Chapter 54

I sighed and took a deep breath.

"No, Sam… I am sorry for lashing out at you. I could have handled that a lot better. I could have sat you down and had a mature conversation about my cause of disagreement without resulting in violence. It was the only way I knew to get my point across to Martin, because he never listened to my voice. I was wrong for treating you like him. But, I did not appreciate you making the sole decision of presenting that unauthorized narrative to my father. You do not decide about my daughter without consulting me or trying your best to get me on board. And if you fail in the end, leave it at my decision. My decision should always be final when it is my child. It does not matter if you mean well, Sam. You undermined my authority as her mother, and I do not want to feel stifled by you. I get you are used to making executive decisions, but I am not your employee, and this is not one of your businesses you are trying to salvage. I am not afraid or ashamed of being a single mother, and my child not having a father does not make her illegitimate. It just makes her a child with one parent."

"And I hear you. I will oblige by your desires henceforth by discussing before acting. But I am new to this, Debs. I have never been responsible for other human beings not connected to my businesses. I have always been the sole authority. I am a father and partner in learning, but I promise to learn faster and do better by you."

"I know you are trying to make things easier for me, but I cannot let you take my cross because it is not yours to bear. I will not let you think you are a father because you are not a father yet. Correct the narrative that you are."

"I am not correcting this narrative because it is the only one I want to know or believe. Sam is my daughter."

"You deserve to have your own actual family, Sam. Allowing you to be her father will be me taking that chance away from you, so please understand my reasons."

He took my hand and pulled me down. Making me lay beside him with my head on his arm, so our noses were almost touching.

"Listen to me, Debby. You are not taking away my chance at a family, but giving me a wonderful one. I believe fate brought us together. The things that did not quite work out in our lives were all in preparation for this moment. Sam was destined to be my daughter. If not, how do you explain the fact that she came out looking like me? Someone you never dreamt of meeting. She chose me, Debs. She heard your prayer, and she chose me to be her father and now, I am choosing her. You gave her my name, Debby. You chose me without realizing it. Let me honour the responsibility given to me by fate. Let me protect and love you, please."

He kissed me tenderly, as if I were a fragile egg, and pushed my head under his chin as he let me sob my sorrows away.

"Debs, care to explain how I am down with severe anaemia, and the doctor recommends I spend the day at home?"

"Ohm… ohm… I am sorry. You looked so tired, Sam. I just wanted you to have undisturbed sleep for once, and I stole your phones so that no one would wake you up. You really needed the rest."

"You know I am going to punish you for this, right?"

I tried to run away, but he held and tickled me until I was shedding tears and farting.

"About your father and the effect of what I told him. How about we schedule a visit to your family home for the weekend? That is if you do not mind."

"Um… Ok. I will communicate it to them."

"Thanks for not fighting me on this."

"Only because I have no strength left in me. You have drained me completely."

He broke into laughter, and I shushed him as not to wake Princess.

I know we are crazy taking on this new challenge.

Me letting him be what he wants to be in our lives, and him accepting the role of a father to a child that is not his biologically.

We also know that the world is about to rain hell on us.

But lying here in his arms with my daughter sleeping peacefully on his solid chest, I feel absolutely protected and ready to tackle the world.

Only if the world is an easy opponent.

You see?

The world is not an easy opponent and time is about to reveal that to us, and I fear time is about to reveal that to us.