Maddy shrugged, quite bewildered herself. “Apparently starting the drug on the same night…” she said, unable to finish that statement.
What could she have said? On the same night he basically turned her into a one-night stand? The night he cooked her a delicious dessert feast and treated her like a princess only to turn back into a frog the morning after?
Akim stared at her for a moment with wide eyes, which darted to her belly before searching her face once more. His lips stretched in a toothy smile as he scooped her up and twirled her around. Maddy clung to his shoulders and couldn’t help but laugh as he finished his circle and set her down, his lips awkwardly missing hers and bouncing off her cheek as he pulled away from their embrace.
“Maddy, you’ve done it! You’ve created a treatment that is so effective it works with just one dose. You’re amazing!”
Maddy blushed at the praise as Akim turned toward the window, pacing intensely.
“This is absolutely fantastic news, Maddy. It’s really a reality now, isn’t it? Don’t you think we should do a commercial, with the child, once he or she comes? I can just see it now: the CEO and the head of lab research, forced by a corrupt government to test a scientific breakthrough in secret, on their own. The result is one of the greatest fertility treatments in the history of science. People will be beating down our door for the treatment!”
Maddy stared at him, bewildered. Here she was, pregnant with his child, and all he could think about was how to use them both for capital gain. There was no way they could live a life like that. Against her will, her mother’s words began pouring into her ears—about how the baby was a human life, and not a simple marketing ploy.
“Akim,” she said.
He ignored her, continuing on with his speech about profit margins and marketability of a boy versus a girl.
“Akim…”
On and on he went, in a one-person conversation about his own success, adding her name in for good measure.
“Akim!”
Maddy had to shout for him to finally turn around and look at her. She crossed her arms and glared. “Has it not occurred to you that this child isn’t simply an advertisement you have paid for?”
Akim frowned at her accusatory tone. “Of course I don’t think that. Be rational, Maddy. This is going to change our lives forever.”
Her frown deepened. Yes, it would change their lives forever, but not simply because they would be making money or making a name for themselves in the scientific community.
“You’re about to be a father,” she said.
“Yes, I thought that was the point.”
In that moment, Akim’s phone rang, and he turned from her to answer it.
“Yes? Ah, Bailesh. No, I’m free. Just one moment.”
He placed a hand over the receiver and looked up to face Maddy’s stricken expression. He didn’t seem to notice that she was upset. Perhaps, Maddy thought fretfully, she had gotten too good at hiding her emotions.
“Was there anything else, Maddy? I’m quite excited about all this, and I’m very appreciative of your efforts for the sake of the company. Really, you deserve a raise. I’ll look into it.”
“I’ll keep you updated,” Maddy choked.
“See that you do,” he replied, nodding to her one last time before placing the phone back against his ear.
Maddy couldn’t get out of the Sheikh’s office quick enough. She ran back into the bathroom and began to sob, hysterical tears streaking down her cheeks.
Her mother had been right. This was probably the biggest mistake she could have ever made. And yet, she found that she wasn’t sorry.
There was a tiny little life growing inside of her at that very moment. A little baby, depending on her to stay calm and relaxed, to eat healthy and take good care of herself so she could take care of him or her. She took a deep breath, then, and met her gaze in the mirror with determination.
It was time to shed all feelings for Akim. He was a businessman first and a human being second, and while neither she nor her child would be immune to that, she had to try. She forced herself into a sense of calm acceptance. Akim was who he was, and he wasn’t going to change for her or their child.
It was time to move on.
ELEVEN
“Yousef, can you hand me that slide?”
Maddy took the thin plastic slide Yousef handed her and slid it under a microscope, turning the knobs as she focused in on the sample.
Then she felt a little flutter in her belly, and froze.
“Maddy? Are you all right?”
Yousef had been watching her with suspicious eyes ever since the day she had found out she was pregnant. Maddy didn’t know how, but she could swear that he knew. Unwilling to broach the subject, she made sure to change it every time Yousef started hinting that she might be carrying a baby. It took everything in her in that moment not to cup her growing belly.
“I’m fine. I think I just ate something weird for lunch.”
“Did you?” he asked.
She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. The truth was, Yousef was the one person she had wanted to confide in this whole time. She felt so alone, and dealing with everything entirely on her own was crushing her. She couldn’t tell her mother, lest she die of the shame. She couldn’t talk to Akim, who had steadfastly ignored her these past three months, and who seemed to want nothing more to do with her or the baby until he could flaunt them both on live television.
But Yousef looked at her with concern, empathy even. She could feel that he knew something was off, that he had guessed at least some of it, but she couldn’t put him in danger by letting him in on the secret. Not until the political tides had turned, and they were in the clear.
Maddy forced a laugh. “Really, Yousef. Your concern is admirable, but really, I’m fine.”
She bent back over the microscope and ignored the burning sensation of his stare against the back of her head. Finally, she looked up. “I think you’re onto something here, but the cell sample on the left looks a little botched.
Yousef frowned. “I thought so, too, but I’m glad to get a second opinion on it.” Sighing, he pulled the scope up and removed the slide, replacing it in a protective case. “We’ll have to do another round of testing.”
“Yes, I suppose we will.”
“Are you pregnant?”
Maddy gawked, staring at Yousef, taken completely off guard with his blunt question.
“Why w-would you ask that?” she stammered.
Yousef’s stare was cold and direct. “Maddy, what did you do? Were you really so desperate to see Chlomerol succeed that you decided to test it on yourself? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
Maddy stared at him, processing his words. She had been so alone for so long, trying to stay positive, trying to see her decision as something good, but with no one else seeming to agree, she finally gave up trying to be stoic, and broke down in tears.
Yousef placed a comforting hand on her arm as she wept.
“How did you know?” she asked, finally.
Yousef’s eyes were soft when she finally grew brave enough to look into them. “I have three children, Maddy. I know what a pregnant woman looks like, even if she has no belly to show for it.”
Maddy sniffed, taking a seat on a lab bench. “I suppose you think I’m stupid?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“On who the father is.”
Maddy stared down at the table, and Yousef sighed in frustration.
“Maddy, you haven’t been yourself in months. I’ve already guessed the truth. Whatever you think you are saving me from no longer matters. You might as well just tell me what’s going on. Now, who is the father?”
“Akim,” she breathed. It felt terrible and wonderful to say it out loud.
Yousef sighed. “Of course. Was this his idea? Is he taking advantage of you?”
Maddy shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. At first I thought he
might be in for the chance to have a family, but after I let him know we’d been successful in the trial, all he could talk about was marketing prospects.”
Yousef growled out a curse in Arabic. “That is not the way a man acts, Maddy. He needs to be responsible for his future child, and not just in terms of money!”
“What do you expect me to do? I’ve gotten impregnated by my boss in the name of science. It is too much to ask for him to be any more than that.”
It was an argument she had been through with herself time and time again, deep into the night when she couldn’t sleep for fear of dreaming of Akim.
Maddy felt Yousef’s comforting hand resting on her shoulder once again, and she nearly flinched away. The last thing she deserved was kindness.
She should have listened to her mother.
As she began to weep again, Yousef grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him.
“You feel more for him than you are saying, which is understandable, now that I know the truth. Go to him, Maddy. Don’t stay away simply because he is distancing himself. Perhaps you will find that he believes that to be your wish, or that he believes he is protecting you in some way. You must ask for what you want. You must take action, rather than hiding here in your lab, waiting for something to happen.”
Maddy sniffed, accepting the tissue Yousef handed her and blowing her nose.
“I think you’re right,” she said.
“Of course I’m right. When has that ever not been the case?”
Maddy smirked. “Oh, now you’re choosing to get cocky?”
“Just go talk to him. Invite him out to dinner or something. I agree it is something he should be doing, but the choice has been placed in your hands, so you must now do something about it, yes?”
“Fine, fine, just stop with all the lecturing. There’s a reason I tried to keep this from you,” she said, trying to keep the mood light.
“Sure. I’ll be here when you get back,” he said.
Maddy dabbed more tears off her face, wondering just how many more she would shed before all this was over. Then she left the lab and headed for Akim’s office.
Yousef was right. It was time for her to take some control over her situation. For her child’s sake, she had to.