Lovestory2 – Chapter 1

When I was eight months pregnant, Josiah Gilbert's company held a party. I stayed home, thoroughly cleaning and preparing a large spread of food. He invited all the company's senior executives to celebrate a successful project. After the party, his secretary replaced the empty space on the dining table with a cake. Aurora Wright playfully pointed at my pregnant belly and laughed.

"Hazel," she said, "you've swelled up like an inflatable doll! It's really crowded here!"

"No, inflatable dolls aren't that fat, or they wouldn't sell," someone retorted.

The crowd erupted in laughter, leaving me humiliated and utterly shattered. I demanded an apology, but Josiah immediately sided against me.

"Aurora was just joking to lighten the mood," he snapped. "Why are you taking it so seriously? If you don't want to eat, then leave! Don't throw a fit!"

On a bitterly cold, snowy night, he kicked me out of the house in my nightgown. He turned and disdainfully remarked, "Don't mind her; it's my fault for spoiling her. She's swollen like a ball and still has the nerve to be angry. With a baby on the way, she can't run far. In this weather, she'll be back begging me to open the door."

He was wrong. I immediately hailed a taxi to the hospital and scheduled an induced labor. This man didn't deserve to be a father.

The doctor on duty, after reviewing my records and hearing my request, cautiously asked, "You're in your late stages of pregnancy; an induced labor is almost the same as giving birth. Are you sure you don't want this child? Does the father know?"

"His father ran away with another woman," I replied.

The doctor's sympathetic expression indicated a willingness to help, but Josiah had never attended a prenatal checkup since I became pregnant. There was no record of him in the system. Learning that I wasn't even married, she ceased persuasion and scheduled the surgery for two days later.

Before I left, the doctor, noticing my light clothing, kindly lent me a white coat, but it offered little protection against the blizzard. The icy wind turned my body purple with cold.

Arriving home, I was numb with cold, my skin burning and itching. Josiah sat at the dining table, scrolling through his phone, ignoring me. Hearing the door open, he grabbed a plate and smashed it on the floor.

"Hazel, Aurora was just joking! Why are you making such a big deal?" he yelled. "Do you know all the company's top executives were here tonight? You're embarrassing me!"

"She's just a recent graduate, not sensible," he continued. "You're about to be a mother, and you're still not sensible? Why argue with a young girl?"

He dismissed both instances—Aurora calling me a ball and an inflatable doll—as jokes. Aurora, he claimed, was an immature recent graduate. He conveniently forgot I'd married him right after graduation, making me only a year older than her.

I'd endured countless similar insults during my pregnancy. Each time I reacted to Aurora's taunts, he unfailingly defended her, together they reducing me to dust.

"What Aurora said is true," he said. "The girl meant no harm. Are you being too sensitive? Can't you be more generous?"

My anger and disappointment consumed me. I argued recklessly, desperately clinging to my dignity in this failing marriage. I even felt myself becoming strangely detached.

This time, though, I didn't want to argue. Porcelain shards scraped my frostbitten skin, blood welling up, yet I felt no pain. Seeing my silence, he assumed I admitted fault.

His tone softened as he spoke, "Never mind, I won't argue about tonight. Hurry up and clean up; it's annoying to look at." He supported my waist, glancing around. The house was a disaster, the cake smashed against the wall, garbage strewn everywhere. He had complained about me taking up space during the party, yet now, faced with the mess, remembered I was pregnant.

I refused to clean. Instead, I retrieved the medicine cabinet and went to the bedroom. There, I found Aurora on my bed, posing seductively. She feigned surprise.

"Hazel? I'm sorry. I didn't know you were back. Mr. Gilbert asked me to rest here. Please don't be angry."

My nails dug into my palm. I turned to Josiah for an explanation, but he was indifferent.

"It was snowing heavily, and the girl felt unsafe going home, so she slept on your bed for a while. Are you really going to argue about this?"

In his eyes, his eight-months-pregnant wife was less important than a newly hired secretary. I’d been gone for three hours, and he hadn't asked a single question. Disappointment overwhelmed me; I couldn't bring myself to argue. He went into the bedroom, then told Aurora to leave.

Listening to their laughter, I assumed Josiah wouldn't join me that night. I was drifting off to sleep when he unexpectedly lay down beside me.