excused himself. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sofia. I hope everything goes well today.”
“Thanks, Antonio.” I watched him walk out and wondered why Hades was being so cold to one of my employees. I understood he was in a bad mood, but that was unnecessary. I wanted to tell him off, but I didn’t want to ruin the day before it even started. “Let’s go…”
We sat in the doctor’s office. I was in my gown, but I didn’t want to sit on the examining table, so I sat in the chair directly across from Hades. With my legs crossed and my hand on my large stomach, I sat there and suffered the silence.
Hades sat with his knees wide apart and his hands on his thighs. His face was slightly tilted toward the window, and his eyes were focused on the closed blinds. He couldn’t see outside, but he continued to stare like there was nothing else for him to look at. The watch I gave him was on his wrist, but his wedding ring was still gone.
I glared at him, my anger slowly building as he continued to ignore me. We hadn’t said more than a few words to each other, and he was clearly fine with the animosity between us. We were about to have a baby, but it seemed like we were just doing business.
It made me hate him a little bit.
I didn’t care how handsome he was. I didn’t care how much I missed him. I hated him. “Is this how it’s going to be? We’re just never going to talk to each other?”
He kept his eyes on the window. “We’re talking now, aren’t we?”
I actually rolled my eyes at the smartass comment. “Is this really how you want to have our son?”
A sarcastic chuckle escaped his closed lips.
“What?”
He shook his head slightly. “I don’t need to answer that.”
“Well, you need to say something. I’m getting sick of this little act, and I’m getting tired of waiting for an apology.”
His eyes shifted to mine, finally. His gaze was cold like freshly fallen snow. The look was actually a bit scary. “You’ll be waiting a long time, then.”
I felt the rage and sadness as I looked at him. “We used to be so different… I can’t believe this happened to us. We were in love when we made our son. Now you hate me…”
His eyes stayed on mine for a long time, his gaze so still it was like a frozen lake. There was a gleam of rage in his eyes, but it slowly simmered to calmness. For just a moment, he looked like the man I once loved. “I don’t hate you, Sofia.”
“It seems like it.”
“I can never hate you. Ever.”
I heard his words, but they felt like a contradiction to his behavior. I would just have to settle for the confession and believe his honesty. My hand rubbed over my stomach, and I felt a little more at ease. “How are you?”
Just as before, his eyes flicked back to the window. “I don’t want to have this conversation.”
“Then what kind of conversation can we have?”
After a long stretch of silence, he shook his head. “How’s Andrew?”
“He kicks me all night long, makes me use the bathroom every ten minutes, makes me so hungry I have to eat a million calories a day…so I’m pretty sure he’s an asshole like you.”
Finally, a slight smile formed on his lips. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s okay. I’m sure he’ll inherit some of your better traits.”
“I don’t have better traits.”
“You do…I just haven’t seen them lately.”
His eyes switched back to me, and he stared at me endlessly. It was still hard to tell how he felt toward me. It seemed like he hated me but cared for me at the same time. But it didn’t feel like he loved me anymore. That was a thing of the past.
The doctor came in a moment later and performed a sonogram of my stomach. The heartbeat was loud and strong, and Andrew was nearly fully developed. His head was so distinct, along with his fingers and toes. The doctor said the words every mother wanted to hear. “You have a very healthy baby boy. Now, all we have to do is wait for him to arrive.”
Hades stood at my side and stared at the monitor with a stoic expression. He didn’t seem to feel anything—at least, it seemed that way on the surface. But his eyes were glued to the screen like he didn’t want to