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She switched the machine off, wiped the gel off my abdomen, and removed her gloves. “I’m going to check your blood pressure too,” she called out as she tossed the gloves and tissues in a trashcan near the rolling table. “I can also give you some medication for the nausea, like we discussed earlier.”
“Right,” I muttered. I looked back at Zara. “So what happens to me now? Do I have to stay in this room forever?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You can leave whenever you want. The door isn’t even locked.”
“Really?” I said in a skeptical tone. “I can just go wherever I want?”
“As long as you remain within the boundaries, yes.”
“Ah, there it is.” I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “I can only go wherever you want.”
“Don’t be such a drama queen, Amerie. You have everything you could possibly need here at the Playground. You have your own TV with a constantly-growing collection of movies and shows, a music room, a shared gaming room, an art studio, a massive library, and a fully-stocked kitchen with staff who will cook the healthiest, highest-quality meals for you whenever you’re hungry. It’s like a permanent vacation.”
I clenched my jaw. “The only thing I really need is freedom.”
“Freedom is an illusion, sweetheart,” she said. “Believe me, you’re much freer here than you would be anywhere else in the world. You’re in a serene, stress-free environment. There’s no rent, mortgage, or bills for you to pay here. No job you have to go to every day. No high-pressure studying. All you have to do is relax and grow a healthy baby.”
“We have a state-of-the-art medical facility downstairs and a care team available twenty-four hours a day,” Dr. Carmichael interjected as she wrapped a pressure cuff around my upper arm.
I narrowed my eyes. “What happens after the baby is born?”
“We’ll wait until you’ve sufficiently recovered. Then you’ll get pregnant again.”
My upper lip curled with disgust. The way she said ‘you’ll get pregnant again’ made it sound as if it were something I was fully responsible for, when in reality I wasn’t given any choice in the matter at all.
“Will I get to see the baby?” I asked, looking down at my abdomen.
“When it’s born, you’ll see it for a few minutes, but the client will collect it soon after,” Zara replied.
“Who’s the client?” I asked in a hollow voice.
“I can show you.” Zara pulled out her phone and tapped on the screen, bringing up a photo of a smiling man in a suit. “Do you recognize him?”
I frowned. “Isn’t he that Congressman from Florida? The one who used to be on the news all the time?”
“Yes. Daniel Roser.” Zara’s lips thinned. “To be honest, I don’t like him or his wife at all, but it’ll be useful to have another member of Congress in our pocket.”
“Why can’t he and his wife have their own kid? Is he shooting blanks or something?”
“Amerie!” Zara’s eyes widened. “You can’t just ask why people can’t have children of their own. It’s rude!”
My nose wrinkled. “You really think I give a shit about politeness and social conventions when I’m stuck here being forced to grow their baby and push it out like some sort of farm animal?”
Dr. Carmichael’s lips twitched with amusement as she looked at the blood pressure monitor. “I suppose that’s fair enough,” she said. “If you must know, Roser and his wife don’t actually have any medical issues. He’s just…”
She trailed off, brows furrowing.
“There’s really no delicate way to put it,” Zara said, eyes rolling upward. “He’s a prick. He wants children, but he thinks pregnancy and childbirth are disgusting and ruin a woman’s body. That isn’t true, of course, but you can’t really change people’s opinions on things like that once they’ve made up their minds. Especially men.”
“So… he doesn’t want his wife to have a baby because he doesn’t want her body to change?” I asked, voice tinged with incredulity.
“That’s right. Like I said, he’s a prick. But he’s a powerful prick. A real score for the society.”
My stomach lurched, and I put a tentative hand on my abdomen. The baby growing in there would be given to a gross, misogynistic man and his complicit wife as soon as it was out of me, all so the Rosmerta Society could gain a little more political power… and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.
I turned my gaze toward the window. “Where exactly is this place?” I asked in a hollow voice.
Zara’s brows knitted. “You don’t need to know that,” she said. “But don’t worry. There’s plenty of stuff here, so you’ll never be bored. Have you ever spent any time on a farm?”
