Chapter 2
1044 Words
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The room seemed to shrink around Annie as all eyes focused on the red stain slowly spreading across the back of her gown. Her breath hitched, and her heart pounded furiously.
"Annie! I asked you a question!" Mirabel's voice broke through the heavy silence, sharp and demanding. She took a step closer, her expression torn between confusion and anger.
Annie turned to her mother, her lips trembling as she tried to speak. "I...I don't know," she whispered, her voice barely audible.
Mirabel’s face hardened. "You don’t know? What do you mean you don’t know? Blood doesn’t just appear out of nowhere!"
The young women in the room exchanged uneasy glances, some whispering amongst themselves. Annie felt their eyes boring into her, their curiosity and judgment suffocating.
"Mom, please—can we talk about this later?" Annie pleaded, taking a step back.
But Mirabel was relentless. "No, Annie. We will talk about this now. What is this?" Her voice was laced with suspicion, and Annie could feel the ground beneath her slipping away.
One of the girls chuckled nervously. "Maybe she got her period? Happens to everyone,it's not an issue" she said, trying to diffuse the tension.
But Mirabel wasn’t buying it. "My daughter knows her cycle. She’s 21, not some careless teenager. Annie, are you hiding something from me?"
The words hit Annie like a whip. She clenched her fists, struggling to hold herself together. "I told you, I don’t know," she said, more forcefully this time.
"Then why are you acting so strange?" Mirabel pressed.
Annie couldn’t take it anymore. "Because you’re embarrassing me, Mom!" she snapped, her voice breaking. "Can’t you just let it go?"
The outburst shocked everyone into silence. Annie seized the moment, pushing past her mother and heading toward her room. But Mirabel’s voice followed her, sharp and unrelenting.
"Don’t you dare walk away from me, Annie! Come back here!"
Annie slammed the door to her bedroom and locked it, leaning against it as tears streamed down her face. Her hands trembled as she pressed them to her mouth, trying to stifle her sobs.
Her mind raced. How had her life spiraled into this chaos? Just a few hours ago, she was a normal college student. Now, she was living a nightmare.
Her phone buzzed on the bedside table, pulling her out of her thoughts. She hesitated before picking it up. The caller ID read Unknown.
"Hello?" she answered, her voice shaky.
A deep, unfamiliar voice came through the line. "Miss Annie, this is Dr. Albert. I need to speak with you urgently."
Annie’s stomach dropped. "Doctor? What is it?"
There was a pause on the other end. "I...I owe you an explanation. The events that transpired today were a grave mistake, and I must apologize. But I can’t discuss this over the phone. Can you meet me at the clinic tonight? After hours?"
Annie’s grip tightened on the phone. "Why would I meet you? You’ve already ruined my life!"
"Please, Miss Annie," the doctor pleaded. "There’s more to this than you know. If you want answers, you’ll come."
Annie hesitated. She didn’t trust him, but she needed answers. She needed to know how this had happened—and why.
"Fine," she said finally. "I’ll be there."
The line went dead, leaving Annie with a sinking feeling in her chest.
---
Hours later, Annie stood outside the clinic, her hood pulled up to conceal her face. The streets were quiet, the only sounds the occasional car passing by and the soft rustle of leaves in the wind.
She pushed the door open and stepped inside, her eyes darting around nervously. The clinic was eerily silent, the fluorescent lights casting harsh shadows on the walls.
"Miss Annie," Dr. Albert’s voice came from behind her, making her jump.
She turned to see him standing there, his face pale and drawn. He gestured for her to follow him into his office.
Once inside, he closed the door and sat down heavily at his desk. "I don’t know how to begin," he said, running a hand through his graying hair.
"Start with how you inseminated the wrong person," Annie said coldly, her arms crossed.
Dr. Albert winced. "It was an error. A terrible, unforgivable error. Your medical records were swapped with another patient’s—Catherina. She was here for insemination, and I..." He trailed off, his eyes filled with regret.
Annie’s blood boiled. "You what? Do you even understand what you’ve done to me?"
"I do," he said quietly. "And I’m deeply sorry. But there’s more you need to know."
Annie frowned. "What do you mean?"
Dr. Albert hesitated, glancing around the room as if someone might be listening. "Catherina paid me to cover this up. She doesn’t want her husband to know she was inseminated. She bribed the staff to deny everything if you come forward."
Annie’s head spun. "So you’re just going to let her get away with it? And what about me? What is going to happen to me?"
Dr. Albert leaned forward, his voice urgent. "That’s why I called you here. You need to leave this city, Miss Annie. If Catherina finds out you’re still pursuing this, she won’t hesitate to silence you—permanently."
Annie’s breath caught. "Are you saying she’d...kill me? Even when I am in the right here? Is this how the rich treat the poor?”
The doctor didn’t answer, but the look in his eyes said enough.
“Doctor….” Annie said her voice low but distressed
The doctor leaned forward again “How about you act like this never happened?”
Annie leaned back in the chair, her expression vivid “How am I supposed to keep this quiet? So what's your plan? You two must have a plan on how to solve this amicably” she said
The doctor nodded, he went towards the door and locked it properly, he walked back to his sit and sat down gently, he placed his hand on the table, his eyes locked on mine.
“How about you give birth to this child and sell it to her the day you give birth? So she will be the mother of the child permanently and you will get paid highly for that” he said
- Writer
