Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

ISABELLAS POV

FIVE WEEKS LATER

I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said the past few weeks have been the best weeks of my life.

There were a few times I regretted agreeing to sleep with Adrian but when I thought about the money, it all seemed worth it.

He had even given me more than expected. He gave me double what I asked for.

I could finally pay my rent and pay for better health care for my mother. My mum and best friend kept asking how I got the money but I couldn’t tell them. I told them I had won a lottery ticket. My mom believed me but my best friend wasn’t buying it.

I felt a little bit ashamed to admit to other people that I had slept with a man because of money.

I wanted to keep it a secret for as long as I could. I wanted to focus on finding a new job. Sure the money he gave me was a lot but I couldn’t depend on that to survive forever.

I had gone to about eight different job interviews but I hadn’t heard anything back from them. I spent most of the time in the hospital with my mother.

She was recovering from her surgery and was doing really well. I hadn’t seen her smile in a while but after she was treated, she was smiling most of the time and it warmed my heart.

I was getting ready to leave the house and go to the hospital to spend the night with my mother when I heard a knock on the door. I wasn’t expecting anybody. I went to the door and opened it and it was Jess.

“You didn’t tell me you would be coming over.” I smiled, opening the door wider to let her in.

“I got off work early and thought to come see you.”

“I'm actually on my way to the hospital. I'm spending the night there with my mother.” I said.

“That’s alright. I can come with you. I don’t have work tomorrow so it’s not a problem.”

“Ok. Let me go and grab my stuff so we can leave.” I rushed into the room.

“Hurry up, we don’t want to miss the bus.” She shouted.

I grabbed my stuff and came back to meet her. “We don’t have to worry about that. We can take a taxi.” I said.

“Can I ask you something?” She asked while we were going out the door.

“Yes. You don’t need permission to ask me a question, Jess.” I laughed.

“Where did you really get the money from?” She stopped me before I could speak. “And don’t even tell me you won a lottery. What lottery? You can’t even provide any information on it.”

I sighed. “Look, I don't know what to tell you, Jess. I’ve told you already. I got lucky and won a lottery. I don’t know what you want to hear.”

“I know you. I know when you’re lying. You didn’t win any lottery. Tell me the truth. I'm your best friend, remember? You don’t have any reason to lie to me.”

“Can we just drop the conversation? I already told you. You’re right. I have no reason to lie to you, that’s why I told you the truth.” I was sure that if she pushed any further I would have said something. I was getting annoyed with her constantly asking me.

“Fine. When you're ready to tell me, please do.”

We stopped a cab and got in. The ride to the hospital was silent. Usually, we would be talking about anything and everything. I didn’t know if she was mad at me.

I didn’t know why it was so hard for her to believe I’d truly won a lottery. I guess it was my fault as I didn’t provide any further details. I didn’t have time to come up with a good lie.

We got to the hospital and I paid the driver and we walked inside. We got to the room where my mother was staying. I paid for a private room for her so she could get all the comfort she needed.

I knocked gently before opening the door and heading inside. “Hey, Mom. How’re you feeling?” I asked.

“I feel a lot better, darling.” She answered. “Jess, you’re here. I haven’t seen you in a while.” She lit up with a smile.

“I’ve been really busy with work.” She went to hug her.

“I'm so happy to see both of you.” My mum said and hugged both of us.

There was a knock on the door and the nurse came inside with a tray of food. She dropped the tray on the bedside table and left the room.

My mum propped herself up on the bed and Jess handed her the food. She insisted on feeding herself since it was something she didn’t get to do that often since she got sick.

As soon as she took the cover from the plate, the smell hit me like a truck. It was something that had been happening for a couple of days now. I got nauseous at the slightest smells.

I gagged and rushed to the bathroom to throw up. It had become worse. Jess came after me and rubbed my back. “Are you okay?” She asked.

“Yes, yes. I'm just a little bit sick.” I said and washed my mouth. We went out of the bathroom to meet my worried mother.

“What happened? Are you okay?” My mom asked.

“I'm fine. I'm a little bit sick.” I answered.

“I told you to stop overworking yourself. You don’t even need to visit me in the hospital. The nurses here are doing a very good job.” She complained.

“It’s fine. I'm fine, Mom.” The last thing I needed was for her to be worried about me.

“Aunty, can you please excuse us,” Jess said. “We’ll be back.” My mother nodded and she dragged me out of the room. She didn’t stop walking until we got to a secluded area.

“What is it?” I asked. She kept staring at me without saying anything. “Jess, you’re scaring me. What is it?”

“I'm going to ask you for the last time. How did you get that money, Isabella?” She shut me up before I had the chance to answer again. “Did you sleep with someone for the money?”

My heart skipped a beat.

How did she get to that conclusion? I didn’t answer her. I didn’t want to lie like that and I couldn’t say yes either. “Uhmm.”

“You did, didn't you?” She said and I nodded. She sighed. “Did you at least use protection?” She asked and I shook my head no.

“I took contraceptives the next day,” I explained.

“When last did you get your period?”

I blinked, taken aback by her question. Thinking about it, I hadn’t gotten my period in a while.

“Wait here.” She added when I hadn’t responded and left me to sit on a bench alone.

A lot of thoughts were running through my head while she was gone. Was I? No, no, no. I couldn’t be.

There was no way in hell that happened.

She came back a few minutes later and dragged me off to the bathroom. She brought out a pregnancy test from her purse and handed it to me. I didn’t want to take it. I was scared of what the results would be.

We waited for two minutes as instructed on the box. Those two minutes felt like forever.

My stomach dropped when I saw those two bold lines staring back at me.

I was pregnant.

“No, no… th—there has to be… some mistake, let’s try another one,” I stuttered, unable to believe what I’d just seen.

Jess handed me another test.

My fingers trembled as I reached for the second test, praying the first one was wrong.