Nathalie's Breakup

Part 3 - I won't let you go back there

"May I ask you something personal, Nathalie?"

She shrugged, but didn't object.

"Could you be pregnant?"

Now the assistant began to cry, her body trembling, while she nodded and buried her face in her hands.

"Oh my, Nathalie, please! I didn't mean to upset you! Shush, don't cry, my dear, I'm here for you! Let me just hold you, okay?"

Without waiting for her permission, he laid his arms around her and pulled her to his chest, letting her cry until he could hear her breathing more calmly, before he spoke again:

"Do you want me to call Jérôme and tell him, that you aren't feeling very good and ask if he would pick you up?"

Nathalie shook her head.

"No? Would you prefer, if Adrien's bodyguard or myself would take you home? I am sure, that your partner will be worried, if you stay at work, feeling ill and maybe even endangering your pregnancy!"

After a while the young woman eventually was able to speak, her voice still weak and husky, when she bitterly informed him:

"He doesn't want this baby! When I told him about it, he got angry and yelled at me, then said, either I would get an abortion or he would break up with me. Then he told me the date and time, until I had to 'get it done'! Remembering, how long you and Emilie wished for a child, how many procedures you both endured, to finally get your wish fulfilled, I also recalled, that I could never fully understand, how she was able to go through all of it. But the moment, I saw those two lines on a plastic stick, I understood. How could I..... how could he even ask me to....? I really believed, he loved me and even thought, he would be happy about it. I mean, I've seen him around children, he's great with them. So why, Gabriel, why would he ask me to kill 'our' child?"

Her voice was loud and high pitched now, before she started to cry vigorously once more. The tall man scooted a little closer and held her in his arms again, gently stroking up and down her back with one hand, while the other was holding her head to his chest.

"I don't know, dear, I would have never even considered the possibility! And not just that, but giving you an ultimatum, telling you date and time until you have to.... damn it, I would like to go and punch his stupid, face and kick his lazy, too proud to do honest work, butt! What about you, dear? How do you feel about this child now?"

She carefully looked up at him, then smiled through her tears.

"I just told you, the very second, I saw those two lines show up, I knew, that I loved this baby! Right then and there, nothing else mattered. There are those short moments, when I can go back to this situation and forget everything around me, to just enjoy the complete bliss, I felt. But then reality slaps my face and I remember and..."

Nathalie didn't start to cry again, but leaned her head back against her bosses chest, relishing in the feeling of safety and warmth, he gave her.

"I don't want to gloat or pry, but if I want to help you find a solution, I need to know...."

She interrupted him, her tone now weary:

"You need to know, how far along I am and since when I know and when I told him! Well, he gave me until the end of the first trimester to get rid of the problem, as he called it. At least, he did his research, huh?", she snorted spitefully. "I found out only three days after not getting my period on time, but more out of a gut feeling, than having many symptoms. I told Jérôme about four weeks later, after my first ultrasound and tried to show him the picture. He didn't even look at it. Well, his ultimatum ends in two days and despite me, telling him, that I will keep this baby, he still thinks I will cave in and do as he told me!"

Gabriel now chuckled contemptuously, then cupped her face and whispered:

"He doesn't know you very well, if he thinks, he can manipulate you into doing something like that! Why are you still staying with him, Nathalie? If you didn't want to move in back here, you could have easily afforded an apartment of your own!"

She blushed and gazed to the floor.

The designer sighed.

"You gave him your savings for something, right? Let me guess, so he could buy that pathetic, old, down worked building, he calls his atelier?"

Nathalie didn't have to answer, her expression was enough.

Taking a deep breath, he cupped her face once more with one hand, then gently kissed her forehead, before he made her an offer:

"I won't let you go back there, Nathalie! If you can't go into your old room, because of those candles, I will just let you stay in my room, until we got all the sickening smell out of the other one! How's that?"

She gasped, about to object and turn the offer down, but the still very concerned man didn't let her.

"Don't even try! You spend almost half of your life, working for me! Those last years, you did even a lot more, until you were at the very edge of breaking down. Now it's time for me, to take care of you! Don't even try, my dear, not a single word will convince me of not doing that. Can I now help you upstairs, so you can lay down comfortably and really get some rest? Please?", he beseeched her.

"I....okay, fine. But I must go back and...."

"Shush! Right now, I want you to just think of your own and your baby's well being and nothing else. Your personal things and clothes will be taken care of! You know, I employ enough men, who are up to the job and are discrete, when it comes to intimate stuff. Just hold on to my hands, Nathalie. If you feel good enough to walk, I mean. If not, I will just carry you!", Gabriel now ordered her, but very lovingly, letting her feel cared for, for the first time, since she found out, she was having a baby.