Let Me tell you a Story

Chosen

Current...

It had been nearly 3 months and I was still trapped.

My father-in-law had me confined to his house. Ironically I got more liberty here than I ever got in my own home. The only downfall was my mother-in-law talked to me like I was an actual surrogate.

'The baby this' or 'the baby that'.

I for the most part stayed in my room outside of appointments.

The furthest I was allowed was the backyard and honestly, I hadn't been up to it.

During the first week here I plotted an escape. I was almost successful. Ironically I made it past the yard, into a car with keys only to be followed. I had even gotten home and went for our spare key under our plant out front of our house.

Nothing had changed.

I went upstairs and my bag was still there; money and clothes actually. Everything was the same except for the pool of blood and Seven's body that was missing. If I just wasn't so weak, things would have been different I would have been free. Always so close but never quite there. Instead, the morning sickness that wasn't actually morning sickness had me in the bathroom throwing up everywhere as I cried beating on my stomach and praying for it to end.

I was carrying a monster's baby that was sucking the life out of me.

The all-knowing look on my face that they were there when I stepped out was evident.

There stood Seven's mother and Father surrounded by guards as they looked at me.

His mother slapped me before his father comforted me. He thought me, a victim, a victim of his son's abuse was mourning Seven. Really it was the only time he seemed nice to me.

He knew I was once in love with his son and I guess he thought that had never faded.

He would come into my room in reminiscence about Seven as I always sat in tears and he had done the same. Seven was not the Seven I had known, I guess he wasn't that for his father either. His son was callous and cold and in the last two and a half years of our marriage I never really understood why.

Seven wasn't even his only son so him mourning him the way he did was surprising.

Like me, I thought Seven was expendable but I guess he wasn't.

"Are you up to go out to eat today?" My father-in-law walked in.

He knew I wasn't but he would ask me every day.

"I don't know why you bother. It's not like she will be here past his birth." My mother-in-law walked into my room with a tray of food.

Like I said, surrogate.

"Of course, she will. A boy will need his mother." He said as if I wanted him to stick up for me.

I stood up from my temporary bed and took a seat in the corner chair by the window.

"He will have a mother, Paige." She said as he slammed his hand on my dresser making me turn.

Paige was the true daughter-in-law Seven's mother had always dreamed of.

She was Seven's first love and apparently, I had stopped the marriage from happening or so I am accused. I still wasn't sure how that happened but here I was in a place she wanted so badly. If I would only know then what I do now I would have happily conceded to her but instead, I fought for him.

Maybe that's what it was?

I would make promises to never leave him. He tried to tell me he wasn't perfect but for me, he would be, and then all that had changed. After our first year together he just cold-shoulder me. Stepping out. Sleeping with my favorite cousin, having my younger brother beat up, even my sister lost her job behind him. All this for him and he had done me over a thousand times worse than I could have ever imagined.

"Papa you know I'd love him as if he were my very own." Paige said standing in the doorway.

"That is because you can't have children Paige." He reminded her.

I was sure that was the main reason he rejected them getting married.

The woman was gorgeous.

She was a Miss Universe on steroids. She had naturally long thick hair that went to the middle of her back. Her brown skin was even and flawless without a scar or blemish. Her goddess stature was nearly 5'10 with her flat stomach.

I was pretty but just average pretty compared to her.

I mean, now I was nothing but once I was pretty.

I never understood what Seven saw in me; Why he wanted to love me, lied to me, and then eventually abuse me. I guess like Paige I was expendable and could be swapped out unless I begged and graveled for them to accept me. Maybe that's what Seven wanted all along.

"He looks like he is growing." She looked directly at my stomach.

I was four months today and tomorrow was my ultrasound.

They sat waiting, waiting to find out how far I was, or what I was having, and after that, they would be waiting for me to give birth.

"What if it's a girl?" I said and the women cackled.

"It'll be better if it's a boy." Paige said more as if it was a warning.

I could hear it in her tone as my mother-in-law smirked.

I could always feel it when the two of them got together. A typical mother monster and wanna-be monster are hell-bent on ruining my life. If it was a girl no doubt Paige would make sure of it and if it looked anything like me I'm sure my mother-in-law would do the same.

"My grandchild boy or girl will be raised properly. A regular life." My father-in-law said as everyone turned to him but me.

"Paige you shouldn't even be here and the only reason I allow it is because my wife loves you. Other than that you are just another of my son's w***e's who probably played a role in his death." He said eyeing her suspiciously.

He still hadn't figured out exactly who was responsible

His wife gasped turning to him as Paige rushed out of the room and down the hall.

"Why do you treat her that way?" My mother-in-law asked him.

As if they both weren't planning and plotting on the monster inside of me.

"My grandchild boy or girl will be protected and loved because they were born from love." He said delusionally.

He must have forgotten them forcing me to bore them an heir.

Now he promised my child, a monster a regular life.

I sat looking out the window still unchanged in my thoughts as I sat confined.

"We all are mourning and she's pregnant. Think about her, her emotions Ree." My father-in-law said as she looked at me.

She never really liked me but for a moment she glanced and saw the shattered me. This is what I guess she had always wanted. For a brief moment, she smiled and then pitied me as I sat stoically in the chair.

I knew she remembered how I fought for Seven and now he was gone. All that I had fought for returned and it all turned out to be nothing but lies and pain but she never saw that. Ree envisioned her son as this glorious man who doted on me and showered me with love and gifts when that was furthest from the truth. He had become the complete opposite of what she believed.

Ree instead of responding to him or acknowledging me stuck up her nose and walked out.

My father-in-law just sat and stared at me.

I could feel his eyes burning my skin.

That's how it had been the last few years among them with everyone watching me, burning me with their eyes, burning my skin.

"Your mother asked about you." He said as I stared.

"She wanted to come see you-" He started and I cut him off.

"It wouldn't be good for the baby." I said to him.

The last thing I wanted was for my mother to show up.

She practically pimped me out to Seven and when I found out she asked me what the big deal was. You know what? I might have been able to forgive her greediness if she hadn't sat and watched him beat me after finding out he slept with my cousin when I confronted him. Instead, she walked out pulling my w***e of a relative with her.

"Oh okay." He said unknowingly to the monster he created, a bigger monster than himself.

"Can I get another sleeping pill?" I asked and he let out a sigh.

"You know you shouldn-" He started.

"You heard the doctor say one a night is fine." I countered looking at him.

The bags under my eyes showed that I hadn't been able to sleep.

That was the truth. If I did my past would haunt me or I would even see Seven in my sleep. I remember the actual dreams I used to have about him before I discovered who he really was. I used to dream of a fairy tale ending with him but it's still surreal how it changed.

"Here." He said passing me one sleeping pill and I smiled.

It was actually the sincerest I've had in a while as he smiled back at me.

"Just don't be so hard on yourself." He said patting my shoulder and walking out.

I went to my bed and lay down.

I knew no one would be watching considering all I would do was walk around the house and lie down. Or at least that's what they thought as I added one more sleeping pill to my pile. I had been collecting them for nearly two months. I told myself once I got to 65 it should be enough, I was on 62.

I wasn't going to give these people what they wanted not before I chose my fate.

I looked at the pills as I counted them over and over again.

So close to being free I thought as I took the pills and shoved them back into my pillow.