No way back
901 Words
The hospital corridor felt colder than usual.
Amelia sat there with her phone clutched in her hand, staring at the screen like it might explain what she had just done.
“I’ll do it.”
Those words didn’t feel like hers anymore.
They felt borrowed.
Like something said in panic… by someone else.
She exhaled shakily.
“No turning back,” she whispered.
A few minutes later, her phone lit up.
Unknown email notification.
Meridian Fertility & Surrogacy Agency — Contract Documents Attached
Her stomach tightened.
She opened it.
Page after page loaded.
Legal language.
Cold terms.
Clinical instructions.
No emotion. No softness.
Just rules.
- No contact with the biological father
- No disclosure of identity
- Full medical supervision required
- Total confidentiality
- Compensation released in phases
Her fingers trembled as she scrolled.
It didn’t feel real.
It felt like reading a document for someone else’s life.
Not hers.
A second email followed immediately.
Appointment scheduled: Tomorrow, 9:00 AM
Location: Private Medical Facility — City Centre
Amelia stared at it.
So fast.
Too fast.
Like they had been waiting for her to break.
She leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes.
“I can still cancel,” she whispered.
But even as she said it
Her phone rang again.
This time, it wasn’t unknown.
It was the hospital.
Her chest tightened instantly.
She answered.
“Hello?”
The nurse’s voice was urgent.
“Miss Hart, you need to come quickly. Your grandmother just woke up, she’s asking for you.”
Amelia stood so fast her chair scraped the floor.
“I’m coming.”
When she reached the ward, her grandmother looked weaker than before… but her eyes were open.
“Amelia…” she whispered faintly.
Amelia rushed to her side. “I’m here. I’m here, Grandma.”
Her grandmother raised a trembling hand and touched her cheek.
“You didn’t sleep,” she said softly.
Amelia forced a smile. “It doesn’t matter.”
But it did.
Everything mattered.
Her grandmother studied her face for a moment longer.
“You look like you’re carrying the world,” she murmured.
Amelia swallowed hard.
If only she knew how true that was.
“I just need time,” Amelia said quickly.
Her grandmother shook her head slightly. “Time is something we don’t always get, child.”
That sentence landed heavier than anything else.
Amelia looked away.
Because if she looked too long…
She might break completely.
That night, she returned home briefly for the first time in days.
The small room felt emptier than ever.
Bills stacked on the table.
Half-finished applications.
A life paused at the edge of collapse.
She sat down slowly and opened the contract again.
Her eyes stopped at one line:
“Client identity shall remain strictly confidential.”
No name.
No face.
Just power behind silence.
Her phone buzzed again.
A message this time:
«“Your appointment is confirmed. Do not be late.”»
Her breath caught.
She closed her eyes.
“I don’t even know who you are,” she whispered into the empty room.
No answer.
Only silence.
The next morning came too fast.
Amelia stood in front of the mirror, staring at herself.
Tired eyes.
Trembling hands.
A girl trying to hold herself together with nothing left inside.
She picked up the contract documents.
Paused.
Then slowly placed them into her bag.
Her phone rang one last time before she left.
Unknown number.
She didn’t answer.
She couldn’t.
Because if she did…
She might change her mind.
The private medical facility was nothing like the hospital.
Clean.
Quiet.
Expensive.
Everything smelled like money and secrecy.
A woman in a uniform greeted her.
“Miss Hart. Follow me.”
Amelia walked behind her, every step heavier than the last.
Doors opened automatically.
Glass walls.
Private corridors.
No patients.
Only control.
They stopped in front of a consultation room.
“This is where you’ll complete your final screening,” the woman said.
Amelia nodded slowly.
Her heart was pounding now.
Not from fear alone.
But from the certainty that she had crossed into something she didn’t fully understand.
The door opened.
And she stepped inside.
A doctor sat waiting.
Cold expression.
Neat documents arranged perfectly on the table.
“Sit,” he said.
Amelia obeyed.
Silence stretched between them.
Then
“We will proceed with final medical evaluation before implantation,” he said calmly.
Her breath caught.
“Implantation?” she repeated softly.
The doctor looked up at her.
“Yes. You are here to carry a child.”
The words hit differently when spoken out loud.
Real.
Final.
Inescapable.
Amelia’s fingers curled tightly in her lap.
“Where is the client?” she asked suddenly.
The doctor didn’t hesitate.
“You will not meet him.”
Her chest tightened.
“Ever?”
“No.”
A pause.
Then
“He prefers it that way.”
Amelia’s heart sank slightly.
A man who wouldn’t even see the woman carrying his child.
What kind of person was he?
Before she could think further
The door opened behind her.
Footsteps entered the room.
Slow.
Controlled.
Powerful.
The air changed instantly.
Amelia turned slightly
But the doctor spoke first.
“Mr. Blackwood has arrived.”
Her body froze.
The name hit the room like thunder.
And for the first time…
Amelia felt something shift inside her chest.
Something she couldn’t name.
Something dangerous.
- Writer
