6 months later
I missed him like crazy. I stared out the window of my house. The weather has been recently nice but I've been in a sour mood for the past two days because I was mad at Charles. I told him I didn't want to see him at all, so we've not seen each other in two days. He's been calling but I was not picking up.
The baby had to kick at that particular moment. It had random moments of kicking. Especially times when I'm thinking about it's father. I didn't want to know the gender of the baby yet and Charles agreed too.
"You miss daddy?? I miss him too." I rubbed my tummy, loving the feeling. I'm not angry anymore so I decided to go over to his place. It is a Saturday, so he should be home. I didn't want to call him to tell him that I was coming.
I dressed up, grabbed the keys to my car and walked out of the house. Charles bought me a car few months back, saying he wanted me to be comfortable and all that stuff. He literally buys me something anytime he comes to see me. He spoils me too much. Our engagement ring was so expensive that I could not just wear it anyhow. His mother later came to terms about our relationship and the baby. Or maybe that was what I thought. But she does not really make nasty comments about me again anytime I go to his place during the weekends. I still don't understand why his father insisted that he stays at their mansion during weekends.
There gateman opened the gates for me cheerfully waving at me. Everyone in this mansion was nice to me including his father.
I entered the house greeting the ever smiling house keeper. She gives me a jar of cookies anytime I come over to the house.
I made my way up the stairs and went to Charles's wing of the house. He had his own sitting room, bedroom and a study. I knocked on the door to his room but got no reply. I entered the room gently.
"Charlie." I called out but got no response. "Charlie."
"He never even allows me to call him 'that'." I turned around at the sound of Astrid's voice.
"Hi Astrid." I said.
"What can I do to make you leave my son alone?" She asked suddenly. I was surprised at her question because I thought we were over this. She never really gave me green light though.
"What are you talking about?" I decided to play dumb.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. I can't have my son marry a nobody. You don't even have parents." She said.
"Did you do a background check on me?" I asked carefully, trying not to get angry.
"Why? Do you think I will just sit around and do nothing? You are just a gold digging whore. You are a useless bitch. That was why your mother left you, because she saw no good in you." What?! Okay, that's enough. This woman is really asking for it.
"That's enough!. I won't have you speak that way to me. I have not come here to quarrel with you. I will leave, so keep your opinion about me to yourself." I said, pushed past her and I walked out hurriedly. She was right behind me though. Saying all soughts of hurtful things to me. I stopped before descending the stairs and turned to her.
"Astrid, you know what? It'll be good for you to actually stop bugging me if you don't want a problem that you cannot deal with." I said coldly.
"Who do you think you are speaking to in that manner?" She screamed. I sometimes wonder if the woman had mental issues. I moved close to her and said in her ears.
"I know about your dirty secret. Your boy toys. The models that you have sex with in your office just to give them a slot to model your work." I said silently. I pushed back to look at her and she visibly went still. "Who's the whore now?" Her face was white like she had just seen a ghost.
"So, you had better leave my name out of your mouth if you don't want to have issues with me." I said.
"You don't have any evidence. No one will believe a word that comes out of your filthy mouth." She said shakily, trying to convince herself more than me.
"Really??" I laughed. "Are we really playing this game Astrid?" I said as I waved my cell phone in front of her face. "I thought you were a smart woman." I said.
She tried to take the phone from my hand but I raised it above my head. The height advantage i had over her didn't allow her struggle too much.
"Nothing will happen as long as you leave us alone." I said silently and started walking down the stairs.
I never planned on talking about her infidelity to anyone. Not even to her herself. But she pushed me today. I wasn't going to do anything about it as it was not my business. She made me call her out on her bullshit. I smiled at myself, rubbing my stomach.
I suddenly felt a hand push me hard from behind and I missed my footing. I stumbled and tumbled down the stairs. Everything just shutdown. My baby! My baby! My mind was screaming. No no no…. Why was the stairs so long? My head was banging. Everything stopped. I was hearing different voices but I couldn't decipher who was who. I couldn't raise my head, hands or legs.
"She's bleeding a lot!" Someone shouted.
"Call an ambulance nowwwww!!!"
Charlie where are you? I thought. I was slipping in and out of consciousness.
"M…. My … bab….ba…baby." I mumbled.
I opened my eyes, I think we were in a hospital already. I'm till feeling very weak same as before. I grabbed the coat of the closet doctor to me.
"S…sa..save…m…my…b…ba..by." I rambled out.
"Her blood count is low!" Someone shouted.
I felt like I was floating away in my own emptiness.
"How many months is the baby??" Someone asked.
"Seven. She needs blood transfusion nowww!! Get an OR ready, she's going in for CS."
ASTRID, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?? I thought before completely slipping out of consciousness.
I squinted my eyes because of the brightness of light that hit me immediately I opened them. Where was I???
What happened to me? I closed my eyes trying to remember what happened. I placed my hand on my tummy wanting to soothe my baby when I was met by a flat stomach. I widened my eyes immediately and suddenly shot off the bed, but I felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen.
My baby! Where is it?
That was when realization dawned on me that I was in the hospital. I remembered what happened. Astrid pushed me. She pushed me down the stairs. I never thought she'd do something this extreme.
"Where is my baby?" I shouted. I removed the drip that was been passed into me and tried to stand up. I felt like I was going crazy.
A nurse came in.
"Miss Zoe, calm down. Your baby is fine. Everything is fine. She's been placed in an incubator as she is a premature. We had to do a surgery on you to bring her out since you lost a lot of blood from your fall." The nurse said, helping me back on the bed.
I calmed down a little bit.
"Can I see her?" I asked nervously.
"Not yet. Even though you were out for almost a day, you still need to rest." She said sweetly.
I nodded gently. The nurse was about to leave when I asked
"Why did you call me Zoe?"
"That was the name that was registered in your chart."
What?
"Okay. Thank you."
I sighed and rested my head on the bed when I realized that my ring was not on my finger. I checked the bedside drawer maybe it was taken off before the surgery. It was not there. I checked for my cell phone too, I couldn't find it. I hope it's not what I'm thinking.
I saw a letter and an envelope on the drawer. I picked it up and opened it up. It was Charles's handwriting.
Gwen,
I never thought I would have easily fooled you like I did. Did you really think that I liked you and wanted to spend the rest of my life with you?
You fascinated me at first and I wanted you for a little while, but you just had to get pregnant didn't you?
Long story short, I don't love you. I never did and I never will.
I'm engaged. If you have any ounce of self respect, you won't contact me anymore. And I took my ring.
C_
I didn't believe what I was reading. He won't do this right???. I opened the envelope only to see the picture of Charles and Ashely together. Ashely???? Why did it have to be her?? They seemed so happy. No no no no ….. I've seen this happening in movies, someone should tell me that it's not happening to me too.
Right about that moment, the same picture came up on the TV screen in the room. They tagged it as the engagement of the season as it was between two big companies. I suddenly screamed. I screamed in agony over and over again.
I still couldn't believe he did this to me. To our child. Charles couldn't have played me, right?