7. The Proposal

A week after the incident…

Knock. Knock.

"Come in." Aiesha drowsily responded, and in came her house manager.

"What is it?" She enquired, quite annoyed at being disturbed.

"Ma'am, sir. Renjith is here to see you, please. I've already ushered him into the living room." Bhumi informs her boss.

"Renjith is here himself? Are you sure?" Aiesha asked, now quite excited at the news but a bit worried also.

Her friend hardly visits on his own accord, and if ever that should even happen, he would never visit without informing her some days prior.

So it's a bit concerning that he would be here without calling at such early hours of the morning.

But who cares? She's excited to see him anyway.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Really? Then let him know that I'll be with him in a bit." Aiesha said as she got off the bed.

Every ounce of sleepiness left in her vanished out of her system as she quickly got off the bed and rushed into the washroom.

A few minutes later...

"Ren. You're indeed here!" Aiesha was all smiles seeing her crush. She would've loved to hug him, but she knows very well how much he hates anyone coming too close, let alone being touched.

But weirdly enough...

"Ash! Thank God that you're okay!" The worried-looking man quickly got up from the couch and went to hug her, which took Aiesha by surprise. But she would welcome that any day!

'Weird. She smells different today. Or was she going through a medical phase, then?' Renjith thought to himself as he realised that Aiesha is back to smelling like how she used to since their childhood and not the new scent that he had smelt on her a week ago.

He broke the hug and held her shoulders as he checked her all over.

"Ash. What happened? Is everything okay here? Why couldn't I get in touch with you since last week? I've been trying to reach you every day, but I couldn't. What happened? What's wrong with your phone? I even thought that something had happened to you."

For a moment, Aiesha was too stunned to respond. She has never seen this side of her friend since they both became adults. "Ren, why are you fretting over nothing? Did you hear of any bad news about me in the papers?"

"Oh! Sorry. I guess I'm going overboard. But don't worry, it's just because I came here straight from my trip, so I'm a bit hyper." He explained, but his friend still felt strange, for he never talks this much.

Aiesha furrowed her brows. "Is everything alright, Ren?"

Realising how his excitement seems to worry his friend, the tall Alpha immediately changed into his serious default side. "There's something that we need to discuss before I go home. Can we do that first?"

Now Aiesha felt like he was back to himself. "Hmm. OK." She responded with a nod.

"Do you want us to talk here?" He asked.

"No. Let's move to the dinner table. I've made them prepare some breakfast for us. Have some food first, and then we can talk, please."

*

"Let's get married, Aiesha. I want to take responsibility for what happened between us the last time." Renjith now said to his childhood friend in a dry, monotone voice as soon as the servants cleared the table.

He was now back to his default mood setting. Still not sure if marriage was the solution here.

On one hand, he is happy about asking for his friend's hand in marriage, but on the other, he couldn't help pondering those issues his cousin had raised.

Ryan's questions, coupled with Dr. Jayaraman's suspicion that he might have been drugged is now making his mood to fluctuate.

"Hmm?" Aiesha first thought that perhaps she might have heard wrongly that she almost choked on the water that she was drinking.

"I said that we should get married. I want to take responsibility for what happened between us the last time. That is, if you want me to. Sorry that I had to leave the country right after then." He explained and then brought out a white gold engagement ring.

He opened it up and held it in front of her while still sitting across the table, silently hoping that she would give a favourable response to his request.

Aiesha was in disbelief at this great news.

This is everything that she ever dreamed about and wanted. "Yes! Yes. Yes. I'll marry you, Renjith. Yes. Let's inform all of our people."

Aiesha then paused in her jubilation and asked. "But wait, Ren. What thing do you need to take responsibility for?"

Aiesha was genuinely confused, but he thought that she was just playing coy. Yet he, too, didn't want to repeat the details of their time together a few days ago.

******************************

The marriage proposal had come as a nice surprise to Aiesha today, but what her crush added to it keeps niggling at the back of her mind all throughout the day, and it is now disturbing her sleep.

"The last time? What happened between us that he needs to take responsibility for?"

She turned on the bedside lamp and paced back and forth in deep thought as she tried to recall all the events that had taken place the last time the two of them met.

"Wasn't it the day that I had to leave due to an emergency after serving him some food here? Wait, the drinks! It's that same day that I spiked his drinks. Oh no!!!"

Aiesha slumped down on her bed with her head held in between her palms.

"Did he end up sleeping with one of my servants and is thinking that that was me? Ha! That will be it.

Now who is that whore? I need to find them and get rid of them before he realises the truth and takes back his proposal."

*

Aiesha dedicated the next few days to finding out which of her servants her friend had been with, but try as she might, she couldn't get anything out of them.

"Could Ren be mistaken about something?" She asked herself. "Ah well, I don't mind as long as I get to reap the benefits. But whoever that person is had better stay far, far away from me and my man."

Blarghhh!!!

Aiesha was interrupted by a loud burp just as she was about to retire to bed. She quickly darted to the washroom and ended up releasing all the contents in her tummy.

'Did I eat anything bad today?' She wondered in her head as she gurgled some water in her mouth.

The vomiting continued the next day, so Aiesha decided to go to the hospital, afraid that she might be suffering from food poisoning.

*

"Congratulations! You're three weeks pregnant!" The doctor chimed excitedly and added. "But your symptoms seem to have started pretty early.

"What?! I'mpregnant?" Aiesha asked rhetorically.

Not that she needed the doctor to repeat the news, but she was just too stunned to hear her say that.

The doctor nodded and replied. "Yes, you are."

'I'm doomed! Of all my lifetime, why is it only at this moment of my life that I should find myself pregnant by that old man right at this moment of my life?' Aiesha thought to herself as she slumped down onto her chair with despair written on her face.

"You need to start going for antenatal care pretty soon. The doctors and nurses over there will take over..."

'Huh! The universe must be fighting against me.' Aiesha thought to herself, not even hearing a word that the doctor was telling her.

She suddenly turned to the doctor. "I'm not keeping this baby. So tell me what procedures I need to take real quick. Abortion is legal in here, isn't it?"

"Huh?" The doctor was quite confused to hear her say this.

'The only baby that I would carry has to be Ren's and no one else's.' She said in her mind.