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”

copy of ‘what to expect when you’re in pregnant’ at the cashier’s desk, removing the last twenty dollar note in my bag and

cheeks flush. The note was folded and slightly crumpled, the kind it becomes when you leave it in your jeans pocket and forget about it for

hadn’t forgotten this note in my jeans pocket. I was just severely out of cash, and I’d dug this one out from a

I had to, if not 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

is when I shift 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

at the bookstore, who I thought was immensely disinterested in me earlier asks, and I nod at the barely-twenty

says, pulling out a bag from one of the drawers and putting the book inside it along with the bill. “Your change, $1.50. You

the 1.50 into the little box on the

Luckily, it was just a twenty minute walk,

dark lips rise into a smile, and my eyebrows knit when

on my

1/3

T

finger.

I hadn’t even realised I was

the bag from her, getting out of the store as

a very poor job in keeping me warm. I hadn’t packed any coats in the one bag I had dumped with some things that came to my hand, but I sure

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

minutes since I sent Gabriel that

again and the hope to get an explanation or some sort of closure fizzled down when I slept that night and there was still no word from

and made my way out to see a