Pregnant

Liora.

After our last confrontation, the following weeks passed in a blur.

You know? The same routine, interning at the elite company that the Quinns paid for me to attend, playing the perfect daughter, donating blood for Seris, organising their upcoming grand engagement party, and most importantly, smiling through it all, and acting unaffected.

And yeah, it was hell, I will admit.

He had once promised me a forever, a home. ' After your graduation, I will marry you, Liora. I will give you a home.' He had whispered, his voice louder over the Christmas movie we were watching.

And in response, I had snuggled deeper into his arms, allowing myself to dream, to imagine a future that belonged to the two of us, Tavian and Liora.

Then the graduation happened, I had expected a ring, but it never came. I received an excuse instead. ' How about you finish interning first? When you land your first job, I will propose... It will be a double celebration.' He had whispered. And somehow, his words had made sense. Double celebration had sounded perfect, enticing, and I found myself relaxing, looking forward to the day I would become Mrs Knight..

The day never came, though. Turns out, he had been stringing me all along. There was never me and him. And...the ring was never meant to come either. ' You are just a charity case....thinking of becoming Mrs Knight, your appetite is surely great, Liora....' He had slapped me with those words when I caught him tangled in sheets with Seris.

I was an ophan, certainly, not good enough for the Knight heir, but Seris was...

And now, I was stuck in a suffocating space, arranging flowers for his engagement party, for him to marry her, and somehow, I was expected to do all that with a smile. I was expected to act like I was okay, like seeing them kiss, every two seconds, giggling at some jokes they shared, wasn't clawing my heart out.

At some point, I had to descreetly wipe away some rebellious tears that sneaked down to my cheeks when I saw the way he held her, delicately, tenderness glossing over his eyes as he looked her in the eyes, just like he used to hold me. Pain gripped my heart when I recalled how I had thought that his warmth was only reserved for me. How naive!

At the engagement venue, they had no business being there, at least, not before the actual engagement day.

They weren't planning or overseeing anything, and yet, they never missed a day. They showed up, religiously. They would claim a corner, and make out there, moan, and act like the world wasn't watching, act like I wasn't there, listening to everything, reliving their betrayal. They were cruel, weren't they?

They would stop at nothing before breaking me, no?

Well, they succeeded. Every day, they managed to break me, slowly, painfully, in and out, but I never gave them the satisfaction of seeing it.

I forced myself to act strong, unaffected. When Seris moaned loudly, my hands, in the midist of smoothening the silk fabrics would falter, but just briefly, and in the next second, I would go back to doing my work, forcing my body to keep moving, to keep planning, and I swear, it was all more than just draining.

The torture was unending, like a hell I couldn't escape.

' Hold on, Liora... for three months. ' Over the course of the two months, I would catch myself whispering. Those words had become my mantra. They helped keep me grounded, breathing...

But somewhere along the way, the pain of seeing them together had numbed out. At some point, the pain was just mild, a distant echo to remind me of where the two stubbed me.

And before long, three months were almost over.

Their engagement day was approaching, and so was my freedom, I could almost smell it in the air.

In one month, I would finally get to cut my ties with the horrible Quinns, and that was the only force that kept me going, withstanding.

Everything was going according to the plans, until it wasn't.

It was on a Sunday morning, and the whole Quinns were at the engagement venue, overseeing everything while I slaved myself, forcing my weakened body beyond its limits, when the ground beneath me shook, and my knees buckled under my weight. Then came the deep and unsettling darkness, and before long, the world around me faded into nothingness as the darkness took over..

*******

Deep, heated, and distant, vaguely familiar voices seeped through my senses.

Then came the smell of antiseptics, deep, familiar and unhinging.. God, I hated antiseptics and hospitals with every nerve in my being.

And the smell of it successfully woke me up, in a jolt, my movements dragged as I tried to adjudt to the lighting, to name the unfamiliar surrounding.

" She is finally up!" Seris' familiar voice cut through my senses, and all traces of sleep vanished from my eyes when I looked at the people gathered a few meters from where I was. It was the Quinns, and...Tavian?

Their gazes snapped towards me, fuelled by anger so raw it had dread curling up in my gut. The last thing I remembered was losing my consciousness at the engagement venue, and now.....this?

I was in a hospital room, in a thin hospital gown, and an IV drip connected to my wrist.

I had fainted mid-preparations, it seemed. That wasn't surprising, was it?

I had been donating blood for Seris ever since I was six, from the day that I was adopted into the Quinns family. I guess my body was finally at its limit..

Before fainting, I had just finished donating more, and even before I could rest, I was forced to go and work on the engagement preparations. With all that, and the stress, it was a miracle that I was still breathing, even.

What surprised me was the anger in their eyes, though. I know. The Quinns had never liked me. But this time, their anger felt different, venomous..

" What is the meaning of this, Liora?" I was still disoriented when my foster mother slapped me with a stack of papers as she asked.

" And this!" Before I could even read the papers, a slap landed on my face, and the pain was so deep that it had me wanting to close my eyes, my head was spinning, and blood trickled from the corners of my lips, but I couldn't.

The word "pregnant" was written boldly on the report, and that successfully cleared my head.

I couldn't even feel the sting on my cheeks anymore ...

'Pregnant. ' I tasted the word in my mouth, over and over, and yet, I couldn't come to terms with it.

" Me?" I found myself whispering out, disbelief contouring my features.

" Yes! Who else?" She spat, visibly fuming as she placed a test kit on my laps..

Two pink lines...

Confirmed.

I was pregnant...