Baby She Didn't Plan For

Weeks passed and Lumi couldn't quite grasp how much time had slipped through her fingers. It felt like only days ago she was standing in that hotel room, reeling from the shock of everything that had happened. But now, here she was—sleeping on a friend’s couch, applying for job after job, and still receiving nothing but rejection.

Every morning, she woke up with a sore back and the same heavy feeling in her chest. She opened her laptop right away and sent out more job applications. For marketing assistant, junior copywriter. Anything she could find online. She typed cover letters until her fingers hurt. She checked her email ten times a day. Still, nothing came back.

Her eyes stared at the glowing screen of her phone, at the countless emails and messages that came back with the same response. "We regret informing you…" It stung. Every word, every click of the "delete" button made her feel smaller, and more hopeless. She didn't even know how long she had been awake, just staring at the screen.

Tears filled her eyes. "Why won't anyone call me back?" she whispered to herself. She felt worthless. Two years at home with Henry had taken away her work experience. And now no one wanted her. She thought about giving up. Maybe she should just stop trying. But then she remembered her father in the hospital. He needed her to be strong.

“Lumi,” her friend, Emily, called from the kitchen, snapping her from her reverie. “Are you okay?”

Lumi didn’t answer at first. She felt the weight of it all—the rejection, the despair, and the sense that everything was slipping through her fingers. She couldn’t even get a job interview. She wasn’t sure about what to do anymore.

“I’m fine,” she said quietly, not even convincing herself.

Emily walked into the living room, carrying a cup of coffee. “You’ve been applying for jobs for weeks now. Have you heard anything back?”

Lumi shook her head, feeling her chest tighten. She hated this—hated the pitying looks, and the helplessness in her friend's eyes. “No. Nothing.”

Emily sat down beside her, placing the coffee on the table. “Lumi, don’t you think maybe... maybe it's time to think about a different approach?” she asked, gently.

Lumi clenched her fists, the frustration building. "What different approach? No one’s hiring me. I don’t even think anyone wants to hire me anymore.”

She paused, her eyes filled with frustration, and her voice trembling. “I think someone’s blacklisting me.”

It was a ridiculous thought at first. But the more Lumi thought about it, the more she realized she was right. No one wanted her. She couldn’t even get a response from a simple online application.

What she didn’t know, though, was that Henry had been quietly making calls. He had been speaking to people, and telling them not to hire her. It wasn’t enough that he had destroyed her marriage; he was going to destroy her chances at any future, too.

Henry sat in his office at Langford Enterprises. He picked up his phone and called an old contact in human resources. "Listen, if a woman named Lumi Reeves applies for any position, don't hire her. She's trouble. Spread the word quietly."

The man on the other end laughed. "Got it, Henry. Consider it done."

Henry smiled with no warmth. "Good. She needs to learn her place."

Her father’s medical bills kept piling up, and each day, Lumi felt the weight of them crushing her chest. She didn’t have the money to pay for them. She didn’t have the money for anything. How was she supposed to fix all this? She couldn’t even fix herself.

Lumi's phone buzzed with another hospital bill notification. She opened it and saw the amount, more money she did not have. Her stomach twisted. Dad's treatments cost so much. She had sent what little she could from her savings, but it was gone now. She felt helpless. "I can't even help my own father," she thought as the tears came again. "What kind of daughter am I?"

One morning, after another sleepless night of applying to jobs, Lumi woke up and found herself rushing to the bathroom to vomit. She assumed it was stress. The fatigue, the anxiety—it all caught up with her.

But the next morning, the same thing happened. Her stomach churned, and the feeling of nausea overwhelmed her once again. She couldn’t ignore it anymore. It was as if her body was trying to tell her something, but she didn’t want to listen.

Then, she remembered that night in the hotel. The stranger and the fact that they had not used protection.

—-

Her thoughts raced as she stood in line at the corner pharmacy. She tried to convince herself that it was just stress, but a nagging voice told her to do something about it.

“Excuse me,” she said to the pharmacist, her voice shaky. “I need... a pregnancy test.”

The pharmacist’s face softened with concern, but Lumi just wanted to be out of there. She didn’t care about the sympathy; she didn’t care about the small talk. She just wanted to be alone.

She paid for the test, barely registering the price, and hurried into a public restroom. Her hands trembled as she opened the box, took the test, and waited.

When she looked, two pink lines appeared.

Positive.

“God, no,” Lumi muttered under her breath, cursing herself as tears blurred her vision. She sat on the toilet seat for a long time, staring at the stick. The man from the hotel. She did not know his name. She did not know anything about him. How could this happen now? Her life was already falling apart. She had no job, no money asides bills everywhere. And a baby would make everything worse.

She felt frantic. She could not keep it. She had no way to take care of a child. Her father's bills came first and she needed to fix her own life before bringing another person into it. She thought about it hard. A part of her felt scared to do it but she told herself that she had no choice.

But even as she told herself that, she hesitated. Her fingers gripped the edge of the toilet seat, with her mind racing. She wasn’t ready for this. She didn’t even know his name. She couldn’t possibly—

Lumi closed her eyes, fighting the rush of emotions threatening to overwhelm her. She couldn’t keep it. The thought of bringing a child into this mess, wasn’t fair to anyone.

She left the restroom in a daze, still in shock, and still unsure of what to do. But she had made up her mind. The next day, she bought abortion pills from a nearby pharmacy, hoping they would erase the future she never wanted.

Two days later, her period came. It was lighter, and shorter than the usual two days instead of five. She felt a mixture of relief and guilt as she convinced herself that it had worked, and that she had done the right thing. She tried to move on, but the guilt and sadness lingered, never fully leaving her.

The days passed, and just when she thought nothing could possibly go right, she got a call.

Her heart raced as she picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Is this Lumi Reeves?” a voice on the other end asked.

“Yes,” she replied, the nervousness in her voice was unmistakable. “Who is this?”

“This is Emma from Vanders Global. We’d like to invite you for an interview.”

Lumi’s heart skipped a beat. She had never heard of Vanders Global, but the name sounded prestigious. At that point, she didn’t care if it was some obscure company. It was a chance.

The day of the interview, Lumi dressed as best as she could, smoothing down her skirt and taking deep breaths to calm herself. She reviewed her portfolio in her head as she sat in the waiting room, with her hands shaking.

“Lumi Reeves?” the receptionist called out. “They’re ready for you.”

Lumi stood up, her legs were unsteady as she followed the receptionist into the office. The room was modern, sleek, and cold, much like the man sitting behind the desk.

The moment he turned and their eyes met, her stomach dropped. The world seemed to stop for a moment as their eyes met.

It was the man from the hotel.

His eyes were cold, distant, and unreadable. She could feel her legs go weak beneath her.