"What on earth were you thinking Raymond? Why did you bring her here?", Scarlett hissed in anger and stood at the entrance.

Raymond calmly closed the door of his car and went to Akira's side and held her hand to bring her inside his house.

Scarlett looked at Akira with her eyes gleaming with hatred. She couldn't believe that she would have the courage to come back to her place even after she had clearly demarcated her territory.

"I really need to buy a vowel for you. I don't know how to weigh your audacity to be able to march inside my house right now".

"A slight correction. It's technically my house as the deed is under my name?", Raymonds barged in and spoke with uber calmness and took his steps inside the house.

But Akira resisted. Somehow this whole thing wasn't easy for her to deal with. Had it been Scarlett alone, then she would have dealt it with ease but with the baby, in the picture, things were complicated.

Seeing her hesitating to come inside, Raymond turned back and said,

"What? It's not like the first time you are coming in here".

Then he deliberately turned towards Scarlett to see her reaction who was chocking on her own blood. This guy was downright shrewd. He was the epitome of a slow poison who made sure that he kills you every second and makes taste death even before you die.

He pulled Akira inside and his hand which was clasped in hers freed itself to embrace her from behind.

"Come inside. You need to change your clothes else you are going to catch a cold", Raymonds said and headed towards the direction of his room.

"Stop it !!! Just stop all this nonsense for once and for all. I know that I hurt you and left you when you needed me the most. I know that I toyed with your feelings. I was the flagbearer of your miseries. But is this the way you punish me for what I did? I have already sought your forgiveness, Raymond. What else do you want me to do? Just tell me I will do it but for God's sake stop all this farce. I can't take it anymore. Our baby can't take it anymore Raymond", she said and hugged his arm.

Raymond shrugged her off the very next second and chuckled.

"Why it has to be about you Scarlett? Why do you think everything is always about you? Don't you think you have over assumed your importance in my life?", he said and folded his arms defensively.

Scarlett sensed something bad was coming up for her. It was a red flag whenever he folded his arms.

His demeanor completely changes in an instant. His eyes burnt like charcoal for he remembered the way she had slapped Akira in front of her.

"I liked you. But that was in the past".

"You were important to me. Again in the past".

"I wanted to spend my entire life with you, but again in the past".

"But right now I am a clean slate Scarlett with zero ounces of love and fuck to give to you. So it would be really nice if you could get your shit together and understand the fact that I care about you, but that's not because I love you or anything, that's because I care about my child. And that's all that is there about it."

He finished his sentence but Scarlett felt like he had whitewashed her entirety. A moment before she was gloating by recollecting the way she had made Akira's face fall. But right now her own face had fallen. And the fall wasn't a small one. Wasn't an easy one to recover from.

She might have had physically slapped Akira, but she returned the slap even bigger and louder. And she didn't even have to touch her for that.

She looked in Akira's direction and saw her standing with a face filled with shock.

"Wao just wao!!!!", she said and started slow claps and looked at Akira like she was spouting venom through her eyes.

"Aren't you happy now after ruining a family. You must be gloating in your head right now, seeing me all miserable like this. It must have felt really great for you to see me succumb to you. Isn't it?"

"Scarlett please try to understand that I am not here to snatch away anything and neither do I wish to gloat over anything. I will never ever try to come between Raymond and your baby. Trust me. I just wish that you can understand that I have no bad intention towards you or your baby", Akira tried to explain herself but she knew that all that was going to go into the drain. It was hard to convince her.

"Trust you!!! You are kidding me, right? How can I trust an intern whose only aim is to get his boss's junk inside her trunk? Aren't you just ironical and funny?", Scarlett said and chuckled.

"Enough Scarlett !!!", Raymond said raising his register.

"Enough? This is enough for you? But what about me Raymond? You expect me to bear the fact that I, the mother of your child has to stay in the guest room whereas she gets to be the queen adorning your kingsize bed? Why my child has to suffer because of my one single lie? Why are we the outcasts of your life, Raymond? Do you want to see me stepped on, pounced upon and tormented every single day with her mere presence? Will the baby be able to bear it when I cannot? If not for me, at least think about our baby's health. What sort of a father are you going to become?", she said and looked at him. She knew that she had hit his weak point.

Raymond took a few deep breaths to control his anger.

He didn't want to fight with her anymore, because he knew that stressing her meant stressing out the baby which he didn't want to happen in any condition. In the fit of rage, he had forgotten about the safety of his child.

He took a deep breath and held Akira's hand and said,

"Come". And he took her upstairs to his bedroom.

Unable to bear the sight Scarlett started chocking up and asked,

"Why are you doing this Raymond?"

He paused and turned back and looked at Akira fondly for a second and then said,

"Because she is my PRESENT !!!"