Lee...

If Liam had been doubting previously that this woman was his Natalia, then what she just called him now had cleared all of the doubts. Only Natalia called him that, Lee.

And that was when the rest of her words registered in his mind. Natalia was asking who Shikera was? He was not the only one who was shocked by the question, as even Shikera and Noah grew wide eyed by it.

"Of course she is your daughter, Natalia. I named her Shikera," he replied gently.

"My daughter," Natalia scoffed, a frown forming on her face.

She continued, "Were you this despicable, Liam? Just because you lost your real daughter, you took in another and used her as a substitute?!"

At this point, Liam was sure they were speaking about completely different people. He looked from Shikera to Natalia, before opening his mouth to ask, "Natalia, this is Shikera Anderson and she is my daughter and yours too. I don’t understand—"

"What the heck are you saying?!" Natalia interrupted him. She took two steps towards Shikera and the suddenly stopped, "I don’t know what you were planning when you took her in, Liam. But I will tell you this is not my daughter. Was this one even kidnapped?"

’Kidnapped?’ Shikera asked in her head, oblivious to the way Ethan’s head snapped up beside her.

"I was not kidnapped, Mrs..." Shikera answered in a low voice which didn’t feel like hers. She was just too confused about what was happening at this moment.

"You were not? Tell me, Liam, what age was she exactly when you adopted her?"

"Stop it, Natalia!" Liam interjected. "I don’t understand what you are saying but Shikera is my daughter. And you are right, she was kidnapped when she was ten and I was only able to get her back five years later."

Shikera’s gaze travelled from one person to another in the room, until she finished examining all of their faces. Was this a kind of joke? And she was the only one not getting confused on what was happening in this room?

The more she tried to understand what was going on, the more confused she became. Slowly, she fell back on the sofa she had been sitting on as her hands went to cradle her head.

Noah joined her, holding her shoulders with his hands.

"I’m not sure if there is anyone not confused by the drama going on in this room, but I will highly appreciate if my own confusion is cleared. And Shikera here seems to be getting a headache as you can see; so why don’t we all sit and end all this with a question answer session instead," he suggested.

"That will be a great relief," Liam agreed immediately and sat down. When she saw that they were all seated, Natalia sighed in exasperation and joined them, but not before throwing a glare at Shikera.

"Okay so now that we are all seated, can you please explain yourself, Natalia? The rest of us here can understand what I’m trying to say but I regret to say that none of us understands yours," Liam stated, his worried eyes darting to Shikera’s face.

"That is my point too. You all understand whatever gibberish it is you are speaking but why do I not understand at all? Because this is a lie! If you remember clearly Lee, I gave birth to a daughter then. Just one daughter and not two so where did this one come from?" Natalia questioned.

"Exactly. Just one daughter which is Shikera. This is not the exact reunion I pictured, Natalia, but..."

"You all should stop talking please," Shikera’s soft voice sounded, accompanied by a pin drop silence in the office as everyone listened to hear what she wanted to say.

"Can you please start right from the beginning? Right from when you gave birth to your daughter. Don’t you think it’s right for us here to know about that so we won’t get confused with listening to something only you two understand? Tell us why my mother died but ended up alive, and tell me why it turns out I was kidnapped..." She paused to catch her breath, and Noah pulled her into his arms.

"So who is talking between you two?" he asked blandly.

Natalia and Liam exchanged glances while keeping silent for a while, before the latter finally spoke,

"I will talk, and say everything I can remember."

★★★

"We can’t keep this baby, Nate. She will only be the death of us through worry. You heard what the doctor said, right?" Liam asked, running his hands through his hair in a frustrated manner. He was sitting by the side of a bed, where a woman who looked exactly like Shikera’s present appearance was lying. She looked weak, and her exposed collarbone was a perfect testament of how skinny she had become.

"I...I won’t sacrifice my...my daughter just so I won’t worry, Lee. I hate you for...for suggesting such," the woman stammered weakly, ending her sentence with a series of coughs.

Liam picked up a glass of water from the bedside table and lifted his wife’s head up, helping her to drink some.

"Don’t force yourself to talk if you are still weak. I don’t want to argue with you, Natalia, but it would only be bad if we allow this child grow more before eliminating her. You haven’t even birthed her and we are already this worried."

"And...you are not the one suffering, Liam. I and my baby are the one in pain so why stress yourself? Don’t worry, we will come out of this safe and strong and you will see your beautiful daughter," Natalia said. Her eyes closed as soon as she was done talking, and she drifted into a deep sleep.

"Shit!" Liam cursed out loud, his eyes straying down from his beloved wife’s beautiful face down to her swollen belly, where that parasite of a daughter was living.

How he hated the unborn thing already!