When I Showed Ultrasound, He Said He’s Married, I Quit

I, Layla Beasley, had just gotten the ultrasound photo from my prenatal appointment when my boyfriend, Wyatt Portillo, suddenly said, "Baby, I need to tell you something. Something important." My heart gave a hard thump, and my hand went to my belly before I could stop it. For one foolish second, I thought he was finally going to propose. "I've already married someone else." I went completely still, and the ultrasound photo slipped from my fingers. "What did you just say?" Wyatt moved fast and caught hold of me. "It was a family arrangement. Our families set it up. On paper, that's all it is. As long as you don't make this ugly, I can give you everything except a legal marriage. Don't worry. You and the baby are my real family." I shoved him off me and kept my voice flat. "Wyatt, we're done. I'm terminating the pregnancy." "Are you out of your mind?" Wyatt's voice rang through the hallway, loud enough to echo. He grabbed my wrist so hard it felt like he might snap it. I had looked into those eyes for eight years, and now they were fixed on me with pure disbelief. "That's my child. Who gave you the right to decide this on your own?" I tried to jerk my hand free, but he would not let go. "Your child? Wyatt, you're married. If you want a child so badly, go have one with your wife." "Layla, stop doing this." "I'm not doing anything." He looked at me, and for a second, his eyes went teary. "What is it I can't give you? If you want a car, a house, money, name it. I'll give it to you. I can give you anything except a marriage certificate." I just looked at him. Eight years ago, he cornered me outside the library, holding a crushed bouquet of roses, and told me he had been in love with me for three years. Eight years later, he stood in a hospital hallway and told me he could give me anything except a marriage certificate. "Wyatt," I said, and my voice sounded almost unnervingly calm to my own ears, "I've never been anyone's mistress, and I'm not about to start with you." His expression changed. "A mistress?" "Yes. That's what I'd be." That silenced him. "The moment I keep this baby, I become the other woman. In your parents' eyes, I'm the mistress. In her parents' eyes, I'm the mistress. One day, this child is going to ask why his father never married me. What am I supposed to tell him?" He stayed silent long enough for the nurse at the far end of the hall to look over again. Then he looked up, and what I saw in his eyes was not anger or grief, but something colder, something I had never seen in him before. "If you terminate that pregnancy, Layla, we're done for good." "We are already over. We were over the day you married somebody else." He took a step toward me. I didn't move. "Do you really think your father's project is still being funded on its own?" My heart dropped. "What is that supposed to mean?" He didn't answer. He didn't have to. I understood that look. I turned around. I walked toward the exam room. He shouted after me. "Layla!" I didn't stop. "Layla, stop!" I pushed open the exam-room door. A doctor sat behind the desk, making notes in a chart. She looked up when I walked in. "Can I help you?" "I want to schedule a termination. Can it be done today?" She glanced past me. Wyatt was standing in the doorway, but he hadn't come in. His face had gone white. "Do you have an appointment?" "No. Then I'd like to make one now." She checked the schedule. "We're full today. The earliest opening is three days from now." "Then make it three days from now." She looked at me, then at Wyatt in the doorway, and said nothing more. She lowered her head and started filling out the paperwork. I took the form and turned around. Wyatt was still standing there. He stared at the paper in my hand as if he couldn't bear to look at it. "Layla..." I walked past him. I walked out into the hallway. Sunlight streamed through the windows and fell across the floor in neat, bright squares. Three days from now, I would come back. And when I did, there would be nothing left of us.