His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 69

11

Gabriel.

It’s me. Sofia. Baker.

I’m sorry if I’m intruding, but please don’t discard this voicemail and hear me out.

When I left from your house, I never had any intention of coming back into your life or contacting you ever again. I don’t want anything from you.

I.. Um, ever since I left, I’ve been sick. Even the week before that when my Grandpa passed, I… I was sick. I kept throwing up and feeling nauseous all the time and we both discarded it as my grief. It was, I think, but when I didn’t get any better, I went to a doctor last week and she asked me to get a pregnancy test.

Any way, long story short, I’m pregnant.

I’m about ten weeks along, eleven now, I think. That’s a little over two months, just so you know. It’s yours, just so you know, and it’s two of them. I haven’t been with anyone except you in a very long time, but if you wish, we can get a paternity test or something.

I don’t, I’m not doing this to get anything from you. If you’ve moved on and are happy in your life with… I guess what I’m saying is, you don’t have to be a part of this. I don’t want anything from you, especially not your money. I’m just letting you know so that, well, you know. I’m keeping the babies.

Um. Yes. That’s it, I guess. Call me back when you can? This is my new number. Bye”

pregnant’ at the cashier’s desk, removing the last

crumpled, the kind it becomes when you leave it in your jeans pocket and forget about

pocket. I was just severely out of cash, and I’d dug this one out

today then tomorrow when the groceries of the house were due, but I wasn’t prepared for the rea check and the inevitable need for me to get off my a*s and get a

back to my hometown. But I had to save both those paycheques if I wanted to rest at home in the third trimester and prepare for the babies. Not to forget the few months after the birth when I couldn’t be working, but that was a

I thought was immensely disinterested in me earlier asks, and

a bag from one of the drawers and putting the book inside it along

watching her put the 1.50 into the little box on the side

goes my bus money to get back home. Luckily, it was

a smile, and my eyebrows knit when my gaze

on my

1/3

T

finger.

I was

her a right lipped smile and grab the bag from her, getting out of the store as

air felt chilly again, and the sweater I was wearing did a very poor job in keeping me warm. I hadn’t packed any coats in the one bag I had dumped with

should start thrifting again. Even then, I wasn’t sure I could afford buying a coat just because

phone, something I had been doing every fifteen minutes since I sent

explanation or some sort of closure

dot when the rock guitarist had for a neighbour decided it was time to begin his daily practice, and made my way out to see a frowning Luna in the living room. “I don’t like him,” she grumped, making her way to the bathroom after adding, “Rest. I will be