2.

Shane Shepherd, I heard her say…

I was dumbfounded and in the split second of time frozen to hear his name ringing in my head–Shane Shepherd. It couldn't be that the man I caught on the bed with mom was him!

He was my dad's best friend, someone who stood up for my dad, and stuck through him during difficulties. It couldn't be him who would betray my dad in the end?

And of all women he could screw, it was my mother!

I knew she was deliberately fueling my anger, trying to find out what I could do but I was too exhausted to spare her a glance, I just wanted to be in the arms of my lover and spend this tragic night without having to remember any of this and one way hope that karma will truly be a bitch.

“Your dad needs to sign the divorce paper before you go.”

“He is dead! He is fucking dead, you are free, isn't that you always wanted? Go to hell mother, I wish you will just go to hell!” I screamed, running out from the corridor and going left. I leaned against the wall, my body slipping down to the ground while I cried heavily, clutching to my knees. Nothing else came to my mind other than crying.

And just when I had finished crying, I heard a quick run towards me. It was the doctor who had attended to me right now and behind him was a green stretcher, with several nurses rolling it. My eyes blurred out as I saw my mother laying on it in pain and hurriedly rose from the ground.

As if he had guessed what was running through my mind, he said. “Your mother is having a miscarriage. Call your father or any close relatives of hers, she has a lot too much blood.”

My head spurned sideways, tracing the trickles of blood on the white tiles where they had come from.

‘Mother was pregnant?’ My fingers curled up to a fist having my nails dug into my palms and my knuckles turning white. I spotted her handbag on the ground and went over to it, rummaging through it until I could find her cellphone.

I unlocked it after a while scrolling through her call logs, my pacing in the hallway increasing. I tapped on the number with the name, Shane Hubby and switched it to call. “Pick up the damn phone.” I muttered, my legs wobbling from the stress my body was going through.

As much as I hated my mother, I couldn't let her die an easy death. It was just too easy for her to die of miscarriage! She deserved something more painful.

I put the phone close to my ears, with hopes of him picking up however was met with the same response over and over again.

“The number you are failing is currently switched off, please try again later or better still leave a voicemail.” I groaned, clutching to the cellphone and tried again, over and over, the same response hitting me on my face.

I scrolled over to her chats with Shane, reading through it, every one of them stunning me.

‘Baby, when will you come back home? I am about to break things up with my husband, Richard and then I have news I have been wanting to let you know; I am pregnant. Come home hubby, let's celebrate the night with some champagne.’

This was her last chat with him and it was clear that he had seen it but hadn't answered her. My mind reeling from the shock that my mother could have been cheated from the tone of her chat. I was curious to know more about their relationship and the more I scrolled through their chats, the tenser it became.

It was as if my mother was the one doing the whole chatting herself barely his response anywhere. I then darted over to the hallway, the doctor closing his eyes impatiently awaiting for me to make my decision.

‘I couldn't…I just couldn't make any decision right now.’ I said internally, my mood worsening. It wasn't in my power to ask the baby to be removed to save my mother even though I wanted it to be removed.

It was his baby, it was Shane's baby, my crush’s child and he needed to make that decision by himself. And then, I looked sideways through the porcelain glass next to me, my mother unconscious and weak.

I hated her to the core, but I couldn't leave her alone. I exhaled, glancing at the wristwatch. If I stayed any longer, the wedding would be over and if I left, my mother wouldn't be able to survive it either.

I was thrown between the deep blue sea and the devil himself with no way out. “Have the baby cut off…”

“There are complications to it. Your mother’s pregnancy is ectopic and if I severe the baby, she will fall into a deep coma due to hypoxia and if I don't, she and the baby will die together. Make a choice.”

“And I made my choice, I want the baby to be removed.”

_______________________________________

Hours and hours passed and I couldn't count the dozens of times I had cried. I raised up my gaze to my buzzing phone, seeing the hundreds of phone calls and messages from Denny, my fiancè and only one struck me dumbfounded.

I trembled, my head barely able to register what I had read.

‘Since you decided to run off your own wedding, don't blame me for calling off the engagement. Lauren Wayne, it is over. Our relationship is over.’

I read, absorbing word for word of everything on the screen and lowered my head, my tears trickling down. I had chosen my whore of a mother over my fiancè.

“Please be alright, mother. I know I hate you but I can't let you die. I have already lost my father, I can't lose you.” I kept on muttering some sort of consoling words to myself and soon, the room door opened up and he came out, his face distorted.

I already guessed what he was going to say, after all, this day couldn't get as much worse as it already is.

“Your mother lost a lot of blood. We found out she was four months heavily pregnant and the child was growing on her fallopian tubes. There were a lot of complications but…”

But what? I screamed to myself, unable to take this suspense any more. If she died, he should just say it, why did he have to put me through torment over some shitty news that obviously was bad?

“But we were able to subdue her heavy bleeding. She fell into a coma and we are not so sure of how long she will wake up. It might take a whole year and six months. Please prepare for the worst, and get the husband of the baby ASAP, we may have to prepare her for major surgery tomorrow.”

‘Damn, where was I supposed to find Shane this time around to fucking tell him my mother was pregnant for him!’