Page 40 of Obsessive Love (The King #1)

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Kaleb

W e all sit in silence for a few minutes until Sophia sheepishly enters the room and moves to sit beside me.

"The packaging says to wait three minutes," she says quietly, picking up a bottle of water.

Jess sets a timer on her phone, placing it flat on the counter in front of us all.

I watch Sophia gulp down some water and then shakily put the bottle back down.

"I don't want to bring a baby into this world," she whispers, staring at the marble surface. "I don't want my child to grow up like we did with all this danger surrounding them and having this constant worry that something is going to happen to them or their family."

"Is that the reason you're upset?" I ask, moving my stool closer to hers so my thigh is pressed against her leg and I gently wrap my arm around her back.

She nods, rolling her lips inward as she peers up at me.

"Especially with our situation. There'd be so much chaos that comes with being pregnant. Not only are we not together, but our families wouldn't accept this. I won't be forced into giving up my child, so I'd have to go through with this pregnancy, and our families would find out and then this marriage would be over and then Alessandro would probably start a war and I can't risk that happening. I'd lose everyone."

Tears gather in her eyes again and a crease forms between her brows.

"What do we do?" she asks, her red-rimmed eyes darting between me and Jericho.

Jericho sighs, rubbing his hand against the back of his head.

"We're getting divorced."

All three of us turn to stare at him in shock.

"We can't," Sophia says, shaking her head. "Alessandro wouldn't agree to that. If he finds out about all of this, he'd go after my family!"

"He won't," Jericho states. "Look, Kaleb and I have a plan." He sits down on the opposite side of the island and rests his arms on the surface. "We've been working on a way to overthrow our father because we both want out of this whole organisation."

Sophia turns to me, surprise evident in her eyes.

"So you two are behind all of the killings and the missing people? That's why you have Carlos locked up and made your father and everyone else think he's dead?" she asks.

Jericho looks at her in confusion. Meanwhile, I smirk. She sees Jericho's reaction and sniffles as she shrugs.

"Jaylen and I did some snooping."

I chuckle at her admission and squeeze my arm around her as pride swarms me.

"Uh, yeah," Jericho says, recovering from his surprise. "Carlos gave us the names of everyone loyal to Alessandro and would help him if we were to go against him, so we've gradually gotten rid of them all. We're slowly weeding out anyone else in the organisation that has any loyalty to him because the plan is, once we kill him, I'm going to name Dominic as the man in charge."

"Really?" Sophia asks.

"Yeah. Kaleb and I have no interest in controlling London and having power over this city anymore. In all honesty, we never have. It's all my father's doing. Once he's dead, I don't want any part of this. We'll be able to get divorced and then you can openly be with who you want and do whatever it is you want to do, and I can take a break from all this toxicity. Obviously, I can't just simply hand everything over to Dominic, so technically, I would still be the main man overseeing everything, but realistically, I'd leave it all up to Dominic."

"Holy shit. This is so much to process," Jess says, staring at all of us with a look of bewilderment on her face.

"No matter what the results are on that test today, we're getting a divorce, Sophia. I wish you were never forced into this marriage and I wholeheartedly apologise for the part in this that I've played, but I'm going to get some papers drawn up and within the week, I will have all of the documents ready to sign and I promise you, we will divorce."

He knocks his knuckles against the counter, grabs a bottle of water, and then exits the kitchen, leaving us all sitting together, dumbfounded by what he's just said.

"Did you know about that?" Sophia asks, turning to face me.

I shake my head.

"I knew the whole plan about my father, but I didn't know he was going to announce that he was going to divorce you. I'm not sure how he's planning to do all of this, but he'll find a way. He always does."

The timer chooses that moment to go off and it makes Sophia jump. Her hand grasps my knee as she stares at the phone with terrified eyes.

"Want me to go get the tests?" Jess asks, watching her cousin.

Sophia shakes her head, nibbling on her bottom lip.

My arm drops from around her back when she stands from the chair and to my surprise, she holds her hand out towards me.

"You coming?"

I nod and instantly take her hand, interlocking our fingers and allowing her to drag me down the hallway towards the bathroom.

We stop outside the door and her hand trembles in mine.

"Just for the record, I wouldn't want to bring our baby into this world either whilst we're surrounded by danger," I whisper. "That's why, although I'm elated that you might be growing my baby inside you, I won't be too disappointed if the results are negative. I want us to have children once we're out of this situation and once I can guarantee you and our children complete safety."

She snorts out a laugh as she shakes her head.

"Our children?"

I frown at her.

"Yes, our children. Neither of us is having kids with anyone else, dolcezza . You may still be denying our connection, but I know that we're meant for each other, and if any man ever tried to come near you, let alone try and put a baby in you, I'd slit his throat."

She cringes and looks away from me.

"Weirdly, that actually sounded quite romantic," she mutters.