The Pregnancy Diary

Ethan was looking for Leo's thermometer. He found his wife's suffering instead.

10:23 PM. Private Villa, Long Island.

Leo had a low fever after his first day of kindergarten. 37.8. For a normal five-year-old, nothing. For a boy with aplastic anemia, it was a siren.

Chloe was in the shower. She was crying quietly so Leo wouldn't hear her through the wall. Today at school, a boy in Leo's class called him a bastard because he had no father on his pickup card. Chloe watched Ethan punch that boy's father in the parking lot to defend them. She watched his knuckles bleed. And instead of feeling safe, she felt like she had failed. Again. Failed to give her son a normal life.

In the bedroom, Ethan tore through drawers looking for the digital thermometer Ryan told him to keep close.

Top drawer — Leo's socks.

Second drawer — Chloe's folded t-shirts.

Third drawer — stuck.

He yanked it hard. It opened. Under a pile of soft, faded maternity clothes she still kept folded, was a small pink notebook. The lock was broken. The edges were swollen from water damage.

On the cover, in bubbly, young handwriting:

PREGNANCY DIARY - For My baby

And tucked into the inside pocket of the cover — an ultrasound. 12 weeks. Grainy. A bean with a heartbeat.

Ethan's hand stopped moving.

He knew he shouldn't read it. Every part of him knew. But his name was on page one. His name in her handwriting.

He sat on the cold floor of her master bedroom and opened it.

 *Day 8:* _I told Ethan I'm pregnant today. I made his favorite steak. Medium rare, with rosemary potatoes like his mom taught me. I put the pregnancy test in a small gift box on the table. He came home at 11 PM. He said "I'm not hungry." He didn't even look at the table. He stepped over the box to get to the bedroom. I picked it up after he fell asleep. I kept the steak in the fridge for three days until it spoiled._

*Day 21:* _First ultrasound alone. I heard the heartbeat. Tuh-tuh-tuh, so fast, like a hummingbird. I called Ethan from the clinic hallway. My hands were shaking. He said "I'm in a meeting with Vanessa about the merger, can this wait?" I said "It's our baby's heartbeat." He said "Chloe, don't be dramatic." And hung up. I sat in the hallway and listened to the recording of the heartbeat alone for twenty minutes and cried. A nurse had to ask me to leave._

Ethan's jaw clenched so hard it hurt.

*Day 35:* _Morning sickness so bad I can't stand. I vomited 7 times today. I couldn't even keep water down. Madam Knight came to the villa unannounced. She saw me on the bathroom floor. She said "Barren women don't vomit. You are acting to get money from my son." She made me clean the vomit with my hands because she said the maid shouldn't touch my acting. Ethan was there. He stood in the doorway. He said "Mother is right, stop pretending." I wasn't pretending. Leo was making me sick because he was strong._

*Day 52:* _Bleeding. A little blood in my underwear this afternoon. I panicked so much I couldn't breathe. I called Ethan at 2 AM. He was sleeping in the guest room because he said my shampoo smells and makes him sick. He answered and said "Call Dr. Lee." I had no money for a taxi. He took my card that month because he said I spend too much. I walked to the ER in the rain. 3 blocks. No umbrella. Doctor said baby is okay but I need complete rest. Threatened miscarriage. I walked back alone. My shoes were full of water. When I got home, Ethan was still sleeping._

Ethan's vision blurred. A drop fell onto the page. Then another. He didn't realize he was crying.

*Day 68:* _Ethan's birthday. I saved $200 from grocery money for two months to buy him a watch. Not expensive, but I thought he would like it. He didn't come home. At 11 PM I saw his I*******m story. He was at Vanessa's birthday party on a yacht. Balloons. Champagne. He was smiling. I ate the small birthday cake I made alone at the kitchen table. I gave the first bite to my belly and said "Happy birthday, Daddy." Leo kicked. I think he heard me._

*Day 81:* _Madam Knight threw red wine in my face today. In the living room. She said "You are a barren gold-digger, you will never give my son a child. You are defective." The wine got in my eyes. It burned. Ethan watched from the stairs. He did nothing. He just looked at me, soaked in wine, 3 months pregnant, and said "Chloe, apologize to my mother for being disrespectful." I was wearing a loose dress to hide my bump. I wanted to scream "I'm not barren, I'm carrying your son!" But I looked at his cold face and I knelt and said "Sorry, Madam." Because I didn't want my baby to have a father who calls his mother defective in front of him._

*Day 89:* _Divorce Day. Our anniversary. He threw the papers on the table and said "You are barren, you are defective, sign it." I was wearing my loosest dress to hide my 3-month bump. The pen shook. I wanted to say "I'm not barren, I'm carrying your son, please look." But I looked at his face and I knew he wouldn't believe me. He believed his mother that I was barren. So I signed. Because I didn't want my baby to grow up hearing his father call his mother defective every day. I signed with his child kicking inside me._

Ethan's chest heaved. He couldn't breathe. The pink diary shook in his hands.

He flipped forward. The writing changed. More tired.

 *Day 120:* _Paris. Small apartment, no heater. 4 degrees inside. I sold my wedding ring today. The $120 ring Ethan bought when he had nothing. It was the only thing he ever gave me that was real. Not borrowed from his mother. I sold it for $500 to pay rent. The man at the pawn shop said it's worth $50. I begged him for $500. Baby kicked so hard while I was at the counter. I cried all the way home on the metro. I kept touching my empty finger._

 *Day 165:* _My water broke at midnight in apartment alone. On the floor. I called Ryan, he was in London for a conference. I called ambulance. No one came for 40 minutes. I breathed alone. I pushed alone. The midwife came late. When Leo finally cried, so loud, so angry, there was no one to say "Congrats." The midwife was busy cleaning. I said it to myself, to him. "Congrats, Chloe, you are a mother now. You did it." I held him and we both cried._

*Day 180:* _Leo needs $800 for his first vaccine. I have $20. I cut my long hair today. The long hair that Ethan said smelled like peach and he loved to wrap around his finger. I sold it to a wig shop for $100. The woman said "Pretty hair, why cut it?" I said "My husband loved it, but my son needs vaccine." Now it's gone. Short like a boy. But Leo has vaccine. It's okay. Hair grows. My son only grows once._

Ethan closed the diary. He pressed it to his forehead. His shoulders shook violently. A sound came out of him that he hadn't made since he was 12 years old when his father died. A sob.

Three years. She bled alone. Vomited alone. Walked in rain while bleeding. Ate birthday cake alone talking to her belly. Got wine thrown in her face while pregnant. Signed divorce while pregnant. Sold her ring. Cut her hair. Gave birth alone on a cold floor in Paris. All while he was on yachts with Vanessa calling her barren.

He was a monster.

The shower stopped.

Chloe came out in a towel, hair wet, face swollen from crying, and saw him.

On the floor. Holding her diary. Tears streaming down his face, dripping onto her handwriting.

Her face went white. Blood left it.

"You read it," she whispered. Voice shaking like a leaf.

Ethan looked up, eyes red, face wet. A billionaire CEO who never cried in boardrooms, never cried when his company almost went bankrupt, was broken on her bedroom floor.

"Chloe... you... you walked to ER in rain while bleeding..." his voice cracked. "You..."

"Give it back," she said, stepping forward, towel clutched tight. "Give it back, Ethan."

"I watched my mother throw wine in your face when you were pregnant with my son and I told you to apologize—" He choked.

"GIVE IT BACK!" She tried to grab it, towel almost falling, panic in her eyes.

Ethan stood up fast, grabbed her shoulders, diary still in his hand, wet from his tears.

"Why didn't you tell me you were pregnant on divorce day? Why didn't you slap me with this ultrasound?" He shouted, but it was pain, not anger.

"Because you said I was barren!" Chloe screamed, finally, three years of silence breaking. Tears pouring. "You said I was defective! You looked at me and said I'm defective! What was I supposed to say? 'Hey, your defective barren wife is pregnant with your defective baby'? You wouldn't have believed me! You believed Vanessa over me! You always believed her!"

She hit his chest with small fists. "You let me walk in rain to ER! You let me sell my ring! You let me give birth alone! You let me cut my hair!"

Ethan took every hit. He deserved worse.

Then he fell to his knees. Right there. On his knees, in her bedroom, on the floor where she once bled.

"Then punish me," he whispered, looking up at her, holding her legs. "Don't leave again. Hit me, hate me, make me kneel here every night for three years. Let me read this diary every night to understand what I did. Let me learn how to be a father. Let me —"

Chloe stared at him kneeling, crying, holding her diary like a bible.

For three years she dreamed of this moment. Him knowing. Him crying. Him on his knees.

But now it happened, she didn't feel happy. She felt tired. So tired.

"Get up," she said quietly. "Leo will see you. He will be scared."

Ethan didn't get up. He held her legs tighter. "Tell me how to fix it. Tell me."

Chloe looked down at him, and her hand went unconsciously to her stomach. Dizzy. She had been dizzy since morning. After the kindergarten fight, she vomited in the school bathroom. Same nausea as Day 35.

Ethan saw it. His eyes narrowed. He had just read Day 35 — _vomited 7 times_.

"Chloe," he said slowly, standing up, his CEO brain snapping back. "When was your last period?"

Chloe froze, hand still on stomach. "What?"

"You vomited this morning. You are dizzy. You fainted yesterday at kindergarten. You have the same pale face as Day 35."

"No! I'm not! We didn't —"

"We only... we only slept one night... in Leo's medical room... with Leo between us... nothing happened—" she stammered, backing into wall.

"We kissed," Ethan said hoarsely, eyes locked on her stomach. "On the forehead. And I held you for 10 seconds while Leo was sleeping to stop you crying. Don't tell me nothing happened. Take it."

He walked to bathroom and came back with a pregnancy test. Ryan had stocked medical supplies for Leo, including tests.

"Take it. Now."

Chloe took the test with shaking hands and locked bathroom door.

Inside, she whispered to her reflection, "Please no. Please not now. Not with Vanessa still outside, not with his mother still trying to take Leo... Please..."

One minute. Two minutes. The longest two minutes of her second pregnancy.

Door opened.

Chloe stood there, towel still on, face blank, tears rolling silently, holding test up.

Two lines. Bright pink. Positive.

Second pregnancy.

Ethan stared at the two lines, then at Chloe, then at the next room where Leo slept with a low fever.

Three years ago, he threw divorce papers at his pregnant wife and called her barren.

Now, his ex-wife, who he forced to live in his villa to save his son, was pregnant again — with his second child — while he was still publicly engaged to Vanessa, while his mother was still fighting for custody of Leo.

And his phone buzzed on Chloe's bed.

A text. Unknown number. But he knew.

Vanessa. Watching the villa from a black car outside with binoculars. She sent a photo — through the window, Chloe holding pregnancy test, clearly visible.

The message under it:

_So she is pregnant again? Don't worry, I will make sure she loses it tonight, just like I made her almost lose Leo on Day 52. Check your old security camera footage, Ethan. Who made her walk in rain that night? Who told Dr. Lee not to answer? It was me. Sweet dreams, Daddy._

Ethan's blood ran cold.