They're Strictly Friends by Chloe Liese

Author:Chloe Liese [Liese, Chloe]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-12-08T16:00:00+00:00

Eighteen

Elodie

Lucas left the room and in my half-asleep, low-blood sugar state, I realized he must know what I’d been so afraid to tell him, what I’d known since my discharge examination at the hospital.

“Elodie.” The doctor had a kind, motherly face. Not that I really knew in practice what those were. “How are you feeling?”

I sighed, and it hurt. Grimacing, I shifted myself up a bit in the bed. “I’ve felt better.”

She nodded understandingly, then gestured to the foot of the bed. “May I?”

“Of course.”

She perched softly on the edge of the mattress while her eyes searched mine.

“What’s the matter, doctor? You look worried.”

“When do you remember your last menstrual cycle being, my dear?”

I reared in surprise. But then I tried to count back. “Erm, it was…Now, let me think.” I glanced up at her, blushing. “Here’s the thing, I have polycystic ovary syndrome, and somewhat irregular periods, so they’re no indication. I was off the pill but my partner, he’s…he can’t—”

“Don’t take offense, dear, but nothing’s foolproof except abstinence, so please just answer my question.”

I cleared my throat, trying to think back. “I’m not exactly sure. But I’ve felt crampy and my breasts hurt. I’d expect it any day.”

Nodding, she patted my hand again. “Yes, well, if I were you, I wouldn’t expect it.”

My jaw dropped. “What are you saying?”

“Elodie, I’m saying you’re pregnant. It’s very, very early, obviously, but frankly, that’s the only thing that saved your baby—that it’s so tiny. Any bigger and the impact of your collision would have certainly caused miscarriage. I’m shocked it didn’t as it is.”

My hands flew protectively to my stomach. Another life whose death would have been on my conscience.

“You’ve got a little miracle in there.”

A little miracle. I hadn’t told Lucas, because I just couldn’t figure out a single way in which he’d see our child as a miracle at all. More like a curse. And that would break his heart. He didn’t want a child who’d inherit his blindness. Where did that leave me? Ending the life of my own baby was unthinkable to me, and I believed Lucas wouldn’t want that either.

Beyond knowing in my heart that Lucas could never reject his own flesh and blood, I had no clue what to expect from him. I was confused as to how it had happened in the first place, terrified he’d be doubly grieved—first his own blindness, then his child’s. It was too much to ask him to bear. So I bore it for us the past week, and tried to figure out what to say and when.

How was I pregnant? I’d been on the pill for years for the hormone balance, to minimize my PCOS symptoms, up until I fled my parents and came here. I’d had no insurance to refill my prescription when I first got to the UK, then Lucas confessing his vasectomy made birth control a moot point, while giving me the opportunity to see how I did free of birth control. Bang! Here we were, pregnant.

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