PARTNERED WITH THE BILLIONAIRE

CHAPTER 3: WE MEET

NIMA’S POV
Fuck! I woke up my head throbbing in pain. I hate hangovers, I said as I tried to get up but the pain that shot through me was enough to get me back to bed. It was simply excruciating. It was at that point that the memories flooded my mind like an electric surge. The escape, Trisha’s murder, the baby, me getting shot, the jet, and then him telling me that I was safe. The baby! It suddenly hit me and I got out of the bed ignoring the pain. I could hear the machines go into a frenzy and my vision was all woozy probably due to the headache. I tried to stand but my feet were wobbly and I fell. Well if I couldn’t walk I could crawl as long as I was moving. All I knew was that I had to find my nephew no matter what. Before I could cover an inch some people were by my side hauling me up.
“I have to see…” before I could complete the sentence a nurse walked in holding a bundle. I stretched out my hands eagerly awaiting for him to fill them. I embraced him as I took in his scent. I proceeded to stare at him in awe, studying every curve in his face, his petite nose, his lashes, his lips, his tiny ears. I admit he looked like a potato but he was perfect. My nephew was perfect. Wait we have to get you a name, I thought as I caressed his cheek with the back of my hand. I knew it was too soon to say that he looked like Trisha but he did. The doctor, I assumed, was still fixing the drip and checking the readings at the machines.
“Leave us,” My thoughts were interrupted by a deep authoritative voice. Everyone scurried out in response to it. Without raising my head I lifted my eyes to look at him. I started from the shoes. Wow black sandals, interesting. I was expecting some sleek black leather boots or something more interesting than mere sandals. Well he had some nice large feet, ha!  Was I hilarious or what? Grey sweats, phew! They brought out the shape of so many things very well. A white fitting t-shirt for his rippling muscles. Dude was a snack physically but I was so used to this. Only thing I didn’t see coming was the eyes. The dude had freaking beautiful eyes. One was green while the other was grey. I was drawn into them but I looked away as soon as I had got my fill or so I thought.
“Look at me!” he commanded but I was not going to oblige. Stupid men commanding women all around. I sneered and in no time he was in front of me, his forefinger under my chin, as he lifted my face.
“Much better, makes you look less meek,” he said and I restrained myself from giving a retort.
Instead of using the chair just at my bedside like a gentleman, dude sat on my bed. I mean it was mine right, I was the sick one, I was sleeping on it. Though it’s technically his, where the fuck was I? It finally hit me.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked showing keen interest while staring as if he could read my thoughts.
“Have you ever had of personal space?” I asked in a whisper afraid to wake the baby ignoring the other questions a feeling of he wouldn’t tell me anything clouding my mind.
“No, please, tell me more,” he said sarcastically. I just turned my attention back to the baby and ignored his presence. Maybe then he would go away.
“I am not a man who likes to jump into conclusions…’
“Then don’t,” I replied cutting him off.
“Look lady, I get into my jet, emphasis on MY. Two hours into the flight I hear a baby crying in my bathroom. I take off the door only to be met by the sight of a bleeding woman and a baby. Well, at first I see that the baby had just been born so I think that your pregnancy went wrong or something. Though that didn’t explain why you were in my jet. So we land and I rush you to the hospital only to find out you were bleeding due to a bullet wound. The doctors say that there is no way you had given birth because of so many scientific sit that I didn’t get to note. That’s not even the most interesting part, a day later breaking news in Mexico, a lady is found dead in the airport bathrooms, same airport my jet was and it seemed she had been cut open and her children, note the plural, taken out of her womb. To add salt to the wound, the person or people who had done it, didn’t even do the c section as it should be done. A vertical cut with a hunting knife, so cruel. Then I begin to attempt joining the dots. Maybe you just took the second child out of pity because the first had been taken already. So what next, I look for your prints in a worldwide database and nothing. You do not exist. You’re a ghost with no past. Trust me, the only reason why you’re still here, breathing is due to one, my curiosity and two, I am intrigued. Wow!” He narrated and then crossed his arms patiently waiting for me to deny or confirm his narration.
The entire time my heart had been thumping furiously but when I realized he did not know the truth I just ignored him and put my focus on the baby once more wondering what I would name him. Eureka! I screamed out in my head as it hit me. I will call you Tristan. I remembered Trisha used to say that she would marry a Tristan one day, she was obsessed with the name. Trisha and Tristan.
“Look at me,” he spoke slowly emphasizing each word. At least I now knew he hated being ignored like most people.
“Who the fuck are you?” he asked as soon as my eyes were on him but I had no intention of quenching his curiosity.
“Fine, I guess you wouldn’t mind if I leaked your location and face to all the news platforms in Mexico do you?” he asked keen on my reaction. “I mean they’re already looking for a woman whose face was partially caught by a surveillance camera and she is the sole suspect.”
“Why do you care?” I asked him annoyed. He just sat there however and waited for my answer.

“I took him from the girl at the airport. The only reason why my finger prints do not exist is because I don’t exist officially.” I began as I faked some tears and sobbed. He handed me a tissue and I dubbed my eyes to clear the tear drops.
“I was trafficked when I was just a child and since then I have belonged to different masters. So did she, Her name was Trisha. She got pregnant for one of them in Mexico and they were going to take the children from her. She was my friend and I couldn’t let the children live the way we did so we planned an escape. Everything was solid until they found us at the airport and they…I just wanted to help him,” I said breaking into soft sobs once more as I applauded myself. Well, well, well, perks of being a psychopathic liar, a movie junkie and a novel addict. I had heard and read so many stories that I was able to create one for myself.
“Thank you for saving our lives,” I said in tears and then grabbed his hand, “If there is anything I can do to repay you sir… I said raising my eyes in a seductive manner and he suddenly jerked up from the bed. Don’t blame me I had to sell the story. He pocketed his hands but didn’t take his eyes off me. It didn’t matter if he believed me or not, what mattered was that I had bought myself some time to get out of wherever the fuck I was and maybe some privacy. Before he could leave it hit me that I had no fucking idea who my knight in shining armor was.
“Hey,” I called on to him and he turned around smiling. Okay, that was a quick change of expression.
“What’s your name?” I asked waiting for something in the lines of Lucifer, Zeus, Poseidon, did I just compare him to Greek god’s?
“Call me Vermilion,” he said his mind far away from our conversation. I hope you all noticed how weird the name was because I did. Sounds like Chameleon, I thought putting on a poker face to keep myself from laughing.
“Vic in short,” he added and left. I think I was in the hands of a man experiencing an identity crisis.
My thoughts however were interrupted by the blonde whose sole concentration was on me and the glare was not inviting. It was scary as shit.