Free Life Begins by Taki James

looking at. Those she could ignore, but it was when Jason started calling Žarko tata like the girls that she knew that she really was in trouble. No amount of talking to him seemed to change his mind. Žarko treated him like a dad would and that was all that mattered in the little boy’s mind.
                  They had all even stopped calling her daughter Jane. Josie had already started the paperwork to legally change her daughter’s name, but had a hard time getting Žarko to agree to pay for the name Zaire, even though it wasn’t his daughter and shouldn’t have mattered to him. He had even put it to a vote, letting everyone, including the baby have a say. She wasn’t nearly surprised when her own kids voted against her, though baby Jane’s hand going in the air was questionable. She happened to often sleep with her hand in the air in the first place, so she refused to have it count as her voting with him for Juljiana.
                  “I think that we should at least compromise, even though she’s my daughter and it should be my choice,” she finally told him after she’d put the kids to bed. They were in his room where they could close the door and keep their discussions quiet.
                  “I care because babies do not have father.” And he would be right because of the circumstances involving her ex-husband, but that didn’t mean that Žarko had to be their father. She was still holding out for God to send her an actual husband, one that would be well suited to her personality and level of faith.
                  “Why should that mean you get a say?” It wasn’t right that he got to sit calmly on the bed, in his underwear, while she had to pace back and forth trying to get him to see reason.
                  “Because I plan to keep you and babies and it is my money that is paying for name change.”
                  She stopped right in front of him, hands on her hips as she confronted him. “My children and I are not pets.” She went to avoid him when he grabbed her left forearm. The tug sent her falling into his lap. “Stop.” She tried to wiggle away from him, feeling uncomfortable with the fact that her breasts were in his face.
                  He tipped himself back on the large bed, causing her to fall on top of him, thereby allowing him to fully hold her captive. “Do not be silly woman.” She crossed her arms over his chest to put some space between them. “You are being like wife, so I expect you to treat me like husband.”
                  “Except we’re not married. You don’t get wife rights,” especially because she felt him digging into her stomach. “How about this? You marry me and I will see what I can do about treating you like a husband.”
                  He was quiet as he stared at her. “I am not sure that I want to be married.”
                  She nodded. “I know. That is why I’m saying this. I think that something strange is going on between us and it is making it confusing for our children. You leave me to take care of your girls so that I have to sleep here at night when I have an apartment. You bought beds for my children, which tells me you thought about what you did. You have me dependent on you and I have no indication that our staying together is going to continue. You do things like this, knowing that you tempt me to do the things I shouldn’t. I’m trying to create boundaries so that I don’t lose myself in you because I have no idea what’s going to happen when you leave me.”
                  “I just said that I am not leaving and am paying to change the name of baby.”
                  “But you want her named your way. I have always wanted my daughter to have the name Zaire. I have always thought it was pretty.”
              “It is nice name, just not right name. Unless we do