She tossed and turned on the bed, but sleep was miles and miles away from her. Then she heard a knock on her door,

"I am not hungry Mike. I don't want to eat. Please leave me alone for a day", she yelled and then dumped her head back into her pillow.

Once again there was a knock on her door.

She got up all pissed and flung the door open.

She saw Vikram standing outside.

Her expressions calmed a bit seeing him outside.

"Don't tell me you were about to hit me with your slippers", Vikram asked and chuckled.

"Duh, No", she said and rolled her eyes.

"Come out. I got you Mushroom Risotto. Your recent favorite", he said and pulled her out of her room.

"It's not my favorite anymore", she said with an irritated tone.

"Why what happened all of a sudden", Vikram asked all surprised.

"I am bored of it. Not my type of food Vikram", she said and shrugged her shoulders.

"Don't worry, we have tonnes of french fries and mini-burgers to munch on as well", Vikram said and opened another food bag.

Akira smiled looking at Vikram. He was one hell of a caring guy. She looked at him intently for a few seconds.

"Your wife is going to be so lucky man. I have a feeling that you would treat her like a princess", she said and took a bite at her french fries.

"What makes you think like that?", Vikram asked curiously.

"I mean you treat us so well, so no wonder you are going to treat your life partner even better. I feel like a princess with you around, so I guess your wife will feel like a queen", she said and stole a few fries from Mike's plate.

"Hey, just because you are upset, doesn't entitle you my fries ok?", Mike growled at Akira.

Akira teased his brother back with her tongue open. Vikram looked at her in silence for a moment and then asked,

"Do you want to feel like a queen?"

Mike's jaws were opened wide when he heard him.

"Naah... I am just content feeling like a princess. Don't want your wife to put a bounty on me", she said and giggled.

Vikram sighed in disappointment because that naive girl couldn't even understand what his question meant. But today wasn't the right time to discuss it. He had already waited till eternity for her. He was ready to wait even more, till the point she said YES wholeheartedly.

"By the way, why did you sound so grumpy today?", Vikram asked.

"Aah, nothing. Work related. Probably I expected too much. I should have understood that some things are just out of my league. Just not my cup of tea", she said and sighed.

"Not your cup of tea. C'mon Aki, you are the deadly combination of passion and perfection. You can do anything. Even if the job is difficult just hang in there", Mike said to comfort her, thinking that she was upset because of work.

She looked at her baby brother fondly and ruffled his hair.

Then she said,

"I need to have a new outlook towards life and I am going to start it right now. I am going to kill at my job and then go back to my college and kill there too", she said and the two started laughing.

"Jeez, Akira!!! You should have chosen drama as your new profession. Not graphic design", Mike said and laughed.

The friendly banter continued for hours and hours and Akira started feeling better. She looked at both of them and thought,

"Nothing heals you better than Home".

---

The next morning as Scarlett got up, she saw Raymond sitting on the sofa and working with his laptop.

"Good morning Sweetheart !!!", she said and came close to him.

"Morning!!! Did you sleep well?", Raymond asked.

"Mmm... I did. Actually, I feel I haven't slept this well since ages", she smiled and then stroked his hair with her hand but somehow her intimate touch didn't go well with Raymond. He couldn't understand what irked him so much. He immediately got up and said,

"Get ready. I have booked your appointment with Dr. Brooks for 10 o'clock. Although her slots were full, she agreed as we have been there earlier".

"Oh!!! That's so nice of hers", she said.

"Yeah, indeed. Go now and get ready. I will be done in a few minutes", Raymond said and went to his study room.

After entering the physical examination room Scarlett was a bit nervous. Raymond could sense that and held her hand to assure her.

"Don't worry it's gonna be alright", he said trying to ease her out.

Dr. Brooks entered the room and looked at Raymond first. Then she looked at Scarlett and said,

"How are you doing Miss Scarlett?".

"I am doing good", she said smiling back.

"Well, we need your blood samples too to run some tests to rule out any disorders with the pregnancy. Don't worry it's just a routine check", she said and smiled kindly. Then she moved ahead and drew her blood and filled two vials with it.

Dr. Brooks applied the ultrasound gel on her belly and then started doing the ultrasound test. She saw the couple looking all nervous and smiled and pointed out at the ultrasound screen and said,

"This, do you see? That's your baby".

"Oh my God!!!", Raymond said and exhaled a deep breath of relief.

"Now I will give a moment to you two", Dr. Brooks said and then left the room with the blood samples.

Then she went to the lab and gave one vial at the General pathology lab and ordered some regular pregnancy-related tests. Then she went to the DNA test pathology department and gave the other blood vial. Then she took out a sample of cheek swab from her lab coat.

"Get a Prenatal DNA Paternity Test done for these two samples".

Then she handed over a cheque reading 2500 USD to the lab assistant and said in a hushed out tone,

"No records to be maintained for this test. Handout the report directly to me as we had discussed earlier".

The lab assistant nodded and Dr. Brooks responded by nodding back and left.

The lab assistant happily looked at the cheque amount of 2500 USD and then moved his eyes towards the corner which had the signature of David Lockheart.

"Rich people have Rich problems in life", the assistant thought to himself.