The Promotion by Nan Dale

Author:Nan Dale [Dale, Nan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-02-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

A wave of nausea overcame Ruth as she sat silently by the window, waiting for John to get back from the city. She had been eating crackers all morning. Honestly, the last few weeks she had been so tired. Perhaps she was coming down with something … unless? Ruth dashed upstairs and headed for the medicine cabinet in her bathroom. She had one pregnancy test left. She had forgotten to take her birth control pills a few times and had been fine, but then again … She unwrapped the cover and pulled out the test, her fingers trembling slightly. She peed on the pregnancy stick and then put the stick on the side of the sink. It would take three minutes to get a reading. I am not going to stand here and torture myself for three minutes. She returned downstairs, took out a carton of chicken soup from the fridge, and started to heat it up on the stove. John would be hungry. And bread rolls? She looked in the pantry. Perfect. She put the rolls in the oven at a low heat, laid the table, and poured two glasses of water. OK, enough time had passed. The pregnancy test result would be ready now. She went upstairs and felt ill with anticipation as she pushed the bathroom door open. Closing her eyes, she said a silent prayer. Please God, whatever happens, I will be grateful. She opened her eyes. Two red lines. Two red lines! Just as she suspected, she was pregnant.

John’s black BMW pulled into the driveway. She watched him park from the window upstairs and slowly get out of the car. She was sure that he would be ecstatic; he had always wanted a large family. She was the roadblock. However, the timing of the news wasn’t the best. He seemed angry about something and the last two days he had been acting very strangely. Since his dinner with the partners, he had become a little secretive. They hadn’t really had a chance to catch up properly over the weekend—having planned to spend Sunday evening together while the kids were at their grandparents’. The Aaron incident had botched things up and she couldn’t shake the feeling that John had orchestrated it. Visions of John’s text to Aaron the following morning, “CHECKMATE,” kept running through her mind. John did have something to do with it. Likely payback for something. Did John know about her past with Aaron?

Ruth ran down the stairs and met John as soon as he walked through the door. He gave her a very long hug. This was the first time that John had left work in the middle of the day since she had known him. Something big was weighing on his mind. A wave of nausea came over her again. She ignored it.

“Long night? How did the transaction price?” she asked, deliberately leaving out Aaron’s awkward departure that morning.

“Better than expected, actually. We sold most of the equity.”

“That’s terrific! But judging by the look on your face, celebrations are not in order?” Ruth was treading carefully.

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