The CEO’s Wet Nurse

"I'm sorry, Miss Ivy...your babies didn't make it." The doctor's words broke and emptied me at once. "No!" I sank into the hospital floors and grabbed at his feet. "No, you're lying to me!" I couldn't believe him. My babies had only seemed feverish that morning. How could a fever possibly kill them? They were barely one week old. I thought I'd wake up and everything would be bad dream but three days later, I was standing at the edge of two small graves. The cemetery workers laid my twins side by side, and murmured between themselves: "At least the twins have each other. Their mother doesn't even have anyone." "She's not even married. There's no wedding ring on her finger." I tried not to think about it but they were right...I had no one except my boyfriend, the father of my dead twins, who I've been calling nonstop since morning. Pick up. Please just pick up. I thought to myself as I watched my phone ring into nothing for the fourteenth time, clicking over to his voicemail: "Yea, it's Ramon. Leave a message." I didn't bother leaving any voicemail. What was I supposed to say? Our babies are being lowered into the ground right now, why aren't you here?! Ramon promised to be here with me. He promised I wouldn't have to go through this alone. The priest's prayer moved around me and I watched as the small white caskets disappeared into the wet earth. I shut my eyes tight, tears effortlessly trailed down my face as a heap of sand thud unto the caskets. My arms ached with a phantom weight of cradling them to sleep. I'd barely gotten used to the feeling because all I had was a week to love them. No one else came for the funeral. I didn't have any friends or relatives anymore, so I called Ramon one last time. "Hello, it's Ramon. Leave a—" I hung up before the message finished and fell to my knees, weeping my heart out on my children's grave. —–– By the time I reached my apartment, the sky broke open and heavy rain came in a downpour, soaking through my black funeral dress. I climbed the stairs steadily, one hand holding unto the railing as water dripped from my body. My hair was ruined, my mascara was long gone but I didn't care about any of it. At the front of the door, I stopped and saw a pair of red shoes that weren't mine beside the doormat. I stared at them, my drenched clothes pooled water at my feet, and something colder than the weather slid down my spine. I twisted the door knob and walked in slowly and the smell of cheap perfume and whisky, laced with a stench of s*x hit my nose. The living room looked like a stranger's apartment. A blouse that wasn't mine draped over the loveseat Ramon and I picked out together. His belt coiled on the floor, a bra two times my size hung off the lamp and down the corridor, his moans echoed around house. My feet moved before my brain caught up, and I pushed the bedroom door open. Ramon was on top of a busty woman I'd never seen before, her hair fanned across my pillowcase, as he thrust himself deep inside her. "Ramon!" My voice clawed up my dry throat. The woman shrieked and yanked the sheet up while Ramon turned around, blinking slowly and for one second he almost looked ashamed. "Ivy—" He couldn't even reach for something to cover himself as his p***s dangled around. "Wha're you doin' here, I thought—thought you'd be—" The fool was drunk. He was always drunk. "I was burying our children!" Hot tears brimmed my waterline and everything began to blur again. "Where did you think I was, Ramon?!" An ugly, drunken laughter escaped his lips. "Yeah, the—the funeral." He waved a hand like he was swatting away a fly. "Look—look, it's — it don' even matter now, does it? S'not like this was ever gonna work out, me an' you. We both knew it." Ramon's slurred speech didn't land right away, it hovered for a moment and I waited for a version I could comprehend. "What are you talking about?!" "C'mon." He dragged a hand down his face, almost laughing again. "You think I didn' know? We havin' two kids, this fast, this young. I was drownin', Ivy. I was plannin' on getting out, before—" His eyes slid away from mine, and diverted to the wall and everywhere else that wasn't my face. "Before what, Ramon?!" I took a step closer to the naked man in front of me. "Before they died it woulda been messy. Custody, child support and all that." He shrugged like none of this weighed anything at all. "Now it's simple yea. Their deaths kinda did me a favor, if you think about it." My heart hammered in my ears. It pounded louder than the rain thundering against the window, louder than the woman scrambling for her clothes beside him. My goodness, how did I date this good for nothing bastard for seven years? "Our twins death kinda did you a favor Ramon?!" I slapped him hard across his cheek before he could say another word. Ramon's head snapped sideways, and the woman gasped. My palm stung from the hit but I couldn't show my pain. "You're relieved?!" My chest burned with every ragged breath. "They were ours, Ramon. They had your eyes and my blonde curls and you're standing there, telling me their deaths made your life easier!" "Ivy—" I slapped him again on the other cheek and wished I had the strength to toss him out the window. "You bastard!" I pointed my finger at him. "I regret the day I met you!" "Funny you call me a bastard, when you're the one who don' even know your real father." He chuckled mirthlessly at my biggest insecurity. At that moment, I wished the earth would swallow me whole to join my dead children. "How could you be so cruel to me?" I asked. "After everything I gave up for you? I spent years moving from city to city, just to support your stupid music career!" "Think 'bout it, Ivy. Did I beg you to follow me?" He stepped closer. "Did I beg you to give up on your own boring dreams?" Ramon was right, he never asked me to join him. I was the one who couldn't bear to be apart from my boyfriend. I was the one who tagged behind him like a lovestruck puppy. "I'm such a fool..." I muttered and the realization made Ramon's lips curl up in a smirk. "Don' be so hard on yourself," He placed his hands on my shoulders and pulled me into his bare body. "We can still have fun like we used to." "Idiot." I cussed him under my breath and dug into my handbag, stabbing a sharp pencil into his back. "Go f**k yourself!" "s**t!" He pushed away and yanked out the pencil I impaled in his flesh. "You crazy b***h!" He raised his hand to slap me but I kneed his d**k. "GET OUT!" The words ripped out of my throat. "Get out of my apartment. Both of you. NOW!" The woman didn't wait to see how the rest played out. She quickly snatched her clothes off the floor, and bolted past me, running out the door. Ramon stumbled after her while struggling to wear his pants, and he pressed a hand to the reddened sore rising on his face. "You're the reason why our twins died, Ivy!" He spat at me. "You don' deserve any happiness!" "f**k you!" I swung my handbag at his head but missed as he walked out the apartment. The door slammed behind them and a framed photo fell off the wall. It was a picture of Ramon and I on a weekend trip. I picked up the broken frame, ripped out my face and threw his half out the window. "I don't deserve any happiness right?!" I dragged Ramon's luggage and hauled it over the window, watching as it opened mid-air and flew his clothes around the street. His gaming console caught my eyes and I flung it out the window, including every precious item he owned. "Argghh!" I pulled out my hair and I slid down the bedroom door. "After everything I've given you!" I sobbed until my body gave out. I'd lost my children. I'd spent years trying to settle down with Ramon and supporting his music career that I never made any friends of my own. "I've made nothing for myself!" I cried out as I had nothing else to stay for. I needed to leave this city and find someplace else to start over. I stretched to my handbag on the floor and took out my phone to find the next available flight out of the city when an email notification popped up. Ms. Ivy Cruz, Your application for Personal Secretary at Mendoza and Co. has been shortlisted. You're hereby invited for an interview tomorrow.