Diamond

11

Michelle's P.O.V

It's has been six months since I've given birth to my daughter, Nia, and I am so amazed at how someone can just take my whole heart. Each day she grows into a mini version of me, my mom took my baby picture and compared it to Nia and it's like one person.

Adrian says that he loves that Nia looks like me and hopes that she takes after me as she grows up, except for my stubbornness.

I stayed in the hospital for some days and when I went home mom said that she was going to start working form home so that she can help me with the baby.

I don't mind her helping me, infact I am very grateful but the woman always has my baby in her arms. The only time I get to hold Nia is when I am breastfeeding her, burping her, giving her a bath and changing her clothes and dirty diapers, or when mom is in a virtual meeting.

Other than those times my daughter stays with my mom all the time. She even continues to hold Nia while she is sleeping during the day, at least at night she lets her sleep in her crib in my room. My daughter has gotten so big in these past six months from being fed by my mom, if I don't stop her from feeding Nia from time to time then my baby would be overweight for a baby of 6 months.

Dad on the other hand has somewhat been estranged from me and the baby. He sometimes spends time with Nia but it is only when mom has her in their room or some parts of the house. He has changed from the fun loving dad that I grew up with to this strange grumpy dad that he has been before I gave birth.

He spends more time at work or when he is home he spends time in the gym or in his study. At first I thought that it was the stress from work and there is some crisis that the company is facing, but considering that mom always works with him in the same companies, she assured me that there was no problem at work.

And I do believe her because whenever I asked about the company she would tell me everything that was going on and even sometimes ask for my input on some things.

Unfortunately they are still arguing from time to time. One time they were arguing and I overheard them talking about me and Nia, and by 'overheard' I definitely mean eavesdrop, but it was a one time thing. When they were done arguing, dad left the house and mom didn't come out of their bedroom for hours.

Ever since then I try to sort of avoid both parents, I would take Nia and drive over to Adrian's house so that him and his parents can spend some time with her for the day or I would sleep over at their place for a few days. My parents got me a new car, it is the latest Range Rover Velar in metallic grey exterior and cream white interior.

The best time is when I drive to Adrian's apartment and the three of us would spend the day together as a family. My parents sold my apartment when I was five months pregnant and they didn't tell me until after I gave birth.

Currently I am home in the nursery with Nia and mom, it is crazy how much my daughter has grown in the past six months. I feel that she is growing up so fast, so I make sure that I spend as much time with her as I can. I haven't gone back to university, after I finished the first semester of the year I decided to go back after Nia has turned a year old. That way I can go to campus instead of taking online classes.

Mom is having a conversation with Nia and my baby is looking and responding in noises like she understands. The conversation between the two of them is about how I should let mom feed her as much as she wants. She has been like this for the past three weeks; always with me and Nia, hugging, squeezing, and kisses the both of us like she is about to lose us.

I know that it sounds crazy but the way she has been acting, very much feels that way. Dad is still the same way, so I just try to put my attention to Nia even though it is hurting me that he is treating me this way.

Mom's phone beeps indicating that she has a message, the smile on her face drops when she reads it.

"Mom, are you okay?" I ask her.

"Uh... Yes... Yes I am, your... father is home and he just wants to talk to me. I'll be right back," she says walking out of the nursery before I can say anything.

I look at Nia who is just playing with her hands and feet, I pick her up and walk to my room.

Milan's P.O.V (Michelle's Mom)

"What's wrong?" I ask Brian as I enter our bedroom.

"Close the door we need to talk," he says looking outside the balcony door, I close the door.

"If this is about what you have been thinking then just forge..."

"I have made a decision," he interrupts me.

"What decision?"

"I will give her a choice; it's either she give that thing up for adoption or she leaves my house," he says firmly looking at me in the eyes.

I don't know what to say, my mind is trying to process what he has just said. Looking into his eyes I can clearly see that he is serious with what he just said.

"Are you out of your f*cking mind?"

"Don't talk to me like that!" he says with a firm voice.

"I will talk to you just like that because what you have just said is insane,"

"No it is not! Our family's reputation has turned for the worse ever since Michelle got pregnant. No one respects us anymore and now some client wants to pull out of a deal with the company..."

"So your reputation is more important than our daughter and granddaughter?"

After I ask him, he goes quiet and looks away from me.

"This is not something I want but it is something that needs to be done, and I already found a family that is willing to adopt the baby,"

"What? When did you even..." I ask him but he interrupts me.

"I have been looking for a family for five months now. I thought that I would have found one a month after Michelle gave birth but I wanted to do a deep background check before anything started. And now I have finally found a family, they live in London and they have been looking to adopt a child for a year now,"

My mind has so many words that I don't know what to say. But there are two words that are very loud.

"HELL NO!!!!"

After I said that we start talking over each other, neither of us wanting to back down or even listen to the other.

"MILAN!! You can argue all you want but there is nothing that you can do to change my mind or to stop this," he goes straight to the bathroom after saying that.

There is no way that I am letting him do this to Michelle, if he cares so much about his reputation then he can leave this house.

I walk out the room and go to the nursery but I don't find anyone there, I check Michelle's bedroom and it's also empty.

"Mrs. Anderson, do you know where Michelle and Nia are?" I ask her as I enter the kitchen.

"She left 30 minutes ago with Nia, she said that she is going to Shantelle's house and she will be back before sunset," she says.

"Okay thank you,"

I walk outside and call Michelle.

~~Phone conversation

"Hey, mommy dearest,"

"Where are you?"

"I am at Shantelle's house I came with Nia to visit her. I told auntie to tell you that I left. Didn't she tell you?"

"Uhm, yes, she did tell me but I just wanted to hear from you, with your own voice"

"Mom, we saw each other about 30 minutes ago"

"Yes I know but still..."

"Don't worry we arrived safely. The three of us are currently watching a movie"

"Okay, I am glad that you got there safe. Call me when you are about to come home and if it's late don't bother driving back, just call me and I will send the driver to you"

"Okay, I promise to do just that"

"Then talk later and tell Shantelle I said hello"

"I did and she says hello back. Talk later mom, love you"

"Love you too Michi"

End of phone conversation~~

Every single time Michelle leaves the house and drives by herself, I get so worried. My mind instantly goes back to the phone call that I got saying that she was in a car accident. I am trying not to stress much but I can't help it.

Now that I know she is not in the house, it is time for me to go back to that husband of mine and give him a piece... not even a piece but my entire mind.

Michelle's P.O.V

"At this rate, what's left is for my mom to actually put a tracker on me," I say to Shantelle after talking to my mom.

"Wait, doesn't she already track you by your phone?" she asks.

"Yes she does but I mean for her to actually implant a tracking chip in my body so that she can see where I am,"

"Yeah, I'm sure that she is already doing her research on the best doctor to do that," we both laugh after she says that.

We are sitting down on the carpet, I am drinking a smoothie that we made and Shantelle is playing with Nia making her laugh.

"She loves you so much," I say to her with a smile on my face.

"Well she knows that she is also loved by her godmother,"

Throughout my pregnancy Shantelle would come by every week to check up on me, when i was going to do an ultrasound she would come after my appointment to see the pictures, she was by my side throughout the whole pregnancy.

She and my mom started scrapbooking Nia's pictures; I would think that she is Nia's third parent.

"How are things at home? Are they still the same?" she asks me softly.

"Yep,"

"You know it's normal for parents to argue from time to time,"

"I know that, it's just... this is the first time I have seen them argue like this and it becomes worse because I know that they are arguing about me and Nia,"

"Why do you think that?"

"They started arguing after I got pregnant and I overheard them arguing about me. Honestly I think that my dad is angry that I got pregnant," I say to her.

"You don't know that,"

"Maybe... it's just hard to stay in that house when they are like this. Whenever we have dinner together it's always filled with uncomfortable silence, at least before they were talking about work and some random things. If it's not awkward dinners then it's my dad spending time at work for late hours,"

I just lie on my back and look up at the ceiling.

"Yeah it's hard when parents fight, the whole house is just tense and you don't even feel like being a home. But you have to remember that every couple fight, it may take some time but things will soon go back to normal," she says to me.

This is why I love Shantelle, not only is she my best friend but she is also my sister. She is the only person who I can talk to about anything and everything that is going on in my life, and she also feels the same. She is that one person who I can come visit and instead of going out to parties or clubs. We would just sit, order huge amounts of food and after pass out in the living room while sleeping in weird poses.

We have other friends but they don't prefer to do this, they always want to go out for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. They don't want to just sit at home, relax and do nothing. All they want to do is go to a nice place where they can take pictures. I honestly don't mind doing that with them but sometimes I just want to stay indoors.

"Okay, let's talk about something else. Where are the others?" I turn my head to look at her.

"Who knows with those ones, probably somewhere having a good time. Last night they asked me to go out with them and I refused, then later they sent me pictures and videos of them having 'fun' saying that I was missing out and that I am boring. And it was the same the week before,"

She uses air quotes on the word fun.

"What? They didn't ask me to go out with them last night or the week before. Hell the last time I saw any of them was two weeks after I gave birth, they came to my house to give me baby presents. Ever since then they talk to me less and less,"

Now that I am thinking about it, all three of them have been distant ever since they found out that I was pregnant.

"Yeah I'm not that surprised at all. I knew that they were all fake from the beginning," I stare at her with a confused look on my face.

"It's true; if it wasn't for Alexi we wouldn't know the twins. In the beginning of high school it was just me and you, then we befriended Alexi after sometime she came with the twins and since then we all started to hang out together. I never thought of them as my friends, you and Alexi are my only friends but Serenity and Charity, I have never considered them my friends. I just have been nice to them," she says honestly.

"Wow why haven't you told me this?" I ask her.

"Before you gave birth they have been kind towards us but I overheard them say that they can't hang around a pregnant person because then people will think that they are pregnant too and they said other nasty things about you being pregnant. After that I stopped hanging out with them," she says.

I honestly do not care about what people have to say and there were many people that had nasty things to say when I was pregnant, I'm the type of person who doesn't let what other people are saying affect my life. But hearing what my so called 'friends' thought about me is hurtful.

Yes I was close to them but they were not my best friends. Couldn't they say that to my face instead of ignoring my texts? Agggg, that's stupid of them, it's not like I'm a child who is desperately looking for friendship.

"Wow, couldn't they have said it to my face instead? Just because I got pregnant I no longer fit into their brand? I always knew that the twins were self-centered but I did not expect this from Alexi," I voice out my thoughts.

"She is being influenced by them, remember when we first met Alexi, how shy and closed off she was. But over time she started to open up to us and became outspoke, but after the twins she went from outspoken to very rude," Shantelle says while feeding Nia.

"I'm glad that I have seen this now instead of years later because I can't handle dealing with fake people in my life," I say with a sigh.

"Finally I have been ready to cut these people out of my life, I was just waiting for you to realise that. But I guess your hands have been full ever since sunshine was born," she says referring to Nia.

"Yeah she is a handful but I love her anyway," I look at my daughter and my heart just becomes full.

"Do you have any regrets about having her?" She asks in a cautious tone.

"Never, I don't regret having her,"

"Were you going to raise her alone had Adrian not come to his senses?"

"Yes I was very ready to raise her on my own. Even if my parents were going to kick me out of the house, I was still going to keep her,"

"So, are you and Adrian good now? You are no longer angry at him?"

"The reason why I was angry at Adrian wasn't because he suggested I get an abortion, that is how he felt and he has his reasons. I got angry because he made the decision for me, he didn't ask me for my opinion he just boldly questions when I was starting with the 'abortion process' as if I was already thinking the same thing. I understand him taking that option but it's the fact that he already made it for me... Mmmm, maybe I was just over reacting but that is what made me so upset," I do my best to explain to her.

"I understand where you are coming from, I mean when you first told me that he said you should get an abortion I got angrier than you, I wanted to go to him right there and then to give him a piece of mind,"

We spent the rest of the day playing with Nia, talking about random things, watching movies and eating so much food.

It got late and I didn't realise it until my mom called and asked me to come home before night fall. She tried to send a driver but I refused and told her that I will leave immediately. Nia was asleep in her car seat and Shantelle helped me get her to the car. Once the car seat was fitted securely in the car, I got in the drivers' seat and waved Shantelle goodbye then I drove home.

The drive from my house to Shantelle's apartment is about 30 minutes, so I drove carefully taking my time just listening to music and enjoying the scenery. It was sunset and orange light was casting at the sky with clouds, it looked so beautiful if I had time I would pull over and take a picture but I'm sure that if I get delayed then my mom would come find me herself.

I got home and went to park my car in front of the main door, just as I was driving closer i saw my dad get in his car and drive off.

"Where's the emergency?" I ask myself.

Parking the car I see my mom at the front door, she comes closer to the car and takes Nia out of the car seat, she was already awake. I get out of my car and give one of the staff my car keys so that he can go and park it in the garage.

"Where is dad going?" I ask mom.

"Oh don't mind your father. Come inside I missed my two girls," she walks in the house leaving me outside holding the bags.

When I get inside I ask one of the staff to take the bags up to my room, I go to the living room where mom was trying to feed Nia.

"Mom, she just ate about an hour ago, if you keep feeding her she is going to end up chubby... well more chubby than she already is,"

"Michelle, babies need food to help them grow. Look at how beautiful you are, it's because I was also feeing you like this when you were a baby,"

"And that is why people say that I had chubby cheeks that looked like I was ready to blow out candles, and now you are doing the same to my baby,"

She ignored me and continued feeding Nia, I give up on trying to argue with her and just watched TV.