Allergic to My Wife
I was born with a strange, painful condition. Women are strongly drawn to me, yet after I got married, I became allergic to my own wife, Quinn Rowan.
Every attempt at intimacy left me covered in burning red welts, struggling to breathe. More than once, I nearly went into shock.
Nevertheless, my desire to have a child was overwhelming. So one night, gambling with my life, I quietly slipped into the bedroom.
Strangely, nothing happened to me that night.
Soon, Quinn became pregnant. I naively believed everything would finally return to normal.
Then, eight months into her pregnancy, a single accidental touch sent me into another violent allergic reaction, and I was rushed to the hospital.
When I finally came to, Quinn was nowhere to be found. At the end of the corridor, I heard her whispering with her girlfriends, "Look how ridiculous he looked, all swollen and gasping. Pathetic."
Quinn dangled the special tonic she had always claimed was meant to help me, her voice dripping with disdain, "I engineered this formula myself. I made sure he’d break out in hives the moment he touched me. That way, he’d never come near me.
"But since he was so desperate for a kid, I decided to let him raise the baby Miles and I conceived together. It’s charity, really."
My blood froze.
The child I longed for, the baby I treasured, was never mine.