CHAPTER 003

ANNA’S POV

My heart sank as if a stone had dropped into my stomach. I had hidden that slip deep inside a box at the back of my storage room. I thought no one would ever find it. I wasn’t ready to tell anyone.

So how had she found it?

I had even managed to forget, at least for a little while, that something was growing inside me.

I had gone to the hospital two days ago because I was feeling sick, and I walked out with the news that I was four weeks pregnant. That was supposed to be my secret. The one I wanted to share with James when he finally proposed. But now here I was, cornered, exposed, standing alone with my mother’s fury crashing down on me.

“You dare ask me what you did?” she shouted, her chest rising and falling. “This is what you’ve been doing with your life? After everything I sacrificed for you, after all the money I spent raising you, you repay me by spreading your legs and getting pregnant like a common street girl? If Bella hadn’t found this, was this how you’d have kept us in the dark?"

I froze, my lips trembling. So that was it. My younger sister. She must have found it while snooping around. My mother never stepped foot into my storage room.

That storage room, if it could even be called a room, was where I slept. Four walls crammed with old boxes and broken furniture. Meanwhile, Bella, the favorite child, slept in a room decorated like a princess’s.

Ever since my father became sick, I had been cast aside. Sometimes I even wondered if my mother was truly the one who birthed me, because of how she treated me more like a maid than a daughter. Even the maid in our house was better off than me.

“Mom, please, it’s not what you think..." I pleaded.

“Not what I think?” she cut me off, her eyes blazing. “Do you think I’m blind? Do you think I don’t know what this means? You’ve ruined yourself. You’ve ruined this family.”

I stood there, numb. My tears had already run out hours ago, but hearing her words broke something inside me all over again.

“Who’s responsible?” she yelled.

“It’s James’s,” I whispered, my throat so dry the words barely came out. “He’s the father.”

She let out a bitter laugh that cut me deeper than any slap. “James? That poor thing? That man has nothing, and you chose to tie yourself to him?"

“I love him, Mom. I thought..." My voice cracked, breaking into a sob. “I thought we were going to get married. I thought…”

“Thought? Thought?” she barked, her eyes wild. “Where did your thoughts get you? Look at yourself! Look at the disgrace you’ve brought into my house!”

At that moment, Bella strolled in, holding her tablet. She didn’t even look sorry. She thrust it in front of our mom, showing her the screen.

“Mom, look.”

My mother snatched the tablet and squinted at it. I didn’t need to see it, I already knew. James, my boyfriend, kneeling in his expensive suit, sliding the ring onto Melissa’s finger.

My own best friend wearing a ring meant for me with cameras flashing around them. His smile wide, full of joy.

My stomach turned.

My mother hissed and shoved the tablet back at my sister. She looked at me with disgust. “So, this is the man you threw your life away for? This is the man you trusted with your body, with your future? He has abandoned you in front of the whole world, Anna. And now you want me to take care of you and his unwanted child?”

I shook my head violently, tears spilling again despite my exhaustion. “No! Mom, please listen. I can raise this child. I will. Just give me time. Don’t throw me away like he did. Please, Mom, you’re all I have left.”

She crossed her arms, her lips curling. “And how do you plan to raise a child, Anna? With what money? With that low-pay job of yours? Even the man who is responsible has deserted you. Tell me, how will you do it?”

“You have only one option left and that is to remove that thing from your womb," she added.

Her words cut through me like knives. I wanted to collapse right there. But I forced myself to stand.

“I can’t abort it,” I whispered, my voice shaking. “I’m Rh negative. The doctor said if I lose this baby without treatment, I may never carry another. This could be my only chance to have a child, Mom.”

For a second, I thought she would soften. For a second, I hoped she would look at me not as a disgrace but as her daughter who was hurting.

But her eyes only hardened.

“Then you leave me no choice,” she said coldly. She clapped her hands, calling the maids. Two of them appeared, carrying my bags.

I stared, my heart dropping to my stomach. They were already packed.

She had been waiting for this.

“Mom… no.” My knees buckled as I stepped forward. “Please don’t do this. Please, I have nowhere to go. I’ve lost everything already. Don’t strip me of shelter too."

Her face remained stone. “You made your choice when you opened your legs for him. You chose him and the bastard in your womb over your family. Now live with the consequences.”

The maids dropped the bags by the door.

“Mom,” I whispered again, my voice breaking completely. “Please..."

But she didn’t even look at me. She turned her face away as though I disgusted her.

The maids stepped forward, one of them reaching for my arm. I jerked away, clutching my stomach instinctively, as if to shield the tiny life inside me from the cruelty of the world.

They dragged my bags outside and left them there. My sister watched from the corner, smirking faintly like she had won some secret battle.

It didn't surprise me really. I never saw her as my sister. Melissa filled that shoe, atleast I thought she did..

Standing at the threshold with tears pouring down my cheeks, I looked back one last time. I wanted to believe my mom would change her mind, that she would call me back, that she would say she didn’t mean it.

But the door shut in my face with a bang that echoed in my chest.

Betrayed by my boyfriend and my best friend and now thrown away from my home by my own mother.

What did I do to deserve all this misfortune happening to me in one day? Who did I offend?