Chapter Nineteen

By summertime, Irena and Melkior had managed to become pregnant with their first child. For the first three months of her pregnancy, he had been rather busy with work projects and all manners of expansions he was doing in his company. She tried to pay attention while he explained some of the projects and new ventures, but all she really understood was that it was a way for him to increase company profits by 12 percent. She hadn't bothered to be upset about his lack of attentiveness as of late. Afterall, she was able to go and do whatever she pleased so long as he knew where she was and she was safe.

She had taken several trips from their personal island to the mainland to visit her family in Drovikstead. So many, in fact, that Melkior had purchased a helicopter for the island to make it simpler for the both of them. Leikney and Nevena were celebrating their fifteenth birthday just last month and to see them grow so old brought happy tears to her eyes. After speaking with her husband on the matter and settling on an amount available to her in order to buy her sister's presents, she had gone shopping for things she knew each of them would like. For Leikney, she had stuck to the more conventional sort of things a fifteen year old girl would want. A gift card for shopping, some comfortable but fashionable shoes, and a makeup set from the girl's favourite brand.

Arranging presents for Nevena was a different matter, naturally. She had stuck to her theme of getting both girls new shoes, but Nevena's had been much more on the practical than fashionable sign. They were a good and long-lasting set of winter boots that were sure to keep her warm in Iceland's climate. She had also given the girl a gift card to go shopping, being that whether she cared for fashion or not she would still need clothes of some kind. Though, Irena knew Nevena well enough to know the girl cared little for makeup and had opted to get her a telescope and basic astronomy book instead.

She had taken several pictures during the party and called her husband two different times during that day. He smiled and listened to his wife's excitement both times with calm ears for a while before Dr. Saliba interrupted to let him know the investors had arrived. As he rushed off to welcome the rich bastards in and arrange investment plans, he smiled to himself. Irena was to have everything she ever wished for if he kept this up.

Altogether their arrangement wasn't a bad one. This week though, Melkior had taken off of work entirely to take his wife on a trip to see the Cyprus islands. He vaguely recalled her mentioning an archaeological site she'd read of in the area and between the historical and naturistic attractions, he figured the both of them could have an enjoyable time.

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The first place the lovers stopped after they had landed, was to visit the Archaeological site of the Tombs of Kings. The necropolis held a curious orange-yellow sort of stone and its structure actually dug down into the ground rather than being built on top of it as most tombs were. Irena had gone for a look most likely to keep her unnoticeable in any crowds there may be. She wore blue jeans and a floral chiffon blouse with light and airy sleeves to keep her from getting hot. Melkior had refrained from telling her that she stood out in every crowd anyways as she selected a geometry printed casual shirt with the collar downturned for him and some comfortable slacks to match.

They looked touristy enough to blend in with the others but casual enough not to be seen as overdoing it, which was Irena's preference. Melkior's preference was, well, Irena.

The Tomb had been a rather fascinating spectacle to both of them, exactly as the man had hoped. Irena studied the artistic engravings and the style of architecture, taking pictures of her favourite features, while her husband spoke with a tour guide about the historical implications of the site. Melkior found it most interesting that despite being named "The Tomb of Kings" there was no royalty buried on the site, rather it was a collection of aristocratic families of Cyprus from the Hellenistic period. Just as they readied themselves to leave, Irena paused for a moment, gently grabbing her husband's arm.

"Darling?"

As soft as her voice was, Melkior's blue eyes snapped to her immediately and he had already made up his mind to do whatever she asked of him.

"Do you mind if we take a picture together?"

Melkior scanned her face and upon noting the red of her ears, it occurred to the man that she was embarrassed to be asking him. His smile betrayed the observation and Irena rolled her eyes, turning to leave when he pulled her back gently by the wrist and kissed her cheek slowly.

She opened her pouting mouth to question him when the flash of a camera went off and she blinked twice. Suddenly, it occurred to her what had happened and she began blushing a bright pink at the cheeks.

"Melkior!"

The man beamed at her with a boyish sort of charm and she shoved him, before wrapping herself around his arm and announcing that the baby was hungry for ice cream. Melkior chuckled aloud as he agreed to get the two of them some ice cream. It seemed he could hardly ever refuse the woman, and he didn't have any real desire to either.

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Irena's utmost favourite place they visited was the Protaras beach. When they had gathered their respective icecreams, the two of them had gone for a walk along the sand. Irena's strawberry cheesecake flavour melted down her hand, spilling slightly onto the thigh of her jeans and Melkior teased her mildly for such. He had always been into the classics, and chocolate suited him for the evening. Though he was admittedly a much less messy eater, he managed to get away without so much as a mild stain.

When they were content and finished with their sweets, Irena beckoned them closer and closer to the water until she was standing in it up to her knees, with her jeans rolled up and sifting through the sand for decorative looking seashells. Melkior watched his wife amusedly from his seated position on the shore, snapping secret pictures on his cell phone whenever her smile brightened or the sun hit her hair right. She was a masterpiece as he saw her, and it had been far too long since he'd gotten the opportunity to just be in the same space as her without the distraction of work.

Eventually she had a conglomerate of shells tucked in her pockets and Melkior moved to the water, helping her to get back to the shore without harm. Her baby bump was hardly noticeable but Melkior still found himself worried for her health and well-being more than he already had before.

"Why collect so many shells?"

Irena flicked as much of the water from her body as she could before she recognised he had asked her a question and she turned to face him.

"I was thinking of making Mamma and Pabbi matching necklaces."

Melkior nodded as he took her hand and led her back to the main street where they could catch a cab back to the hotel. She had always been the creative type and her answer was hardly surprising.

"Send me pictures when you finish."

Irena nodded, smiling faintly to herself.

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On the fourth night of their time in Cyprus, Irena was awoken in the middle of the night by a nauseousness in her stomach from the pregnancy and she rose, tossing the sheets from her body and moving to the bathroom.

After she'd resolved the matter to her best ability, she decided to take a walk through the luxurious hotel room to stretch and calm herself. When she walked quietly past the sitting room, she stopped and moved back some, peeking through the slightly ajar doorway where Melkior was sitting at his computer. He was scribbling away in a notebook on the coffee table and scrolling through some manner of article on his open laptop.

A part of Irena was hurt to find him working during their vacation but she quickly abandoned the feelings when she caught a closer glimpse of what it was exactly that he was working on.

Her heart sunk deep in her chest at the DNA strand on his screen and the graphs that followed. She knew his business was an experimentation plant of some kind and she knew it to be scientific, but it wasn't necessary for Melkior to do much actual science when he had a team of twenty plus people to do it for him. Which caused her to believe that this wasn't related to his work at all.

A sense of foreboding terror filled her as she tried to convince herself that he wasn't studying what she thought he was. She took in a deep, slow breath as she backed away from the door and resigned herself to the bedroom.

Melkior was an excellent lover and his scientific mind was part of what made him so good to her, but she also knew how he could get when it came to matters such as this. As her eyes grew heavy she decided that she would try her best not to make the matter a problem until it was really a problem.

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