Prologue

"The first rains of the summer have finally poured down after a long wait!" The news reporter cried out of joy before the camera, holding onto the transparent umbrella as I mindlessly passed by him, holding on to the legal notification tightly that had summoned me for something absurd.

I don't even know why some billionaire had sued me for spurgling. Who was even this Reagan Locke anyway? And where in the world had I even met him? Let alone spurgling him!

"Don't stress yourself so much, Safara. We are still recovering from the psychological shock that man gave us," Wilson replied squeezing my hand gently in reassurance.

I swear my life hasn't been anything less than a rollercoaster lately.

We hurriedly climbed the stairs of the court. I was slightly drenched not that it mattered more than the nervousness. Advocates in suites roamed around the corridors entering different courtrooms.

"Ms. Keys and Mr. Greene, quickly, it's almost time," our appointed advocate ushered us inside the courtroom right when the judge entered from her door.

"Sit down everyone," She allowed making me let out a nervous breath as I took my seat and looked at the plaintiff's side to not recognize anyone. Who even was this Reagan Locke in them? There wasn't even a picture of him on the internet.

The judge's voice that had started the proceeding felt like a background noise while I tried harder to remember if I had come across any of the four men who were sitting before me at any point of time in my life.

"Safara Keys, what do you claim? Guilty or not guilty?" I looked at the judge with troubled eyes as I replied, "Not guilty, your honor. I have never seen this man called Reagan Locke, let alone meet him. I don't even know who among these gentlemen is Mr. Locke. By the way, I'm not even pregnant!"

"You claim to not have even seen the man who has sued you let alone spurgling him?" The judge raised her eyebrow.

"Precisely, your honor," I gave a curt nod.

"So, you wouldn't mind letting these government-appointed medical professionals run a few tests on you regarding the claims that the plaintiff has made?" The judge asked looking at the papers before her.

"Sure, I have nothing to hide," I replied confidently. This case was going to be closed even before properly starting. I don't know what wrong had I done to Mr. Locke for him to take the trouble to drag me into a court, but his pettiness was going to come out real soon.

One of the cops guided me to a separate room where all the equipment was prepared for the test. Different kinds of tests were conducted, some even scared me but I didn't utter a word.

"You may head back to your seat," one of the nurses dismissed me letting the cop take me back to the courtroom.

"We shall now proceed with the case," the judge announced making me turn to look at a tense-looking Wilson.

"Are you all right?" I asked slightly worried. Had something happened while I was away for that brief moment? It was hardly fifteen minutes for all the samples that needed to be collected.

Before Wilson could answer me, the judge announced, "Okay Mr. Locke, Ms. Keys claimed that she hasn't even seen you while you are suing her for stealing your semen sample. Care to explain?"

Billionaire Locke was here? I turned to look at the plaintiff's bench to see who it was. But what caught my eyes made my lungs forget to breathe.

One of the people from the plaintiff bench had changed, who now stood up and replied, "It's an outrageous lie, your honor. The photos that my lawyer has submitted are the proof of us being together at one point in time before we broke up and she moved on with Mr. Greene. She was still his girlfriend while she stole my semen and made a run for it."

He looked at me directly, letting his all-so-familiar greyish-green eyes meet mine directly as he continued, "I believe, she's aiming to claim a part of my property using my child."

Don't tell me, Ray Teel was Reagan Locke?

"Your honor, he's claiming to be Reagan Locke now, while he had introduced himself to us saying he's Ray Teel," I stood up yelling at the top of my voice, feeling unfamiliar rage coursing through my being.

"Order, order. This is my court, Ms. Keys, not your house. You will be sent out of this room if you happen to repeat it," the judge warned.

Begrudgingly, I apologized, "Sorry, your honor. But he is lying."

"Mr. Locke, what do you have to say for that?"

"She is using my nickname, your honor. People who are close to me call me Ray. I never used Teel as my surname. She is using my half-brother's surname to try to nullify her crime," Ray, or rather Reagan looked at me with determination.

I couldn't digest the blame he was putting on me. He was the one who brought in another woman saying she was his best friend and let her run rampant, eventually kicking me out of the house. It was he who tried to separate Wilson from me lying through his teeth that Wilson wasn't found in the accident! And here we were again in the court with another absurd lie that he was pinning on my head. Why did he hate me so much? Why did he want to make my life so miserable? Was it for having some harmless fun over his brother's expense during our university days? Or was it because of his so-called best friend who was all over him while he was my boyfriend?

It was a mistake to have ever loved him. He was the biggest mistake of my life that was after me now to ruin me completely...

But wasn't it too much? Lying that I was pregnant with his child by stealing his sperm? Nothing could be more outrageous than this. Oh, the disgust I felt right now...

My advocate and his advocate started presenting our sides, making arguments and counter-arguments to each other. All the while the death glare that I gave Ray, oh sorry, he was Reagan now, hoping the earth to open and swallow him whole but what I received from him was a smug when a man came and whispered in his ear about something.

Something about it felt ominous, and my gut feeling was proved right when another person came in holding a set of papers that was handed to the judge.

"So, we have got the result of the tests conducted," Judge announced before looking at me as she added, "Ms. Keys, you are 16 weeks pregnant with Mr. Locke's child."

My heart dropped as shock settled into my entire existence.

How did he? When did he? Had he bribed the medical team for the report but my periods... my periods hadn't come through because of the medicines, right? Or had he taken advantage of me while I was staying over at his house?

It was getting difficult to breathe as black spots started to cloud my vision.

I heard someone telling me to breathe in the background, but my brain wasn't processing it to follow through. There was chaos in the background but all I could realize was losing my strength and falling from my chair, cursing the time to have ever met him.

Damned Ray or Reagan or whatever his name way! He sure had crawled out of the hell to drag me down with him...