Suddenly, he snapped, knocking everything off the bedside table. “Then why the hell did you have the abortion without telling me? That was my kid- mine! Did you not want to have a baby with me that badly?”
I looked at him calmly and said, “Because his dad turned into a jerk. Carl, you’re disgusting. You don’t deserve to be his dad.”
The mug he was holding dropped and shattered on the floor. He turned and ran off.
What right did he have to be mad? Wasn’t this all his fault? Our family falling apart was just karma catching up to him.
When the anesthesia wore off, my stomach started hurting, and I couldn’t get any sleep. I curled up under the blankets, crying quietly. The hospital was so quiet that it was unsettling.
Outside, thunder cracked, and the rain came
pouring down. Then, out of nowhere, I remembered the first year Carl and I were together.
2/4
He was just a nobody medical student back then, helping his mentor with his first surgery. He was so nervous that he was practically shaking.
It had been pouring rain that day, too. I had gone to keep him company. But on the way, I had gotten into a car accident.
Covered in blood, I had been rushed to the hospital, hardly holding on. Carl had showed up right away and stayed by the ICU all night until they finally brought me out.
His eyes had been red and swollen as he held me and said, “Hailey, this must hurt so much, right?”
I could hardly move, feeling like my whole body had been ripped to pieces. Even so, I had used what little strength I had to wipe away his tears.
Carl had cried until his eyes were all puffy. “Never again, Hailey,” he had said. “I swear I’ll protect you. I won’t let you go through this kind of pain again.”
Back then, he had probably never imagined that one day, he would be the one to perform an abortion on me, especially since I had always been so terrified of pain.
He promised he’d protect me forever. He was such a liar.
3/4
Carl came to see me every day now, sometimes
bringing homemade soup and other times bringing supplements to help me heal.
“It’s okay, Hailey. We’ll have our kids someday. There’s always another chance,” he said.
I didn’t say anything. We both knew there was no someday” for us. Everything between us was done for good the moment our baby was gone.
11
