she was young. Those bright green eyes were just so unique and captivating. He found himself wishing she would look at him again.

"Ahem... well, I'm Leo. And it's nice to meet you."

No response. Even Leo knew his statement sounded awkward. So he didn't even bother saying anything else and they went through the rest of the journey in silence.

***

The rain had stopped falling when they reached Leo's house. But since it was night and also, she had so many things on her mind, Mara did not get the chance to appreciate the beauty and size of the mansion. Instead, she simply stayed put and followed the lead of her host.

It was another small struggle again to get her out of the car since she wouldn't allow the baby to be taken away from her hands. Eventually, they were able to get in and ended up in Leo's grand parlor. It was certainly the largest parlor Mara had ever seen. It looked more like a stadium than anything else. She couldn't help but look around in wonder at the brightly lit room with a massive chandelier overhead and a super-soft rug covering every inch of the ground.

Inevitably, her eyes were drawn to the pictures lining the walls. She recognized Leo in one of them and another which looked like him was that of an older man, probably his father. But the one that arrested her attention was that of a young lady, very beautiful and long-necked. She imagined it was his sister, but there was not enough resemblance to prove that.

"My wife," Leo clarified as if he had read her mind.

"Oh." Mara was surprised. It never crossed her mind that he would be married.

"Welcome, Mr. Stanson," a strange female voice arrested her attention and she turned to see an older woman, not at all resembling Leo, standing close by. Mara wondered where she had come from. But then, the place was so massive that it would be difficult to know if anyone was coming from any side.

"Thanks. Is my wife home yet?", Leo questioned the woman.

"No, but she called to say she'll be back tomorrow."

"Okay. Take care of this lady please. She's been in the cold recently," Leo ordered, referring to Mara.

Without a word, the woman beckoned for Mara to come with her.

"Excuse me, Mara," Leo stopped her as she went, "what's the baby's name?"

Without thinking, Mara said the first thing that came to her mind: "Leo." But the moment the word left her mouth, she wished she could take it back. Frankly, the baby had no name, but why on Earth did her mind not come up with something other than the man's name??? Damn!

Leo, on the other hand, was grinning boyishly. "Really?! Well, that's great," he chuckled, rubbing his hands happily. "What a beautiful coincidence, eh? I'm doubly glad I encountered you and my namesake. But... but don't let me waste your time. Go with Tomasina."

With her eyes on the ground, Mara followed the housekeeper and went out of sight.

"Whew," Leo sighed and slumped down on a sofa, little knowing that Mara herself had also breathed a similar sigh the moment she was out of his presence. Somehow, they felt slightly embarrassed and shy in each other's presence, and neither of them knew why. But now that they were apart, Leo, mindless of the fact that his clothes were still quite wet, sat down to ruminate over Mara's situation.

It was clear that she had no home and no money. It was also clear that the baby was most likely newly born. But he was curious to know her story. She didn't look like someone who was used to living on the streets, so when and where did she give birth? Who had delivered her of the baby, and why didn't they care for her? Was she running away from someone?

Despite wracking his brain and coming up with so many possible explanations, Leo spent an hour without getting any closer to understanding the the girl's situation. If only he could ask her... but he feared that she would be embarrassed or might clam up and get scared of being exposed to whoever she was running from. He preferred she opened to him on her own, but that might take a long time and he was nearly burning with curiosity already!

Finally, exhausted with his fruitless thoughts, he went off to take his bath and prepare for bed. Hopefully, tomorrow would bring him closer to the knowledge of Mara's history.

***

The next day, Mara sat down on one of the sofas in the parlor, with her baby in her arms. She had not seen her host yet, but the housekeeper had acted on his instructions to take care of her, so she had had her breakfast, a warm bath and a clean set of clothes. But she knew that her baby would also need food, so while awaiting the presence of her host, she popped out her left breast and awkwardly pushed it into its mouth. She had no prior experience with breastfeeding; the only thing she knew about it was that babies were supposed to feed on the breast milk of their mothers.

She watched in fascination as her baby sucked eagerly on her breast and she couldn't help but feel a little pang of guilt. Obviously, it had been hungry and she had not bothered to think of it until now. She knew the nurses at the hospital may have fed it, but she still felt guilty for not thinking about its feeding sooner.

She was still in this position, feeling the tugging and suction and staring with a half-smile into the wide open eyes of her baby, when she heard a slight sound. She looked up immediately and found a tall, richly dressed woman looking straight at her. Mara swallowed and her heart rate picked up speed. She didn't need anyone to tell her that she was looking at no one other than Leo's wife. And from the hard and bitter look on the woman's face, it was crystal clear that she and her baby were not welcome here. Oh what a life hers was. She had moved from being unwanted in one home to being unwanted in another home!