MARRYING My FATHER-IN-LAW

My husband’s phone pinged with a message. I was about to take it to him at work because he’d forgotten it at home. The message was from my sister. Curiosity piqued, I entered the password to unlock the phone and went to the message.

“I AM PREGNANT.”

My eyes nearly bugged out of my head. Pregnant? I had to sit down for this. I sank into a nearby chair and began scrolling through the messages between my sister and my husband. The evidence was clear: they had been having an affair for a very long time, and now it looked like she was pregnant. Something I couldn’t even manage to do.

A tear escaped my eye as I tried to compose myself. It shouldn’t have been a complete surprise, considering how close they had recently become and how oddly they had been acting. I had suspected they might be involved, but I didn’t want to believe that the two people I trusted most could betray me in this way. Still, I should have suspected it.

She’s probably not pregnant with him, I lied to myself as I texted her.

“Is it mine?” I sent the message.

“Of course it’s yours. What are you talking about? How could you ask me such a question?”

She tried calling, but I ignored it.

“I’m in a meeting. It’s just a surprise, that’s all.”

“Well, I hope it’s a great surprise. I know how much you want to be a father.”

That message hurt.

“Okay, I’m just coming from a meeting, and I’m on my way home. Why don’t we meet there and talk?”

“At your house? Isn’t Mina going to be there?”

“No. She left for a company seminar this morning. She won’t be back till tomorrow. Come, maybe we can get some time to talk.”

“Okay, I’m on my way.”

I went to the kitchen, got a bottle of wine and a glass, and came back to the living room. I poured myself a glass of wine. I was going to need it for this conversation.

When Rita showed up at the house, she let herself inside, walked into the living room, and found me there with my legs crossed, a glass of wine in my hand as I took a sip. Colour drained from her face as she started to nervously wring her hands and tried to leave.

“Where are you going, Rita?” I asked.

“Nowhere,” she replied before she composed herself and straightened. “I thought you were away at a seminar.”

“I didn’t tell you that. Where did you learn that from?”

“No, you didn’t…but Eric did.”

And that’s when, as she’s biting her words, she notices the phone on the table in front of the bottle of wine. Eric's phone. 

Rita's whole demeanour changes as she straightened and started looking at me with a look I couldn’t decipher as if she was preparing to face her opponent.

“Mina, look, you’ve got this all wrong…” She started, but I interrupted her.

“What do I have wrong?” I asked, taking another sip of wine and looking her straight in the eyes.

“It’s not what you think about me and Eric. It was just once, and I was just so drunk. We all know that things between the two of you have been strained, and he needed somebody to talk to and get his mind off things.”

“Rita, I saw all the messages from three months ago.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh,” she said.

“Yes. Oh!”

“Well then, I guess the cat is out of the bag now. Sorry, you had to find out this way, but we both know Eric doesn't love you anymore. It was just a matter of time.”

“What made you do this? You do realize that we are blood sisters. We are related. He could have any woman he wanted. Why you?” I demanded.

“You can't stop love, Mina. When it happens, it just happens. Eric should have been mine anyway, but you just had to go and steal him from me, didn’t you? But you can't stop destiny; we were always meant to be together.”

“Are you crazy? What are you saying? Where is all of this coming from?”

This is my sister. She’s supposed to be on my side, not betraying me like this. She knows how I’ve been struggling to get pregnant. All those doctors' visits, those IVs I had to take.

Just then, Eric came into the house. As he closed the door, he said, “I think I forgot my phone.” I didn’t know if he was talking to me or himself, but as he came into the living room, he stopped in his tracks, seeing Rita and me there with his phone on the table. He could feel the tension in the air.

“What’s going on?” he asked, looking at me and Rita.

She must have subtly given him a signal that things were out in the open. “She knows,” Rita confirmed when Eric widened his eyes at her.

“Did you tell her?” Eric asked her.

“Of course not. She saw the message I sent you. I thought you were at work.”

“Look, Mina,” Eric said, trying to come toward me. But I held up a hand to stop him.

“It’s not what you think.”

“Then what is it? Please explain it to me,” I asked him, getting comfortable in the chair and taking another sip of wine from my glass.

“You were always working. We kept fighting all the time. And Rita was here. She actually listens to me and does what I say. It's hard to believe you came from the same family and grew up together.”

When I heard him say that, it was like the two of them didn’t realize what they had done, as though they thought it was justifiable. But I didn’t want to show them how much it hurt me.

“Is that why you decided to get her pregnant?” I asked him. His eyes widened as he looked toward Rita.

“You’re pregnant?” he asked, and there was a twinge of something in his voice.

“Yes,” Rita answered, nodding her head. Eric’s whole face lit up as he smiled broadly at Rita, looking at her belly and placing his hand on her flat stomach.

“You’re really pregnant?” he asked.

She nodded again.

“Yes.”

“I can’t believe it,” he said, his excitement evident.

Then he looked up. “I’m going to be a father. Finally!”

He looked at Rita and me simultaneously. “I am going to be a father!” he announced. He seemed genuinely happy about this, which grated at me.

It felt like a personal insult. It painfully reminded me of my inability to get pregnant after three years of marriage. The hurt was almost unbearable, but I masked it.

“What do you plan to do about this?” I asked him, choosing to focus on my husband.

“Plan to do about this? What do you mean?” he asked, acting confused.

“You’re not thinking I’m going to have an abortion, are you?” Rita asked, then laughed. “This pregnancy was not an accident. We planned to have this baby. Sorry, big sis,” she apologized sarcastically with a triumphant smile.

“Nobody is having an abortion.“ Eric firmly said to no one and both.

“Sorry big sis, you and I both know Eric should have been mine. Destiny is at work.“:Rita told me while patting her stomach slowly.

I forced a smile back and told her, 

“C’mon, little sis. You didn’t steal my man. You and your destiny were doing me a favour. You can have him.”

Then I turned to my husband, who still seemed to be in his own little world. How could he sacrifice all we had been through just so he could become a father, with my own sister? Don’t they have any shame?

“I want a divorce,” I told Eric, my voice calm and composed, hiding my true feelings.

“Wait, what?” Eric asked, surprised.

“You didn’t really think I was going to stay with you after you cheated on me with my own sister and betrayed my trust, did you?”

“Of course, he is going to give you a divorce. He loves me and I am pregnant now. We are going to be a family,” Rita interjected.

“You deserve each other,” I said as I stood.

“My lawyers will contact you about the divorce.” 

I walked out with my head held high, not turning back even for a second.

I was so tired of being underrated and treated like a piece of trash by him. I was done trying to fix our marriage and begging for love. I needed to level up; I needed more for myself. I also intended to make him regret demeaning me by sleeping with my sister and getting her pregnant, deepening my pain over my own inability to conceive.

I went to a high-end, VIP-exclusive club in the city to forget what had happened. I was determined to have the best fun of my life. I had been a good wife, working tirelessly in my husband’s company, striking deals just to please him, but he always demeaned me for my inability to bear children.

As I drank and enjoyed myself, I decided to get wild by dancing with some random guy, letting the alcohol fuel my reckless abandon and rule my body.

While dancing to the music and letting my body do its work, I spotted a handsome, dashing man in his early to mid-forties walk into the club. All eyes were on him—the women filled with lust and the men with jealousy. He had an energy around him that captured people’s attention.

He looked around the club, and our eyes met. It was for a split second, but in my drunken state, I felt an immediate surge of dirty desires toward him. I wondered what being close to him and feeling him on me would be like.

But then, as I looked closer, something struck me. Wait, that face looks familiar…