"I saw this coming." Laura mouthed after shutting the door to Sophia's office, holding a file of research work to her face. It was another 'impossible' task she was meant to do within an unfeasible period.
Laura let out a sigh of exhaustion as she walked to the office desk. It was over a month ago since she received a task like this one; the task that led to the incident at the club. She remembered trying her best to finish up the research work by herself, but she couldn't.
She was already giving up, accepting her sad fate, until Anna personally visited her the next day to sincerely apologise— since her phone was switched off.
Laura had to put off what transpired between them and keep Anna abreast of her situation, which Anna helped her throughout the night till the task could be completed.
With sleep-deprived eyes, Laura submitted her report on time, on Monday.
On reaching her desk, Laura dropped the file she just received on it, and fell on her seat tiresomely. She let out another exhausted sigh.
Slightly touching her head, she realised that she'd been feeling a little under the weather lately. She was running a high temperature.
But Laura wasn't alarmed because she wasn't one to get sick easily, she knew it was going to subside.
Reaching home from work, Laura fell even more tired than she once was as she sat on her bed. Her mouth was becoming too bitter, and she had already vomited twice at the office, she also did not have an appetite for food.
It was Friday, she resolved to finally go and do a medical checkup in the hospital, on the next day. With that mental decision, Laura closed her eyes, allowing sleep to take hold of her.
****
"What?!" Laura's mouth was wide open.
"You are pregnant, miss." The doctor repeated himself. "I had to test you for pregnancy after I heard your symptoms, and it's come out to be positive, just like I thought." The doctor said, gesturing his hand to a paper, which so happened to be the test results.
"No please, I cannot be pregnant. Certainly not." Laura said in agony, shaking her head sideways repeatedly. "I have a work life, I'm just beginning my career, I cannot afford to be pregnant. I am just 25!" Laura cried out as if trying to convince the doctor.
"Er… Miss, um…" The doctor was speechless.
Laura's eyes were wide open, she was too shocked to think anymore. She was finding it hard to believe this news. Bringing her face down to her palms, she began to cry.
"I'll- I'll be right back, please." Laura stood and let herself out of the doctor's office.
Just at the entrance of the doctor's office, a lady called out before Laura could walk a significant distance, "You could get an abortion, you know."
Laura turned back, she saw the person who spoke, she was a slender woman with sharp features. The woman must have been a patient waiting to see the doctor after her and heard her cry out.
Laura couldn't put up with staying in the hospital any longer; she was too nauseous. She left the hospital for the road, heading for home; ignoring the woman, but holding her words in mind.
Laura was an only child of the famous Connell family. Her parents died in a car crash during a family trip when she was just 11 years of age, she was the only survivor of the car crash.
From the day of that car crash till now, life has come too fast and very hard for her. She had no one who deeply cared for her. Her immediate relatives abandoned her, dumping her in an orphanage after inheriting her parent's fortune.
Laura remembered clearly the look on her uncle John's face, just like it was yesterday, when he broke the news to her, a month after her parents' burial. "You'll have to continue life in an orphanage, Laura." He said, blankly. With no affection nor sympathy whatsoever.
She knew what he meant. She could not forget how she fell on her knees in tears, begging him to take her in, "I wouldn't be a burden, I promise! Uncle John!" but he didn't budge. He turned around, leaving for his study, and shut the door on her.
Laura found herself in an orphanage the next day, in the midst and care of strangers.
Unfortunately for her, no one adopted her because orphans around her age rarely got adopted, so at a young age, she understood that she was alone and had to take full responsibility for herself, work hard, and make something for herself.
She was too tired of crying every night, so she decided to take matters into her own hands.
She had to think up plans before she was 16 years old so that life wouldn't catch her unawares— since the age limit in the orphanage was just 16 years. She knew she had to think hard and fast.
Laura had dreams, she put all her past hurts and betrayals behind her, willing to look forward and forge ahead. She worked hard to be who she now was; working at least 2 part-time jobs at a time, for more than a decade.
She also had to focus on her studies, having no intense social interactions, because that was the only way she could focus in school. That was the only way she could keep her scholarships.
Laura cried repeatedly as she sat on a street bench thinking about her life, and her struggles. She couldn't have an abortion; her values wouldn't let her.
She never forgot the words her sweet late mother always told her. "You are our miracle baby, Laura. You came to us unexpectedly, and you were the best thing that ever happened to us."
Although Laura was young, she understood clearly what her mother insinuated. She also was a child born out of wedlock; her parents eventually got married because of her.
Her parents gave her a chance at life, even when they could get rid of her. She couldn't be so vicious to the child in her womb when she was shown mercy by her parents. Laura wallowed in self-pity.
She could not believe she was going to welcome a child without being capable of taking care of the child. Even more devastatingly, Laura never thought she was going to be a single mother for a stranger; a man she did not know.
She never planned for this, she never anticipated it. All of this came at her too hard. Life was too cruel.
Without a care for who looked at her, Laura cried even more.