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”

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

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

just severely out of cash, and I’d dug this one out from a corner of mas bag to

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 a*s

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

thought was immensely disinterested in me earlier asks, and

book inside it along with the bill. “Your change, $1.50.

into the little box on the

home. Luckily, it was just a twenty

girl’s dark lips rise into a smile, and my eyebrows knit when my gaze falls

on my

1/3

T

finger.

I was wearing it all these

the bag from her, getting out of

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

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

my phone, something I had been doing every fifteen minutes since I sent Gabriel that voicemail in the morning. No

about hearing from him again and the hope to get an explanation or some sort of closure fizzled down when

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 right out