<h4>Chapter 169: Meeting</h4>


    "She wants to hold a video meetingter."


    Mnie raised an eyebrow as she looked up from her breakfast at Adam, who was staring at her intently. She sighed, feeling the weight of his gaze.


    Even though he had ’tortured’ her all night -both in ways that made her toes curl and in ways that tested her patience -she had stubbornly refused to share the details of what Saira had said.


    Thus, after a long night of making love and almost being unable to get up, she was still being subjected to Adam’s assessing stare, the kind he seemed to use when he was particrly unhappy about being kept in the dark. It was almost as if he was trying to make her guilty for not talking to him. But she wasn’t going to so she could only suffer.


    "A video meeting?" she repeated slowly. "But why?"


    "Hmm.She said I can interact with the child for now, andter, when the child is morefortable, we can proceed further." Adam said as he poked at the eggs on his te.


    Mnie looked down at her breakfast for a few moments,even as her hands clenched under the table, then lifted her eyes to meet his again. "What do you think?"


    Adam didn’t even hesitate. "I’m going to refuse."


    That had her head snap up in shocl as she stared at him," Why? I know you want to make sure the child is yours etc, but didn’t you say that there is a good chance he is because he looks like you? So, what is the problem with interacting with the child?"


    Adam leaned back in his chair, the picture of calm determination. His arms crossed over his chest, and his gaze never wavered from her face. "Because," he said, his voice low and even, "she’s doing this for her own gain. Not for the child. Not for me. She wants to use the child to reconnect with me."


    Mnie opened her mouth to say something but then fell silent.


    "She wants to use the child for her own means," Adam said firmly. "She thinks if I form a bond with the child, then she’ll have a permanent hold over and rtionship with me. A chain she can yank whenever it suits her."


    His jaw tightened, and the muscle there ticked in anger. "I’m not going to let any child of mine or any other innocent—be a pawn in a game for power."


    Mnie’s heart twisted at the fierceness in his voice. At the protectiveness. Tentatively, as she made sure to keep her voice neutral, she asked," But the child is always going to be stuck between you and her. He has permanently linked you two together."


    Adam’s expression hardened, and when he spoke, his voice was like ice. "No. The child will either be mine—or hers. There will be no in-between, Melon. I refuse to have anything to do with her."


    "It might be ruthless," he said, the words dropping like stones between them, "but it has to be this way. If I let there be any ovep, if I allow her even a sliver of power between us, she’ll manipte it. She’ll manipte him or me. And, like I said, I won’t allow it. She might think that she can use me, but in this case, I think I will be heartless. However if I let her control how I see him, when I see him, how I interact with him... I be nothing but a puppet. And she bes the puppeteer. And she will dangle him over me for the rest of my life.""


    "But what if the child needs you and her?" Mnie asked tentatively.


    "He will have me. If he’s mine, he will have all of me. Not scraps. Not visits regted by Saira. He will be mine. I will protect him. Raise him. Love him. As for Saira, if the child needs a mother... we will see when the timees. Also, I doubt the child even knows her. Because she has definitely not met with the child in thest three years."


    Mnie frowned. She should be relieved that Adam had decided to not keep any rtionship with Saira. But something in her felt bad for the child.


    "You’re talking about cutting a child in half," she said quietly. "Like in those old stories where both women im to be the mother."


    Adam gave a humorlessugh, "Except in those stories, the real parent would rather lose the child than see him hurt. Saira wouldn’t care. She would see him hurt if it meant keeping me on a leash."


    "I’ll find another way," Adam said. "I won’t let her control the first meeting. I’ll have a DNA test done properly. I’ll make sure he’s mine. And then, when there’s no leash she can tug, when there’s no advantage she can twist, I’ll go to him. I’ll im him fully. Without her interference."


    Mnie looked away. Adam did not realise that despite iming that he would need a DNa test, Adam had already believed the child to be his. She sighed and stopped herself from saying what she wanted to ask. Did she have a ce in this future that he envisioned with his child. But she dare not ask. Because she had no idea if she wanted to be a part of this future.


    Malenia sighed at her own foolishness. She’d already received an indirect answer to the question that had been troubling her but now, she was bothered by another question. Did he see her in his future? And did she see him in her future? She had no idea.


    Just then, her phone rang, and she jolted out of her thoughts. She looked down at it and sighed," I need to go now... Let me know how things turn out..."


    Hurriedly, she stood up and started to walk away. She had taken a few steps when a hand shot out and caught her wrist.