The unplanned surrogacy

The mix-up

She had not got any modeling jobs during the last couple of weeks, and she was hurt. The refusals were beginning to be similar: We will hold your portfolio on file. She had taken so much time to perfect her walk, her poses, her body, but here she was, not able to pay her bills. She even thought that her dreams had betrayed her.

That afternoon she sat on her bed and the tears were streaming down her face. She despised sobbing, but she could not help it. Her fridge was emptying, and her rent was coming in a week and her self-esteem was breaking under the pressure of it all. She felt like calling her mom, but she held back. She did not want to sound desperate.

At the point of wiping her tears, her phone buzzed. The name of the caller ID frowning made her: Doctor Smith.

Her heart skipped. What would he be calling her weeks after her Pap test? She answered, her voice shaky.

“Hello?”

There was a tightness, unease, in his tone, “Mariam, I must ask you to go to my office at once.”

She froze. “Is something wrong?”

“I would prefer to do it in person," he said hastily. “Please, it’s important.”

She did not get time to pose another question as the call ended. Mariam gazed at her phone, and felt uncomfortable in her chest. She could not explain it, but something in his voice left her nervous.

She got up, washed up, put on a small amount of make-up to make her eyes appear less puffy, and put on a plain outfit — jeans and white blouse. She put on a ponytail of her hair, deep-breathing, and walked away to the hospital.

The impetus was more than normal. Each red light caused her pulse to increase. She attempted to hypnotize herself by concentrating on the road, but her mind was filled with worst-case scenarios. Perhaps there was something wrong with her test. Possibly they had discovered something serious. Maybe!!

She noticed something wrong as soon as she entered the office of Doctor Smith and stepped into his office. He wasn’t his usual calm self. His tie was unbuttoned, his desk was messy, and his fingers were slightly shaking as he pointed at her to get a seat.

“Before I speak any word, Mariam, I must have you listen very carefully," he said after a very long silence.

Her stomach dropped.” You are giving me the scare, you see," she said.

He blew a kiss and patted the back of his neck.“ The last time you were here to get yourself Pap tested, I had a family emergency. I was distracted and… I made a terrible mistake.”

She frowned, without comprehending. “What kind of mistake?”

He stared at her — eyes guilt-filled.“ In your appointment, the lab had a mix-up in handling of samples. I… I used one of the specimens belonging to a different patient accidentally. His sperm was unintended, and was planted in you.”

The words did not take in immediately. Mariam blinked, confused. “Wait… what?”

He tried it a second time, much softer, and more gradually, as though that would make it easier. “You got wrongly inseminated with another man’s sperm. I am so, so sorry.”

Mariam laughed at once, not at its being funny, but because it was impossible.” You can not be serious," she said, half smiling. “Doctor Smith, pray, this is no time to make fun. Why have you sent me here, anyway”?

But at the sight of his face, which was pale and tight and trembling, the laughter choked her.

"Tell me this is a prank, please do tell me," she rose, and her chair screeched across the floor. “Tell me you didn’t just…”

“I wish it were,” he said weakly. “We will, I cannot undo what has happened, Mariam.”

She ran to him before he had a chance to complete and caught him by the collar with her eyes panicking and disbelieving. “How could this even happen?” she screamed.

"I am sorry, he stuttered, his voice cracking. “It was a mix-up in the lab. These were wrongly labeled samples, and I….

Stop! She screamed, and freed him and sidestepped. She made a tremulous touch against her face with her hands. She felt her room spinning around, her pulse racing in her ears.

Dr. Smith persuaded her to sit down at last after what seemed like an eternity to her. He filled her a glass of water, but her hands were too unsteady to take it firmly.

“Something more," he said to himself. “The woman who was to be inseminated has already been informed. She requested to meet you.”

Mariam’s chest tightened. “Meet me?”

He nodded. “She would like to talk with you directly. Her name is Serena Vross.”

Mariam walked out of the office after him with his fingers numb. It was as though the corridor had no end and every stride had got to be heavier than the one before. Her head was empty, she did not even know what she would say.

As they went into the next room, Mariam could not find breath to speak. By the window was sitting a tall, elegant woman with her dark hair cascading over her shoulders, and diamonds glinting in her ears. At the turn of the woman, Mariam stood still.

It was her.

It was the same woman at the restaurant, the one she spilled food on herself. It was the one who had shouted at her, put her down, called her names.

The lips of Serena parted, and her face changed its expression and turned into a cold and knowing smile. “You,” she said quietly.

Mariam’s throat went dry. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Mariam and Serena were sitting opposite in the office of Dr. Smith and there was enough air in between to slice them with a razor.

Technically, Serena was as tall as the model in the magazine, and her posture was perfect, and her manicure was sparkling, and her perfume is costly and smelled heavily in the little room.

With slow graciousness, she crossed one foot after another and looked down upon Marians as though she were an insect. She could not make up her mind about whether to love it or to kill it.

Mariam sat straight with her head still trying to figure out all that he had just heard. Dr. Smith was prattling about confusion, a transfer mistake, how the last check-up she had taken had been in an emergency, and that the words did not altogether sink in.

Then the voice of Serena cut the atmosphere. “So you are the woman who carries my child," she said in a silk and poison tone.

Mariam blinked, stunned. “Your what?”

Serena leaned her head a little, and she was looking at Mariam in a sort of way that a person would look at a spot on an expensive dress. “You heard me. The surgeon impregnated you with one of my samples. Seemingly, he is so incompetent.