Dear Ex-Husband, Your Heirs Are Mine!

HARPER:

The examination room smelled like antiseptic. I hated that smell. It made me feel like I was already dying. 

“The test is positive,” Dr. Ross said, lowering her clipboard. “Five weeks. Everything looks normal.” 

My hands trembled around the paper. Positive. The word blurred in front of my eyes. 

“I’m…I’m going to have a baby.”

“You are.” Ross leaned back in her chair, arms crossed. The wrinkles in her white coat told me she hadn’t slept well. “So. Will you be divorcing your husband today?”

I blinked. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“Harper. It’s day thirty.”

“I know how to count.”

Her lips curved. “Then you also know you owe me a hundred dollars if you don’t leave him.”

That was our deal. Thirty days. If he cheated again, I walked. No excuses. No forgiveness. No ‘but I love him.’

My nails dug into my palms. “He hasn’t cheated.”

Yet. The word sat on my tongue but I didn’t say it. 

Ross didn’t push. She never did. But the way her eyebrows narrowed told me all I needed to know… she wasn't happy with my decision. 

To Ross, cheating was a no no, if he cheats, best bet is to walk out the door. 

“Tonight is our anniversary," I said, changing the subject. “He promised me a real dinner.”

It wouldn’t be like the dinner date we had where he would rush his meal because of meetings or be busy working on his laptop. 

He had said it himself. 

“Be ready tonight. I’ll pick you up at seven.”

Ross raised an eyebrow. “And you believe him?”

I wanted to be angry at the question. But she was the only person in my life who told me the truth. My mother was gone. My father had sold me to the Banks family like a line item in a contract. 

Alexander had married me because his father arranged it. 

No one owed me anything. 

“Does your husband know yet?” Ross asked. 

I shook my head. “I want to surprise him.”

She was quiet for a moment. Then she reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “Just avoid stress. Eat well. Rest. And Harper?”

“Yes?”

“If he hurts you again, you owe me a hundred dollars.”

I laughed and it felt good. 

*****

My heart was still racing as I stepped onto the sidewalk. If I was in my room, I would have been jumping happily. That was how happy I was. 

My hand rested over my stomach. Alexander’s baby. 

I already knew how he would react. 

The usual mask he wore on his face, pretending he didn’t care about me at all would be ripped off, his brown eyes would widen and maybe if I dared to think big, he would smile. 

I laughed. 

I pulled out my phone and glanced at the time. 

4:20pm. 

He would be coming to pick me up. 

I should go home to change my dress and oh, he really loved the pale blue gown I wore on his birthday, especially how it hugged my curves. 

After dessert, I would tell him or maybe right away because I was never good at keeping secrets from him.

A car horn blared. 

I jerked back to reality and crossed the street toward the parking lot. 

That was when I saw it. 

Alexander’s black Bentley. Parked outside a restaurant across the road. His office was across the city. What was he doing here?

Then the passenger door opened. Rowena stepped out. 

Pain gripped my chest. 

Tall, elegant, blonde hair. The woman he had promised was out of his life. His first love. The woman who left him at the altar and still, he never stopped loving her 

She moved closer to him, resting her hand on his arm like it belonged there. 

I couldn’t breathe. 

My phone rang. I looked at the screen. Alexander

I answered. “Hello?”

“Harper?” His voice was calm and distracted. “I’m sorry but I can’t make it tonight.”

My eyes stayed locked on the woman across the street. Rowena had her back to me now. She was saying something to Alexander. Her hand was on his chest. 

“What?” I whispered, hands tightening around my phone. “But… you said…”

“I am swamped with work at the moment,” he interrupted, “Something came up and I can't get away.”

Tears dropped down from my eyes. 

Rowena tugged his tie, pulling him down toward her. I heard it before I saw it. The soft wet sound of lips meeting lips. 

“Who are you talking to?” Rowena asked. Her voice was loud like she wanted the whole city to hear. "Is it the wife?”

Alexander did not answer her. He spoke into the phone. “Tomorrow, Harper. We’ll do dinner tomorrow.”

Rowena kissed him again, longer this time. I could hear it. Every second of it. 

She pulled back and whispered, loud enough for me to hear through the phone, “Tell her you love her. That’s what husbands do, right? Lie?”

My hand shook. 

“Harper?” Alexander said. 

I opened my mouth, nothing came out. 

“Are you still there?” Alexander asked. 

I swallowed. “I’m here.”

“Good. Don’t wait up.”

He dropped his phone into his pockets but I did not move. I couldn’t. He clearly did not hang up as Rowena's voice rose from the phone. 

“You’re so good to me,” she said. “Now take me to the hotel. I want to show you what I bought. Lingerie. Blue. Your favorite color.”

The bet rang in my head. He was picking her over me on our anniversary. The night I was going to tell him about our child. 

My hand dropped to my stomach. 

“I’m sorry," I whispered. “Your father is already choosing someone else.”

I watched Alexander open the car door for Rowena. Watched her slide into the passenger seat. Watched him walk around to the driver’s side like he had done for me a thousand times. 

Then they drove away. 

I went home. I did not change into the blue dress. I sat on the couch in the clothes I had worn to the doctor’s office. The pregnancy report stayed folded in my hand. 

I knew he told me not to wait up but I gave him a chance… his last chance to pick me. 

Seven o’clock came. Then eight. Then nine. 

He did not come home. At midnight, I opened my laptop. I typed two words into the search bar.

DIVORCE AGREEMENT.