novelraw Chapter 162: For Our Future Family
Chapter 162: For Our Future Family
For one full minute, Delilah did not react.
She remained seated on his lap, staring at him with exactly the same expression. Her eyes never left his face, and aside from the steady rise and fall of her chest, she looked less like a living woman and more like a very beautiful doll.
Finally, her lips parted.
"What did you say?"
Gideon swallowed. "Your daughter is pregnant with my child."
SLAP!
The sound echoed sharply throughout the control room. It was one of the hardest slaps Delilah had ever given him.
Her mouth fell open in disbelief, and both hands immediately grabbed his shoulders and began shaking him back and forth.
"GIDEON! YOU JERK!"
She continued rattling him so hard his head bobbed helplessly.
"You got me pregnant, and now my daughter too?! What kind of monster are you?!"
Gideon could only endure the assault, one cheek burning while his body rocked with every shake.
"You saw the three of us having a threesome. What do you think would happen? Also, I tried to be honest with you, so you would not think your daughter has a tumor in her stomach and keep in denial until she suddenly gives birth to your grandchild."
"And you thought this was the best timing? Right after kissing me like that?!"
Gideon winced, but a sheepish grin still managed to appear on his face.
"Yeah, you were in a really good mood earlier. Well... at least we know your family is indeed very fertile."
Delilah stared at him for a second. Then she smacked the other side of his cheek and grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him again.
"THAT IS NOT THE POINT! And what do you mean by my family? Freya is pregnant too?!"
Her eyes widened so much that it looked as if they might pop out of their sockets at any moment.
"Of course not."
She immediately stopped shaking him and placed a hand over her chest.
"Oh, thank God."
Delilah let out a long sigh of relief. For a moment, she had been genuinely worried. Freya was only eighteen years old, well, nineteen this year, but that was still far too young to have a child. Pregnancy at her age could take a serious toll on both her body and her mind.
"Yet."
That single word, paired with Gideon’s awkward smile, was enough to make Delilah’s head throb.
This shameless man. The man who had somehow managed to impregnate both her and her daughters at the same time.
How could he smile like that?
If Gideon had been any other man, she would have gutted him on the spot and thrown his corpse to the aberrants.
Unfortunately, she could never stay truly angry with him. Most of the time, all she felt was an overwhelming sense of frustration.
"Why would you do that?!"
"Um, to repopulate this planet?"
Delilah’s hands clenched into fists.
At that moment, she honestly wanted to punch that handsome face of his. That face, which usually looked so charming and dependable, had suddenly become the most infuriating thing she had ever seen.
She could not imagine how any woman could still find it attractive after hearing what came out of his mouth.
But she was too exhausted to do anything.
More than anything, she wanted to collapse, wake up, and discover that this entire conversation had been nothing more than a terrible dream.
"You said I would be a great father, right? And your daughters seem completely ready to become mothers. I know I should have told you everything sooner, and I’m sorry for not being fully honest with you."
He sighed, and this time the guilt in his eyes was unmistakable.
"But, Delilah, your daughters are capable."
His voice softened.
"Summer is exceptionally skilled with firearms. If the world were still normal, she would probably be one of the best snipers alive."
"And Freya is brilliant with machinery. She managed to build a vehicle that can survive this brutal desert and still function even when the climate shifts into snow. Even Jade asked her to build one for the Freebound."
Gideon gently placed his hands on her shoulders, steadying her and encouraging her to breathe more evenly.
"What I’m trying to say is that they’re already adults. They are far more mature than you realize."
He looked directly into her eyes. "So please trust them. They’ll be hurt if you keep treating them like children."
Delilah’s worry slowly began to fade. Deep down, she knew Gideon was right. Summer and Freya were capable young women, far more mature than she often gave them credit for.
And yet, a part of her still could not let go of the feeling that they were meant for more than motherhood.
More than becoming like her.
"You don’t understand. You’re a man, Gideon. You can still pursue your ambitions and your dreams. But when you become a mother, you become only a mother."
"Yes, I don’t understand," Gideon admitted without hesitation.
"Because I know that one of my purposes in life is to have a family, even if my reasons were childish, as you said. Just like a mother, my responsibilities become heavier because now I have you, I have Summer, I have Freya, and soon I’ll have children too."
He let out a quiet chuckle, though there was no mockery in it.
"What is a dream, anyway? Most husbands spend their lives working so they can provide for their families. At least, that’s what I believe and the one I wanted to be. Every one of us has our own burdens to carry and our own sacrifices to make."
He smiled and corrected himself. "I’m not your husband. It’s not fair for me when in your head, your model husband is that jerk Leon."
Delilah did not answer immediately. Instead, her thoughts drifted back to the days after Summer was born.
At the time, she had believed it would be the happiest period of her life and her husband’s life. And for a little while, it was.
Then everything became too much. Her emotions spiraled beyond her control. The sound of Summer’s cries, which had once seemed as beautiful as music, slowly turned into a relentless torment that never stopped.
And even as Delilah’s mental state deteriorated, Leon continued living as if nothing had changed.
He went to work every day. He spent weekends away. He attended parties even when Summer was sick.
He kept advancing in his career while Delilah remained trapped in that small room, alone with a crib and a crying infant, with no one beside her.
There were nights when she begged him not to leave. She pleaded with him after he criticized her for failing to care for Summer the way he thought she should.
But Leon always had the same excuses. It was too much for him and it would interfere with his career.
And just like that, he was able to walk away.
She could not.
And worst of all, when he eventually returned, she welcomed him back as though nothing had happened, all because she did not want Summer to grow up without a father.
How foolish she had been.
Delilah had been alone throughout her entire marriage.
But the man standing before her now was different from Leon. She did not know with absolute certainty what Gideon would do if life became overwhelming.
Still, in her heart, she believed he would not run.
"My husband... I mean, Leon, my ex-husband." Her voice trembled as tears gathered in her eyes. "The day I married him, I never imagined he would abandon me when Summer was still a baby."
A tear finally slipped down her cheek. "But he did and I feel like a fool because everyday I keep hoping he would come back."
She lifted her gaze to meet Gideon’s. "Promise me you will never do that."
"I promise you," Gideon said softly. "I would never dare."
He smiled and gently rubbed her head. It was such a simple gesture, one that few people would ever dare to do to a woman her age, yet it melted her heart with surprising ease.
It was strange how effortlessly Gideon dismantled all the walls she had spent years building around herself.
Without another word, Delilah wrapped her arms around him. Gideon embraced her in return as they started to understand their perspective.
"I can’t believe that even after all of that, you still wanted to stay with that man."
"I know." She let out a soft sigh. "I was young, after all. I got married when I was eighteen, and Summer was born the following year. When he was gone, I managed to finish my bachelor’s degree."
"I’d never been in a relationship before. I suppose I didn’t know whether what he did was normal or not."
Gideon clenched his jaw. "Lucky bastard."
He pulled back slightly so he could look at her face. "What did he do to make you fall for him in the first place? Was he really that handsome? More handsome than me?"
Delilah let out a small laugh. "Well, he was one of the most popular boys in high school."
"Seriously?"
Gideon grimaced as if personally offended. "Huh. If we’d gone to the same school, I would’ve bullied the hell out of him."
That image was so absurd that Delilah burst into genuine laughter. She could picture it all too clearly: Gideon swaggering through the halls, somehow turning Leon’s life into a living nightmare.
When her laughter subsided, she reached up and flicked him lightly on the nose.
"And I would have hated you forever because of that."
"No, you wouldn’t." A smug grin spread across his face. "You would have fallen for my irresistible charm."
"God, how are you this confident? It’s unbelievable."
"If you were as powerful, gorgeous, and rich as I am, you’d be the most confident woman in the world too."
The statement was so shameless, so utterly ridiculous, that Delilah should have rolled her eyes and dismissed him.
Instead, her heart softened even more.
That was Gideon. Absurd, arrogant, and impossible to take seriously for more than a few seconds.
And yet, somehow, every joke, every outrageous comment, and every moment of tenderness only made her fall deeper in love with him.