C10 The Woman in The Blue Room

"MAMA! THERE IS A LADY IN MY ROOM!"

Leo's scream tore through the mansion.

I was on my feet before Alexander. My whiskey glass fell and shattered on the floor, but I didn't feel it. I ran. I ran like I had never run in my life, up the marble staircase I used to clean as a wife, past the painting of Alexander's father that used to scare me, towards the blue room.

The blue room was at the end of the hall. The door was half open. I could hear Leo crying inside. That small, brave cry he only did when he was truly terrified.

"Leo! Leo Mama is coming!" I shouted, my bare feet slipping on the polished floor.

Alexander was right behind me, faster, his long legs eating the stairs. "LEO! DON'T MOVE! PAPA IS COMING!"

Papa. He called himself Papa. For the first time.

We burst into the blue room together.

Leo was standing in the corner, pressed against the wall, his little blue tie crooked, his face white with fear. He was holding the teddy bear Mama Njeri had just given him like a shield.

And standing in the middle of the room, in a tight red dress that was stretched over a small, round belly, was Victoria Sinclair.

Alive. Pregnant. Smiling.

She looked different from five years ago. Her perfect model face was a little swollen, her eyes were harder, but she was still beautiful in that cruel, expensive way. Her hand was resting on her belly — three months, maybe four months pregnant.

"Well, well," she said, her voice sweet like poisoned honey. "The little replacement and the little bastard. What a happy family reunion."

"Get away from my son!" I screamed, running to Leo and pulling him into my arms. He was shaking so hard. "How did you get in here? Guards! GUARDS!"

"Your guards let me in, darling," Victoria said, looking at Alexander. "They still remember me as the future Mrs. Knight. The REAL future Mrs. Knight. Not the contract one."

Alexander stepped in front of us, his body blocking Victoria from Leo and me. His fists were clenched so hard his knuckles were white.

"Victoria, I told you never to come to my house again," he said, his voice low, deadly. The voice he used before he destroyed a company. "You filed a fake paternity suit this morning. My lawyer told me. Now you break into my house and scare my son? Are you insane?"

"Your son?" Victoria laughed, touching her own belly. "Funny. Because THIS is your son, Alexander. Inside me. Three months. Yours. The night in London, two months ago, when you were drunk after your board meeting and you called me thinking I was her? Remember? You cried her name, Sarah's name, while you were inside me. But a child was made. A REAL Knight heir. Not this... this Eastlands mistake."

I felt Leo flinch in my arms. He didn't understand the words, but he understood the hate.

"Don't you dare call my son a mistake!" I shouted, tears running down my face. "He is not a mistake! He is—"

"He is a bastard born from a contract that expired five years ago," Victoria cut me off. "My child, however, was made while you were still legally my fiancé. My father never cancelled our engagement. Legally, Alexander and I are still engaged. So my child will inherit. Yours will get nothing."

That was her plan. I saw it now. Not love. Not Alexander. Money. 50% of Knight Holdings. She had lost three years, she had lost her youth in a coma, and now she wanted to be paid.

Alexander laughed. It was a cold, terrible laugh. "You think I slept with you in London? Victoria, I haven't touched you in six years. Since the day I found you cheating with my cousin. The London night you are talking about — I have CCTV from the hotel. I was alone. I was drinking and I passed out. You were never there. You photoshopped a picture, didn't you? Like you photoshopped the pregnancy scan?"

Victoria's smile flickered for just one second. One second of panic.

Then she recovered. "The court doesn't care about CCTV, darling. They care about a pregnant woman's word. And they care about DNA. Which you don't have for your little... Leo. Where is his DNA test, Alex? Oh, waiting for Dr. Patel? How convenient. The judge hearing is tomorrow at 9 AM. If you cannot produce a DNA proving Leo is a Knight by 9 AM, the judge will grant me interim heir status. And once I have interim, I will never let go."

She was right. Kenyan family courts were slow but strict about heirship. If Alexander couldn't prove Leo was his by tomorrow, Victoria's unborn child — real or fake — would be legally recognized as the first heir.

And Leo would be nothing. Again.

I held Leo tighter. "Alexander, the DNA test! Dr. Patel said it would take 24 hours! We won't have it by 9 AM!"

"I know," Alexander said, his jaw tight. He was thinking fast, I could see his CEO brain working.

Victoria walked towards the door, her red dress tight, her hand on her fake belly. As she passed us, she leaned down and whispered to Leo, smiling.

"Bye bye, little boy. Enjoy the blue room while you can. Tomorrow, my baby will live here, and you will go back to the slum where you belong."

Leo burst into tears. Loud, heartbroken tears of a five-year-old who had just been told he didn't belong.

That broke something in Alexander.

He grabbed Victoria's arm, hard. "Apologize to my son. Now."

"Let go of me! You're hurting my baby!" Victoria screamed, but she was acting. She was always acting.

"APOLOGIZE!" Alexander roared, so loud the chandeliers shook.

Mama Njeri and two guards finally appeared at the door, panting.

"Mr. Knight! We heard screaming!"

"Get this woman out of my house!" Alexander shouted, pushing Victoria towards the guards. "And call the police! Trespassing! Harassment! And get me a restraining order! Now!"

The guards grabbed Victoria. She didn't fight. She just smiled as they dragged her out, her hand on her belly, playing the victim.

"You'll regret this, Alexander!" she shouted as they pulled her down the stairs. "Tomorrow at 9 AM, you will lose everything! And you, Sarah! You stole my life! You stole my fiancé! You will pay!"

Her voice echoed through the mansion, then the front door slammed.

Silence.

Leo was sobbing in my arms, his little shoulders shaking. "Mama, I don't want to go back to Eastlands! I like the blue room! I like the teddy!"

"You are not going back, baby, you are not going back," I whispered, kissing his hair, crying with him. "Mama will never let you go back."

Alexander knelt down in front of us again, his face broken. He tried to touch Leo, but Leo flinched away, scared by the shouting.

"Leo, I'm sorry," Alexander said, his voice soft, tears in his own eyes. "That lady is... she is sick. She is lying. This is your home now. This blue room is your room. No one can take it from you. Papa promises."

Papa. He said Papa again.

Leo looked up, tears still running. "You promise?"

"I promise. I swear on my mother's grave," Alexander said, and he put his hand over his heart. "You are my son. You are a Knight. And tomorrow, I will prove it to the whole world."

He looked at me then, over Leo's head. His eyes were begging.

"Sarah, I need your help. I need you to do something that will save Leo's future. But you will hate me for it."

"What?" I whispered.

"Marry me. Again. Tonight. Right now. In this house. If we are married when I present the DNA test — even a preliminary DNA test — the court will have to recognize Leo as a legitimate child born during marriage. Contract or not, marriage covers him. If we are not married, Victoria's lawyer will call him a bastard and the judge might favor her unborn legitimate heir. Marriage is the only way to protect him by 9 AM."

Marry him. Again.

After five years of hating him, of raising his son alone, of sleeping on a cold floor in Eastlands while he lived in this mansion, he was asking me to marry him again. Not for love. For protection. For a court.

It was a contract again. Another contract.

"And after tomorrow?" I asked, my voice shaking. "After we win? What happens then? Do you throw divorce papers at me again?"

Alexander reached out and took both my hands, his hands large and warm around mine. "After tomorrow, you can divorce me again if you want. You can take Leo and you can take half of everything I own and you can leave and I will never stop you. But tonight, please, let me protect my son. Let me protect you. Be Mrs. Knight again, just for one night."

Leo looked up at us, confused. "Mama, are you going to marry him? Is he going to be my real dad then?"

I looked at Leo's tear-stained face. I looked at Alexander's desperate face. Two faces, same eyes, both begging me.

What choice did I have?

"Okay," I whispered. "Okay, I'll marry you. Tonight."

Alexander closed his eyes in relief. "Thank you. Thank you, Sarah."

He stood up and shouted for Mama Njeri. "Mama Njeri! Call Father Omondi! Now! And get a marriage certificate! And call my lawyer — I need a preliminary DNA lab to work overnight! Pay them whatever they want!"

Mama Njeri ran.

But as Alexander pulled out his phone to call his lawyer, his phone rang first. It was Dr. Patel.

Alexander answered on speaker. "Doctor? Do you have preliminary results?"

Dr. Patel's voice was strange. Nervous. Scared.

"Mr. Knight, I have the results, but... but there is a problem. A big problem. The test shows... Mr. Knight, Leo is NOT your biological son. According to the DNA, you are not the father. I ran it three times. I am sorry. You are not the father."

The world stopped.

Leo was not his son?

Then whose son was he?

I fell to my knees, holding Leo, while Alexander stared at the phone, his face white as death.

And then Leo, who had been quiet, whispered in my arms:

"Mama, who is my dad then?"