01: Good news at long last!
GLENDA MCDAVIDSON
My husband left me on our wedding day, I can't blame him, after all, I am carrying another man's baby.
I had accidentally slept with another man before my wedding and worse is, I don't even remember anything from that night.
After my husband found out, he angrily stormed off, leaving me all alone at the altar. Now, all my mom wants is to find the man that impregnated me.
"Why isn't your father answering my calls?" Mom keeps walking back and forth in the kitchen.
We had to leave our home after being publicly embarrassed and my dad had hated me since then. "Mom, you know he won't pick up."
"You're four months gone Glenda! We need money to stock the house!"
"And dad doesn't care. He hates me and my bastard child."
"Does he hate me too? I'm his wife!" She angrily slams her phone on the table. "He just wait! We will find the father of your child and things will turn out just fine without him."
A sigh escapes my mouth as I relax into the couch. I know it is not going to be easy raising a child with only my mom by my side but I am really tired of searching for a man that doesn't want to be found.
"I have eyes everywhere in the country, we will hear good news soon. I just feel it that he is a big shot!" She giggles to herself.
"How?"
"Don't you remember what the club owner said to us? He can't disclose his identity because he is a legend! He is just scared we might want to drag him in the mud but the moment he knows that you are pregnant… he will definitely take us in."
Her philosophy definitely is one I fantasize about almost everyday of my life but this pessimistic side of me keeps telling me to wake up from my phony dream.
I am a thirty two year old jobless pregnant woman who lives with her mother in a small apartment with hardly enough food to get by.
"Do you still think of that Lynch boy?"
"Jeremy was supposed to be my husband mom, how could I forget him in four months?"
"He was supposed to change our lives forever. The boy was filthy rich and didn't just love you but all of us."
"I guess he is happier with his ex now."
"He is still a bastard for getting married to his ex the next week after your failed marriage!"
"I shouldn't have messed up either. I still don't know how it happened that night, when I try to remember, it's all too blurry and broken to even be real."
She finally joins me in the living room and sits on the couch next to me. "It's okay, it'll all add up soon enough."
I rest my head on her shoulder and close my eyes.
★★★
"What the hell is wrong with you? Huh? Can't you at least try to keep things together?"
"Don't raise your voice at me! This is all your useless daughter's fault!"
The voices of my parents arguing wakes me up. I pick up my phone to check the time. "3 a.m in the morning."
I get up from bed and go straight to the living room.
"How dare you talk about our daughter like that?!" Mom yes out angrily.
"Mom, dad, what's going on?"
"Well your dad finally comes home at 3 a.m in the morning, drunk as hell and guess what? He went to the Lynch kid to beg for money and still spent it all on alcohol!"
"What? You did what?"
He staggers front and back uncontrollably and belches loudly before sinking into the couch. "This is all your fault you slut! Why did you have to stab us in the back after everything we did for you?!"
"Oh shut up already!" Mom climbs him on the couch and tightens her hand around his neck. "Just die already since you've lost your pride you shameless man! You are no longer useful to us!"
"Mom, stop!" I run to her and pull her away from him.
It is like he doesn't even care whether he dies or not.
Mom sits on the floor and begins sobbing. I kneel next to her and hug her. "I'm sorry…" bitter tears fall from my eyes.
It's not like I haven't realized the gravity of my mistake but the more I watch my family fall apart, the more it kills me.
My mom sleeps in my room for the night but I find myself tossing and turning in bed. Like I am not in enough pain already, my stomach begins to ache. "Why does this have to be my fate?" I ask myself as tears fall from my eyes.
I have lost everything. The man I loved and still love, my perfect family, my life. All gone like it was poofed away by magic.
The next thing I notice, the sun has risen. "It's morning already?"
I turn to find my mom sleeping peacefully and I turn off the alarm before it goes off.
I carefully climb down from the bed and decide to make breakfast for my parents before they wake.
As I am setting the table, my mom walks down the stairs and joins me. "Good morning honey, you shouldn't be stressing yourself so much."
"It wasn't all that stressful making spaghetti and meatballs."
Dad walks out of the downstairs bathroom, obviously having a serious headache from his hangover.
As mom notices him, she scowls at him before sitting at the table.
"Good morning dad, I made breakfast."
He looks at me and groans loudly while frowning at me. He goes to the fridge and takes a bottle of water.
"Are you deaf? Your pregnant daughter woke up early to make food for a nuisance like you!" Mom exclaims.
"She can eat it all! There is never enough food since she has a stupendously huge appetite due to her pregnancy anyway." He spits out.
Mom is beyond fuming and her face starts to burn red with anger. "Mom please calm down, let's eat without him then. The food is getting cold." I sit next to her.
Her phone starts to ring and she picks it up to answer it, still frowning at dad. "What?"
I decide to pour her a glass of orange juice while waiting for her to finish with her call.
"What?!" She exclaims excitedly. "You don't mean it!"
"What is it?" I whisper to her.
"Oh thank you! I'll call you later, just forward everything to me." She hangs up then jumps on her feet and begins twirling.
"What is it?" Dad asks her.
"Who are you?" She responds to him. "Tsk!"
"Mom!"
"You won't believe it!" She expresses alongside a shriek. "We have found him!"
"Who?!"
"Your baby daddy!" She shrieks before resuming her dancing.
I don't know how to feel though, all I know is it is like it's all happening too fast.
That same evening, we are already standing outside his company. "He is the CEO of Babel corporation." I am scared to death.