AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I want my old life back!
Anger erupts from deep within.
I can never go back to a life of relative ease and freedom. Tiero destroyed it.
How dare he? How dare he rip away my future from me? I want to punch him, and when he finds me, I promise myself I will.
The doorbell rings, and I begrudgingly get out of bed and slip into the bathrobe I found last night hanging on the bathroom door. I look through the peephole, but there’s no one there. I open the door carefully and find a package withRiley Jamesprinted on it on the ground.
Who has sent this?
Curious, I rip it open as I walk back inside. Inside the box are numerous books on pregnancies and babies.
Rhia.
Of course she would supply me with reading material.
I swallow the golf-ball-sized lump in my throat, my heart so heavy it hurts.
The sight of the books is making me sick. I can’t stand having them here. I take the box and march to the garbage chute, throwing the whole box in.Sorry Rhia.
The earlier anger boils to life again. It’s directed at the universe this time. How dare you, universe, putting up my hopes like this to just rip it all away?
Claudette.
She’s like the fucking universe’s ambassador. I bet she knew and didn’t say a word.
My fury just found a new target.
I run into the bedroom to find my handbag and dig around until I find the piece of paper with Claudette’s number on it.
Picking up my phone, I dial her number.
She answers on the third ring. Of course it’s the frickin’ third ring. I roll my eyes and mentally give the universe the middle finger.
“Claudette, it’s… Ash.” I had to think for a second about which of my many names she knows me as.
“Ah, Ash darling. I wondered when you would call.” So she expected me to ring.Great!
“I’m not pregnant,” I say, without further ado. “Did you know? Why didn’t you tell me? You saw how much it rattled me. Why didn’t you say anything?” My tone is accusatory. But I want it to be.
If she was aware of this, she purposefully let me walk into this heartache, and that just isn’t okay. It’s not what friends do to each other, and I considered her a friend.
I hear her take a long breath. “Think about it,” she replies calmly. “It gave you determination and focus. It was what you needed at that moment. It wasn’t my place to set the record straight.”
“But you knew?” I ask again.
“I suspected it. I didn’t sense a baby. But on a rare occasion I can be wrong.”
“You should have told me,” I insist, though, my voice sounds defeated now.
“That false reading served a purpose. When you felt lost and uncertain, you thought you weren’t alone. That was an incredible gift.” I nod as anger and defeat makes way for fresh tears.
Believing there was a baby gave me hope and the strength to go on.
I hiccup into the phone as the tears flow. “Darling, please don’t cry,” Claudette says in a soft voice.
“I have nothing to live for now. I’m completely lost. I have no purpose.”
