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Allegra

"Ahhh, she gets cuter and cuter every time I see her!" Aashiv holds little Julia in her arms, her face splitting in two with a smile. Raif stands next to his mother, his chubby little face serious as he looks at Julia. This is the first time since we arrived at Niklaus' place just over a month and a half ago that he has come with his mother.

"Aunty Allegwa, you hatched a baby," he says in wonder, his small hand reaching out to touch Julia's even tinier one.

"Yes. I hatched a baby," I say to him, his words making me smile.

When I first arrived back, no one, not even Ade, knew I was back in the country.

Niklaus told me it was for the best while he worked on bringing David and Kraven down.

My mind goes back to that night we arrived here, a week after I gave birth in the Bahamas.

"I need to know everything. Your doctor, Lisa, she kept physical files on you. Pictures, Allegra." Niklaus was sitting behind his desk in his office, his palm resting on a folder.

Things had been strained between the two of us. The only thing we had managed to do together since seeing each other again was pick a name for our daughter.

I already had a list of three of my favorite girl's names, so when I presented them to Niklaus, I was surprised when he picked my favorite. Julia. The best movie ever by the actress of the same name. Pretty Woman was iconic, and Julia Roberts was a goddess.

"What happened with David and David Jnr?" That question. The one that I have been dreading for years.

I couldn't run from it anymore. I started at the beginning.

David Jnr and I met at The Vortex in Central London. The gallery owner, Ryan, is a close friend of mine. We met in school and remained close years later. I helped him with funding when he opened The Vortex when it was still unknown. When no one else would help him. That's why he was so loyal to me. He told me how much money Niklaus offered him when Niklaus was searching for the artist behind the pseudonym Divoká Rostlina. But he never gave my name up. Something that still surprises me now. It was a lot of money.

When I met David Jnr, I still remember Ryan warning me against him, telling me something in his eyes was dark. But I ignored him. Thinking he was just being paranoid. It wasn't until months later that the darkness surfaced.

We were hosting a dinner for some of his friends, and I made a comment, in jest, about him being untidy. That night after everyone left, he showed me just how untidy he could be. He trashed the kitchen, throwing all the plates, glasses, and cutlery on the floor, telling me I had made him look bad in front of his friends. He never physically laid a hand on me that night, but that was the start of everything.

The next morning I received ten bunches of roses and an apology that I believed until the next time. After the third time he apologized, I knew it was just words. It was exactly three months after the first incident when he first laid a hand on me, slapping me so hard across the face that the mark lasted for a week. Just because I forgot to buy milk on my way home. He never made that mistake again. After that, he would hit me in places that could be covered. Luckily, he never broke a bone. The frequency would vary, and sometimes we would have months of bliss, and other times, it would be days in between incidents.

I should have left, but I didn't. I don't know why I stayed. Naivety. Hope that it would change. Acceptance. I don't know. And when he proposed to me, I said yes. He promised that he would get counseling, but every appointment I set up, he had an excuse for. Until eventually, we were engaged for three months, and nothing changed.

I was so depressed. When I thought of my life married to David Jnr, all I saw was grey. I poured that feeling into the painting hanging in my home, the one that Niklaus saw when he first came to my house. The field with me in it, all the color drained out of me and bleeding into the field. I even initialed it as the future Mrs. Mikleson, A.M. That was the last painting I painted until a couple of months ago after coming back from Rosi Island. The last night I saw Niklaus before David forced me into taking that photograph with Kraven or Kraven reopening charges of assault against Kraven.

David Jnr learned this behavior from his dad. David would often have David Jnr watch while he beat up his wife, David Jnr's mother. David, however, was more violent and would use tools. David Jnr's mother was a regular of Lisa's, seeing her for stitches or broken bones. But David's wife never laid charges. He threatened her, saying if she did, he would kill David Jnr.

I hated David even back then. When would visit, he would make passes at me. Squeezing my ass, touching my leg under the table. It escalated on Christmas Eve. He cornered me in the bathroom of our penthouse and tried kissing me. When I refused him, he told David Jnr I had come onto him.

David Jnr was furious. I could see by the look in his eye that I was dead. When I looked behind him, David was smirking, the true face of the evil bastard shining through. I grabbed the closest thing to me, a vase filled with fake wildflowers, and smashed it against his head. There was a cut on his head, but he was still standing. The push he gave me sent me off balance, my head connecting with the side of the table in the hall.

I remember, before I lost consciousness, David telling his son how useless he was and how he couldn't even keep me in check. David Jnr shouted something to him, and that was the last I remember. When I woke up, David Jnr was dead. David told me it was due to the injury he received to his head from the vase. I believed him and didn't even question it. At the time, I was so distraught I didn't know what to think. When I think about it now, the amount of blood on the floor where David Jnr's body was lying was a lot more than what could have come from the cut I inflicted.

Everything was swept under the carpet. David made sure of it. But he always reminded me how it was my fault and how he had done me a favor. Now I think the truth is more grim. He killed his son. But I couldn't prove it.

When I finished telling Niklaus, he was furious. Furious that I tried to help him with the assault charges Kraven wanted to press against him, furious I had kept my sordid past from him, just furious. And hurt. I could tell. I made a mistake. I should have confided in him. Things would have been different.

"Allegra, you okay?" Aashiv pulls me out from the depth of my thoughts, the sun shining down, doing nothing to diffuse the melancholy feelings in me. I missed Niklaus. The way he was with me before. The way we were on Rosi Island.

When he looked at me now, all I saw was disappointment.

"I'm fine." I force a smile and take Julia, rocking her slowly as she sleeps. At least I had her.

"It's not going much better between Niklaus and you?" Aashiv asks, her face full of concern. At least she forgave me for everything. When I explained things to her, she was shocked and then hurt that I didn't tell her. But she could also understand and empathize with some of the choices I made. Niklaus was not as forgiving.

"No. But, after everything, what could I really expect." I give her another weak smile and then look away, scared that I might start crying.

"Allegra. It's time you took control of your life. You have been letting others steer your course for so long." Aashiv's words are gentle but firm.

When I think back to how I had progressed during my time in the Bahamas before I came back here, I seem to have gone backward again. It needed to stop.

Aashiv was right. It was time for me to take control. 

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