Pregnant – 2
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When they came back to the apartment Lionel made them stop at the porter's lodge.
"Mr. Thomson?" Martha asked so the seventy-year-old man came out.
"Hello Mrs. Kent… it's nice to see you have some company"
"Oh, thanks Mr. Thomson. Look… we're going out for lunch, but they are going to take a few things to my apartment around four o'clock. Would you indicate the guys to my apartment and open them the door, please?"
"Of course, there's no problem, that's my job, ma'am"
"They have to leave everything in the guest's room, please, I'm sure you'll be able to tell them right"
"No problem Mrs."
"Thank you"
"By the way, Mr… Thomson" Lionel said "I'm sure you have a great memory, don't you?"
"I do, sir" the old man replied.
"Does Mrs. Kent come accompanied very often? Male company, I mean"
The man looked at Martha before answering, and she allowed him to.
"No, sir… except from a few visits of her son, she doesn't have many male company, sir."
"Could you remember of any night she came back late with some… guy…"
Again, the man made sure Martha let him answer before talk.
"She actually came back with a man one night"
"Did I?" Martha exclaimed.
"I remember it because it's not something usual on her, and… yeah… the man asked me to push the elevator button because he was holding Mrs. Kent, who seemed to be very tired"
"Oh, my God!" Martha's eyes suddenly filled with tears "Who-?" but Lionel made her shut up.
"Had you ever seen this guy before? Could you recognize him or tell us his name?"
"No, sir… I don't remember his face…"
"There are security camera's right? Do you have records of that day?"
"No sir, the records are deleted forty-eight hours after if anybody claims for them."
"Ok, thank you Mr. Thomson, you've really been very helpful" Lionel said giving a bill to the man, who accepted it with a big smile.
"A pleasure, sir"
"Let's go, Martha… You need some air" they went outside again without going upstairs.
"I should have asked the same morning…" Martha regretted.
"Martha, you didn't know… it's not your fault… At least, we now know you were right, it happened something that night"
"Of course it happened, I got raped!" she yelled out in the middle of the street "And I wouldn't have never known it if I hadn't got pregnant! For god's sake, this even sounds crazy to me!" she broke down into tears and Lionel pulled her in his embrace.
"Everything's going to be fine… I'm not going to leave you alone" Lionel said.
The next morning some noise in the bathroom woke Lionel up. He later learned it was Martha's morning sickness.
He went out of the room in his pajamas and prepared some tea. Martha came later, already dressed.
"Are you going to the office today?"
"Yes, but tomorrow's Saturday so we'll be able to enjoy the weekend" she smiled while he handed her a cup of hot tea with very few sugar, just like she liked it.
"I'm going to need a list of every person who went to the party, will you be able to have it?" he said.
"Sure, that will be easy"
"Oh, and don't tell anyone about your pregnancy… it could make him suspect"
"Ok" Martha said with a more serious tone.
"Are you alright?"
"Well… I'll be in the office thinking every guy I say good morning can be the one who…"
"Why don't you stay home?" Lionel suggested.
"No, no… I'll be fine. See you later" she said leaving the cup in the sink and taking her bag before leaving the apartment.
Lionel spent the morning in front of his laptop and doing some calls, trying to do some work regarding the Luthor Corp., but he ended up standing up and walking to the drawer where Martha kept that echography… He couldn't imagine how she was feeling with all what was going on and he wished he could really help her. Then, the telephone rang.
"Where is her?" Lionel asked to the woman in the reception of the hospital.
"Who are you looking for, sir?" she said, kindly.
"Martha… Kent… the Senator" Lionel said nervously.
"Room 32, second floor… there's an elevator…" but before the lady could finish Lionel was already gone.
At end of the corridor of the second floor there was the door with the number 32. Lionel opened it without knocking, and met a doctor standing at the middle of the room.
"Oh… sorry…" he said stepping back.
"I'm here" Martha muttered from a corner of the room, where she was sitting down on a couch.
"Martha!" he exclaimed coming in and standing in front of her "Are you ok? They called me and I got very worried… How do you feel?"
"She's fine" the doctor said "She fainted; sometimes the stress can affect the pregnancy and cause this… I've recommended her a lot of rest, no hard efforts… maybe she should have some vacations from work…"
"I'm fine" Martha suddenly talked.
"You're not… You've just fainted… I'll take you home and we'll discuss what we're going to do with your job during the weekend" he said helping her to stand up.
"I'm not taking vacations" Martha advised.
"You should listen to your husband, Mrs. Kent, he's just caring about your wellbeing"
"My…?" Martha muttered looking at Lionel.
"I'm not… I'm not her husband, doctor… but thanks for everything"
They took the elevator to go down, and a cab was waiting for them at the entrance. During the entire journey they said nothing, and when they finally arrived to the apartment, Martha went to get change while Lionel prepared an omelet for lunch.
"Lionel…" Martha interrupted their long silence after sitting down on the table "Why are you staying? I mean… it's not that I don't like you being here, because I do, but… this doesn't concern you…"
"I don't know" he answered.
"You don't know?" Martha wondered with a sweet giggle coming out.
"No, I don't… I mean… it's not something I've been thinking about too much, I just decided I should stay… Haven't you ever felt you have to be somewhere just because that's the right thing?" and he waited for Martha to nod "Well, after I learned the situation I felt this was the place I had and wanted to be" he held her hands and looked deeply into her eyes "I'm not looking for anything, Martha… I just want, as a friend, to be with you… I'll move to an hotel if you wish, but don't ask me to keep myself away because I won't leave you alone right now"
Martha's eyes filled with tears "Thanks for staying, Lionel" she said, and it wasn't necessary to say anything else.
They finished having lunch and after that they went out for a walk… while they were looking at the kids playing in the park, Martha told Lionel what had happened on the morning.
"… I don't know what exactly happened… At first I was ok but then, Jimmy came into my office, he's my secretary, and I started to feel bad… I couldn't stop looking at him trying to remember something, so I decided to have some fresh air, but it was worst… every man in the room frightened me, I mean, any of them can be the one that… I panicked and, the next think I remember is being in an ambulance…"
"Then, definitely you can't go back to that place… I'll call my lawyers and they'll take care of everything, you won't go back to work, at least, until the baby's born"
"I can't do that" Martha replied.
"There's nothing to discuss… We have to care about yourself and baby, now…" he said "By the way, an old friend of mine's coming this weekend, he's a private investigator and he's going to help us with…"
"Oh, talking about that" Martha interrupted "I got the list of the people who went to the party… they were about two hundred people, Lionel, I don't know how we're going to…"
"We will… it doesn't matter how much time it takes, we'll find the bastard"
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TO BE CONTINUED…