Goldcrest

Chapter 12

He went to the room and discovered the room smells nothing like a dead rat but like the lavender air freshener that was in there.

He went back to their room, and found Jane under the duvet.

"Are you feeling cold?"

"Yes" she mumbled under the duvet.

"I think you need to do a pregnancy test"

"I'm not pregnant"

"Well there is only one way to find out, you get the test done"

Jane didn't respond.

"Do you have any pregnancy test strip in the house?"

"No"

Jeffery knew that wasn't true, because he saw some in her wardrobe the other day when he was looking for something there, but he didn't argue, that would be a foolish thing to do in her current mood.

"All right, I will go get some from the pharmacy"

There was no response from Jane.

Jeffery went to a nearby pharmacy within their estate, and bought two different types of pregnancy test strips.

When he got back Jane was still in the same position he had left her.

"Babes?" He sat on the bed and took off the duvet from her face.

"Babe please come and do the test"

"No, I think it's the food I ate last night that is messing with my system, I will be fine"

"I agree with you, but I still think you should do the test just to be sure"

"Which one is to be sure? I said I'm fine! Instead of you to get me a medication or something, you went to buy test strips, test strip buyer"

"I didn't want to get you any medication when we aren't sure what the problem is"

"I have heard you, but I'm fine so don't worry yourself"

"No doubt, but you still need to get the test done, so please get up"

"I'm not doing that test"

"You are very stubborn, you know that right?" Jeffery said completely frustrated.

"Whatever"

Jane stood up and grabbed the strip from him, and went into the bathroom to have the test done.

Jeffery waited patiently for her, and after 5 mins, Jane let out a very loud scream from the bathroom.

The moment Jeffery heard Jane scream from the bathroom, he knew the result of the test was positive.

Jeffery wanted to go into the bathroom, but decided against it, he decided to leave her alone to take it all in. He knew she needed time to herself to process the result.

He sat on the bed, and waited for her until she came out.

Jane sat on the floor of the bathroom staring at the pregnancy test strip, hoping it would somehow change from being positive to negative, instead of the two lines she was seeing. She decided to have another test done with the second strip, probably the first one is expired, or malfunctioning. She peed on it and waited patiently, praying and speaking in tongues for it to come out negative, but the result was positive, she was indeed pregnant.

What was she going to do? How was she going to handle being pregnant when she wasn't even ready to be a mother yet? She knows everyone is expecting her to get pregnant and start bearing children after marriage. But in actual sense, that was not what she wanted, at least not yet. She believes there is more to marriage than the woman just popping out children because that's what everyone expects from her. She wants to be able to actualize her dreams, build a career for herself before she can start having children. And there is also that fear that keeps nagging at her at the back of her mind; she might just be a terrible mother to her child, just like her mother was. What if she ends up hating the child for making her put her dreams on hold? How was she supposed to handle hatred for her child?

She coiled herself in a corner of the bathroom and cried, until she no longer had tears in her eyes. She couldn't get herself to come out and face Jeffery, because she didn't know what his reaction would be. If he is happy, then she is going to get angry at him for getting her pregnant even after she had told him she wasn't ready, and wanted to wait until after a year before thinking of having children. If he looks unhappy, then she is going to feel bad, and hate herself for getting pregnant when neither of them is ready to be a parent yet. Either way, she wasn't ready to face him.

After an hour of being in the bathroom, she finally opened the door and came out. She was surprised to find Jeffery sitting patiently on the bed, when she thought he might have gone to work already.

"Hey..." He stood up and enveloped her in a hug, smoothing her head. "Everything will be all right" he murmured into her ear.

Jane didn't know if to cry or be happy at Jeffery's reaction. She just remained motionless in his arms for a while before she pulled out of the hug.

"We are going to find a way around this okay? We are in this together" he looked her in the eyes as he spoke.

Jane who seemed to have lost her speaking ability the moment she discovered she is pregnant, only nodded her head and went to lie down on the bed.

Jeffery used a duvet to cover her, and propped a pillow under her head, making sure she was comfortable.

"Do you need me to get you anything?"

She shook her head.

"Not even tea, or something to eat?"

She shook her head.

"What about a chocolate drink?" Jeffery knew she loves chocolate drinks and doesn't turn down one when she was being offered.

But this time she shook her head indicating a no.

"Are you sure? Because I'm very sure a creamy chocolate drink would really..." Jeffery had to stop talking because of the mean look Jane gave him.

"Sorry, you don't want that, so what can I get you then?"

She shook her head saying nothing.

"Okay, I'll just be here in case you need anything"

Jane shook her head, and indicated with her hands that he leaves.

"You want me to leave?"

She nodded.

This her method of communication was beginning to piss Jeffery off, why wouldn't she just open her mouth and speak to him? Or did she lose her voice in the bathroom or something? She couldn't even look him in the eye.

He picked up his laptop, diary containing his itinerary for the day, and left the room.

He went to his study, since he has been chased out of his room, he might as well get some work done. He opened his laptop and was greeted by Jane's picture which he used as his background picture, he couldn't stop staring at it, she really looked happy in the picture. He couldn't help but wonder if this news of her being pregnant was going to put a strain on their relationship, he knows she isn't ready to have kids just yet, and he had agreed to wait at least a year before having kids, they both planned on how their lives were going to look like with all the plans they had, but not for once did they stop to consider what it was going to look like when or if things didn't go according to their plans. What if she demands for an abortion? He definitely wouldn't want his child aborted, but he knows how Jane can be sometimes, she could come asking for that.

Jeffery prayed she doesn't ask for an abortion, because he knew he wouldn't agree to that, and that would cause a lot of problem for them.

After one hour of staring at his computer and not being able to get any actual work done, he decided to go check up on Jane and see how she was doing, and if she needed something.

He tried to be quiet as possible, as he opened the bedroom door, he peeped and saw that she had already slept off. He checked the temperature of the air-conditioner, before going back to his study.

When Jane woke up, it was already past noon, she noticed she wasn't feeling naseous any more, she was even feeling hungry, she slowly got off the bed, and went into the bathroom to wash her face.

She stared at herself in the vanity mirror for a while, trying to see if there was any noticable change that shows she is pregnant. There was none, save for a little weight gain, which she had earlier thought was from eating too much, but didn't know it was from having another human grow inside of her. She placed her hands on her stomach which was still flat, very soon she would start to show, and would become excessively fat.

'Jane you are overthinking things'

She splashed some water on her face, and cleaned her face with a towel, and stepped out to go look for something to eat.

When she got to the kitchen, nothing there seemed to interest her, she thought of making pasta, but the thought of eating it, almost made her throw up, so she gave up on that, she considered making rice but that wasn't any appetizing either.

After about fifteen minutes of her roaming around her kitchen, looking for what to cook that doesn't make her naseous, and not being able to come up with anything, she sat down in frustration. What was happening to her? She has never been one to think too much before deciding on what to eat, but now even her favorite jollof rice wasn't even appealing to her. She has always thought that any sickness that would make her not want to eat jollof rice, was a deadly one.

"Oh God my life is changing so fast and I didn't even get the time to prepare for it, how am I supposed to cope with this?" She cried into her hands, thinking of what to do, then out of nowhere, she remembered she hasn't eaten moi moi in a long while, she quickly cleaned her tears, forgot about what she was crying about, and went back upstairs to get her phone and placed an order for moi moi from a nearby restaurant. For some strange reason, the thought of eating moi moi, brought joy to her heart. She decided to order for Jeffery as well, incase he wants to eat.