Chapter 5 I’m pregnant

Clara

“See.” The woman laughed when she saw the shock on my face. “She doesn’t believe it, but it’s real.”

I was too stunned to respond to her, too stunned to fully process the fact that while I’d been fighting for my life, Ronan had been in this very hospital playing the perfect husband to Veronica.

I pushed back the blankets and got up from the bed but before I could take two steps forward, my legs lost strength and I crashed to the floor.

Blood pooled on the back of my hand as the IV drip caught on the side of the bed and the needle was pulled out, but I ignored it and started crawling inch by inch towards the door.

“What are you doing?!” The woman on the right side bolted up and stared at me in horror. “Get back in bed, right now. Are you trying to kill yourself?”

“I heard a crash.” The nurse said, walking into the room. The puzzled look on her face quickly turned to horror when she caught sight of me on the floor.

She pulled me up swiftly as if I weighed as much as a feather. For the first time, her professionalism cracked and I could see her worry clearly. “How did you fall? Does your stomach hurt?”

I let her tuck me back into bed, a cold feeling rising from the base of my spine and slowly taking over my whole body. I grabbed her hand, unable to hide the desperation in my voice. “Can you call him again? Please?”

Her brows furrowed for a second, then smoothed. She pulled the blankets higher around me, then straightened up. “I actually came to tell you that your husband is finally here.”

Instantly, my gaze moved to the door. I watched him walk in and my eyes started filling with tears. Ronan Carson, a man who’d always cared about appearances looked ragged as if he hadn’t been sleeping properly for a few days. Even his tie was crooked.

I reached out eagerly to him as he walked closer to me. “Ronan. You must have been so worried when I didn’t come home. The hospital has been trying to reach you for days to tell you where I was but—“

He walked to my bed side and stared at me, ignoring my outstretched hands. “Did you have to use the same hospital I took Veronica to?”

“What?”

“Clara can’t you see how pathetic this makes you look?” He dragged a hand through his hair. “Do you think that by doing this you’ll somehow become Veronica?”

“Become Veronica?” My voice sounded hollow. “Ronan what are you talking about?”

“She told me you would do this.” He said, bitterness in his tone. “She apologized for making you feel insecure and said she hates that you feel you have to compete with her. She said you might even fake going to the hospital just to get my attention.”

“What?”

“I defended you in front of her, Clara.” He said. “But what is this? Do you not even have a little bit of pride? Are you acting like this because you were born poor or because you’re an orphan and had no one to teach you better?”

“That’s enough!” The nurse said harshly. “Are you blind? Can’t you see how thickly she’s bandaged? Do you think the swelling on her face is stage make up?

It’s one thing to not come to see your wife after she got into an accident. It’s another to start acting as if her getting into an accident is inconvenient for you. If you’re not here out of concern for her, then you should leave. The patient doesn’t need additional stress right now.”

“That’s right.” The woman on the right bed chorused. “Your wife almost died and instead of comforting her, you’re making her feel worse. What sort of a husband are you?”

Ronan sneered at them. “Did she pay you to join in this charade too? How much was it? I can pay you double.”

The nurse gave him a look that would have withered a flower and walked away.

“Ronan!” In that moment, I wished I could become a mole, dig into the ground and hide underneath it. “How could you say that?”

“I should be asking you that question.” He said, tearing away the blankets around me. “How long are you going to keep—“

He choked on air when his gaze landed on the cuts on my skin, then stared at me speechless for a while. “It was real? You really had an accident? You weren’t faking it?”

“Is that why you didn’t come?” I asked, snatching the blankets back. I clutched them tightly in my hands, turning them into a wrinkled mess. “Because you thought I was pretending?”

A guilty look that I was becoming all too familiar with crossed his face. “How could you get into an accident on the same night I had to take Veronica to the hospital and even ended up being brought to the same hospital? It’s just too much of a coincidence.”

“Too much of a coincidence?” I repeated bitterly. “Ronan, this is the biggest hospital in Manhattan. Is it really so strange that I would be brought here after having a serious accident?”

“Clara..”

“Did you even bother to check?” I said, unable to stop the bitterness from creeping into my voice. “Did you bother to call to find out if I was really in an accident or not?” The look on his face was all the answer I needed. “It doesn’t matter what happens to me right? But when it’s Veronica, if she even breathes a little too loudly, you run to the hospital.”

His face darkened and he tugged at his tie. “I’ve told you to stop this comparison, Veronica has a terminal illness, it’s not the same.”

“I could have died Ronan.” I said in a small voice, a heavy ache spreading through my chest.

“But you didn’t.” He said, brushing away my accident as if it were merely a scratch on the knee. “Stop dwelling on the past.”

I turned away so he wouldn’t see the tear roll down my face. “I’m pregnant. The nurse said it’s two weeks old.”

“You’re… pregnant?” He glanced at the door.

“How’s that possible? We’ve always used protection.”

My hands clutched the covers tight. “We didn’t the last time, remember? You said it would be fine.”

A tortured look appeared on his face as he recalled that day. He’d come back home drunk and for the first time since our wedding, he’d kissed me, desperately, passionately, as if I were air and he was drowning.

Because of that, just because of that, I’d pretended not to hear him mumbling Vee over and over again in his sleep. I’d pretended not to notice the way his hand on my hair never went below my shoulders.

I’d lain in his arms, my body still warm with the evidence of our loving while his heart was miles away from me.

He rubbed his face roughly. “I didn’t think—

“You didn’t think doing it once without protection would be enough for me to get pregnant?” I said coldly, my hand cradling my stomach. “Ronan, I don’t care if you want this child or not, I’m not getting rid of it so you’d better forget it.”

“I wasn’t going to ask you to get rid of it.” He said defensively, glancing at the other two occupants of the room. “I just didn’t plan for us to have kids so early. We’re still young.”

“Early?” I raised an eyebrow. “Ronan we’ve been married for two years. It wasn’t even up to three months after our wedding when your mother started hounding me for being unable to provide you with an heir.

She called me barren so many times and you never said anything in my defense. You never explained to her why I couldn’t get pregnant. You let me take the fall for something that wasn’t my fault.”

“Am I interrupting something?” Veronica poked her head in, her cheeks flushed pink. She giggled as she lightly walked in, poking a fingertip at the air as if she was popping a bubble. “Oops. The tension’s so thick in here.”

My heart dropped down to my stomach as I turned to Ronan. “You brought her here?”

But he wasn’t even looking at me. All his attention was focused on Veronica, his arms outstretched towards her, ready to catch her if she were to slip.

Only when she stood next to him did he let his arms fall and turned to me. He cleared his throat. “Veronica got worried when the hospital kept calling and suggested we come check it out. She’s been waiting outside.”

“So,” I caught on to the implication and something hard and sharp lodged itself in my chest. “You wouldn’t have come here if she hadn’t asked you to?”

“You don’t understand.” He said, glancing over at the other people in the room again. The one on the right flipped the pages of the book on her lap every two seconds while the other picked threads off her blankets and pretended not to be listening. “Veronica needs someone to stay with her when she’s having one of her episodes or it could get worse quickly.”

“This is a hospital, Ronan.” I said, suddenly feeling drained. “You couldn’t leave her alone for a few minutes to come see me?”

“Veronica’s health is delicate right now.” He said as if that was enough for an explanation. “You should understand.”