pregnant and discovering the harsh reality

Sacramento, California, at 6.30 am.

Maelie smiled with her hazel blue eyes glistening as she looked at the pregnancy test in her hand showing a positive result, that means she is pregnant.

"Erland will surely be thrilled with this good news!" she exclaimed joyfully, thinking of her husband who was out of town. She pushed aside her chestnut-black long hair, then rinsed the pregnancy test and took it out of the bathroom.

She sat on her bedroom couch, her trembling hand holding the phone, occasionally glancing back at the pregnancy test as if disbelieving the result, unable to fathom that she would soon become a mother.

"No, I won't tell him now. I'll surprise him when he returns," she said with a smile, thinking of her beloved husband.

Click...

She immediately turned to the newly opened door, her eyes finding her young sister, Amanda, who stood frozen with an anxious expression.

"Amanda, you have to see this!" She stood up, holding the pregnancy test and approaching her sister with a hint of happiness on her face. "I'm pregnant, finally i'm pregnant!"

Amanda remained silent, her face not expressing joy but instead continued to reflect sadness.

Maelie furrowed her brow. "Don't you like this news?"

Amanda took the test, her amber eyes examining it, undeniable proof that her older sister was indeed pregnant.

"You'll be an aunt, we won't be too lonely anymore!" Maelie said enthusiastically, hugging Amanda from the side. "But don't worry, even though I'm pregnant...I'll try to stay focused on our bakery business...."

"You don't need to do that..." Amanda gently pushed Maelie away, releasing her embrace. "Erland isn't a poor man... You shouldn't need to work hard because he has a lot of money..."

Maelie furrowed her brow. "Why would you say that? You even know he has to work out of town as a salesman..."

"He's lying, he is a fraud, he has taken great pleasure in our suffering all this time, he has fooled us!"

"What?"

"He never worked like that; he has another life in New York!"

Amanda quickly took her phone from the red jumpsuit pocket she was wearing and showed a social media photo to Maelie.

"Look...!"

Maelie look at the photo, seeing a couple kissing near the aisle, then another picture showing the bride and groom with their families. She couldn't deny the resemblance of the groom to her husband but noticed he looked much younger, with slightly thinner cheeks.

"that's a photo four four years ago, which means their marriage happened before yours," Amanda explained again.

Maelie swallowed hard, trying to think positively considering Erland was so kind, responsible, and always open with her, and they had been together for three years.

"No... Maybe it's just a resemblance... He's not Erland!" She handed the phone back to Amanda. "You know, in this world, someone always looks like someone else even if they're not related... I don't..."

"But it's him!" Amanda interrupted Maelie, her eyes wide but reddening, looking at her sister with a shattered soul. "It's impossible for someone to be one thousand percent similar... You can zoom in on this photo multiple times... He is Erland, and his name is Erland. I saw his wife's account profile; her name is Tiffany Geraldton... She uses the last name Erland... Erland Geraldton!"

Maelie was stunned, her throat suddenly dry, choked up, the shock rendering her unable to speak.

"My friends were the ones who first told me this because about four years ago, she went to New York with her family to attend a lavish wedding of a wealthy businessman. They said the man owns a gold mining company in Nevada... That man is Erland!" Amanda explained again, gazing at her sister with such sadness. "He's been deceiving us, pretending to be an ordinary man, a single man... But look at the reality..." She handed her phone to Maelie again.

Maelie took Amanda's phone and looked at the wedding photo, then opened Tiffany Geraldton's account, seeing her elegant and beautiful pictures full of luxury, occasionally finding pictures of her with Erland.

"You can even see there's a photo posted about one weeks ago, and Erland left town one weeks ago until today," Amanda clarified again.

Maelie remained stunned, her body suddenly weak, her legs trembling as she returned to the sofa and sat with an empty stare. Her mind wandered, envisioning her husband's face with that woman, and simultaneously recalling their first meeting in front of the bakery, dating for several months before getting married.

'This feels surreal, hard to believe...' she thought with tears streaming down. 'But... He has been away more often than with me... Could it be because he wanted to spend time with her? He didn't want me to use his last name, he didn't like taking photos together... He didn't enjoy spending time with me in public? Is this because he has another life and doesn't want me to know, or his family to know about me? Then who were they claiming to be his family during our wedding?'

Maelie felt dizzy, too many questions swirling in her head. Her mind was chaotic, reluctant to believe, not wanting to believe, yet the evidence compelling her to.

Amanda sat beside Maelie and hugged her.

"I don't want to believe it," Maelie whispered, unable to hold back her tears.

"I don't want to believe either, but everything has proven that he's a liar...."

"I love him... I love him so much, he even said he wanted to have a baby with me..." Maelie kept crying, her chest feeling tight, her heart pounding, and her head throbbing. "How can he want to having babies with me if he has another wife?"

Amanda released her embrace. "And now you're pregnant. You have to tell him and force him to be honest... Then choose between his first wife or you!"

Maelie fell silent, confused, suddenly worried that Erland might choose that woman over her, but she also felt like a parasite to their marriage because that woman might have known Erland longer than she did.

"I'm not sure I deserve to be chosen... I'm just... I'm just a mistress... I've just realized that ... all this time I've been a mistress... It's so embarrassing! I'm so awful!" She started to hysterically cry again. "I'm like a snatcher of someone's husband, I'm like a destroyer of people's marriage!"

Amanda immediately held onto Maelie's arm. "You're not at fault in this, but Erland!"