Married Again

Everything blurs out as I stared at the ring wrapped around my finger.

Once, that ring was proof of my promised future but now, it was a harsh reminder of my doom.

Everytime I looked at it, I realized over and over again that I had ruined my own life.

"Hi, angel." I gently placed my hand on my bump, right on the spot my baby had kicked.

She was the only beautiful thing in this marriage.

Tears filled my eyes as she kept kicking happily.

In less than a week from now, my little angel will be taken away from me.

I barely had enough time on my side but that didn't matter.

I don't care who I have to fight off or what I had to do, I will not let my baby be taken away from me.

My sadness is replaced with anger as I stared at the image on my phone.

I was lucky enough to have been the one to receive the surrogacy documents two weeks ago.

At first, I couldn't believe my eyes. I badly wanted to believe it was a prank but it wasn't.

My husband had kept my medical records, particularly, documents about my fertility in one file.

That wasn't even the worst part of what I had seen in that envelope.

He had conducted psychological evaluations on me without my permission.

All this time, I thought we had met by coincidence; two people shopping at the same store, bumped into each other and then began their love story.

I was wrong about everything!

The files on the background checks he had conducted on me and eleven other women proved that I had been nothing but an experiment.

Those sweet smiles, those gentle touches, they had all been staged.

He had done them to the other women too and I had no doubt that they had fallen for his lies.

Seven of them had a lower score for their psychological evaluations while the others had low fertility rate which made me the perfect candidate for him.

The image of him smiling genuinely and kissing his real wife mocked me from my phone.

I was nothing more than a test subject to birth a baby for he and his wife.

I had given up my career to be his wife, the only thing I had to my name was his name which wasn't even real.

I might have been foolish enough to believe that this man actually loved me but I wasn't so dumb to involve the police right now.

He was Noah Moore, the chairman of Moore pharmaceuticals. He definitely had the police wrapped around his fingers.

I had to figure out a way to disappear for good before my birth date.

My baby took my attention when she kicked again.

"Mommy will protect you, my angel. I don't care how I do it but I'm not letting anyone take you away from me. I promise."

I safely kept the copies of the files I had made for myself before returning the original copies to his office.

For a while, I contemplated telling my family about what I had found out about my husband.

My mother had coronary artery disease that could lead to her death if not properly managed.

I could not put her health on the line like that.

Telling my sister was not an option too. If she knew, my mother would find out and I could not let that happen.

This only left me with one option.

Jessica.

I dialed her number, putting on a coat.

"Loretta!" I could hear a man's voice from her end of the phone.

"Is Jake there with you? I'm really sorry if I called at the wrong time." I held the door hand and waited for her response.

"He's been here for a few days. I just want to spend as much time as I can with him before he leaves for Russia."

I smiled at their adorable exchange in Russian before I spoke.

"Can we meet? It's really urgent. Please."

"Did something happen with the baby?"

I said nothing.

"Is Luke cheating on you?" Her playful tone was now harsh and angry.

"I'll tell you everything when we meet. I'll be there in an hour."

"The Cafe?" I could hear her putting on her clothes.

"Yes, I'll see you at the backroom." I hung up afterwards.

I stopped dead in my tracks when my driver walked up to me.

Ever since I got pregnant, he's forbidden me from driving and hired a driver for me instead.

One of the fake acts that had kept me swooning for almost three years.

"Is there anywhere you'd like to go, ma'am?" He bowed curly.

I forced a smile and shook my head.

"You know the Cafe where I hang out with my friend?"

I frequented the Cafe with Jessica almost every week.

It wouldn't look suspicious that I was meeting up with her.

He bowed again and then opened the door for me.

All through the drive to the Cafe, I tried coming up with escape plans but they all had too many loopholes to actually work.

I tried not to run into the Cafe when we arrived.

Jessica was waiting for me at the backroom as we earlier agreed.

"What is it?" She asked after confirming that I had no scars on my body.

"I need you to help me get out of the City."

By the end of my narration, Jessica looked mortified.

For the first time since I've known her, she was speechless.

"No." She ran her hands through her hair.

"This is some joke or prank," she stood up and began checking other parts of the room.

"There's a hidden camera somewhere. You're trying to pull a prank on me. I hear it's trending these days."

"My husband isn't Luke, Jessica, he's Noah Moore and he's married. I'm not a wife to him, I'm just a surrogate." The words left a bitter taste on my tongue that I was sure I would never get used to.

"W....why would he...? How could he even do something so inhumane? I can't believe this." She returned to her seat, looking devastated for me.

"There is no way I'm letting him take my child away from me. I need to leave the City. My birth is due next week and there's only four days before the end of this week. I don't know if he's caught on to my awareness of his plans so I need to act fast."

"How free are you?"

I knew I could count on her.

"He leaves for work by eight in the morning and returns before seven in the evening. He lied about being an employee at the company when he was the actual owner...."

"He can always leave the company to check up on you whenever he wishes to." Jessica took the words right out of my mouth.

"What about your family? Your mother must have an uncle you could stay with until you have your baby and you're strong enough to flee the City."

"I don't want them to find out until I have everything under control."

I really wish I could take them with me so we could start a new life together, far away from this place but that would be too risky.

"Trust me Jess, I have thought of a thousand ways to leave without his notice but none of my plans had any hope of working. I can not let him take my child away from me. Please." I took her hand and squeezed it gently.

She remained silent for nearly ten minutes, no doubt, thinking.

"Jake's family plans to have dinner with him before he leaves for Russia. The planned dinner isn't until the weekend. You can stay with his family until you give birth. His older sister is a nurse. If he tells them you're my friend, we can convince her to help you with your birth in their house instead of going to the hospital."

"You can stay there until you're strong enough to work again and provide for your child. I'll do everything I can to get you all the documents you need to leave the country. You are an amazing surgeon, I have no doubt that you'll do well wherever you decide to reside."

An amazing surgeon.

That was what I was until he came along.

"Where do they live... Jake's family?"

"They live in Reinwade."

Reinwade was a different City. It wasn't highly populated.

"When does he leave?"

"Tomorrow."

Perfect!

The only problem now was leaving the damn house without raising suspicions.

"You picked me up to my doctor's appointment once. You could use that as cover tomorrow."

Finally, a plan that had hope of actually excelling.

"Doesn't he keep record of your appointments? He could get suspicious when the driver reports that I picked you up for an appointment that wasn't happening."

Jessica was right, Noah never forgot the date and time of my appointment.

He had a calendar for it.

But I could take care of that.

"I'll take care of that."

We went over our plans over and over again to make sure that there were no loopholes, before leaving the Cafe.

It took a lot of effort not to hit him the moment he walked through the door.

Resentment and anger had replaced the love I had for him.

I wanted nothing than to push a knife through his chest but the safety of my child came before my revenge.

"You're home." I forced a smile and walked up to him.

"Hey beautiful." He wrapped his arms around my and placed those lying lips on mine.

He had kissed another woman with those lips.

How was she even comfortable with such a disgusting arrangement?

"Let me take that." I took off his coat and headed upstairs with him following behind me.

"You look really excited. Did you get the position?" I dropped the coat and returned to his arms.

"The results are not yet out but I have no doubt that I'll be heading the marketing campaign for the new drug. If things go well...."

"which they will." I interrupted him sweetly.

".... I might get promoted to head of the marketing team, permanently."

My heart broke again at his magnificent lies.

He was no random employee at the company and he most certainly wasn't smiling so happily because of a promotion.

He was finally going to get the child he wanted and then do away with me.

That was the cause of that smile on his disgusting face.

"This calls for celebration." I pretended to be happy too.

"Why don't you go take a shower, I already set the table for dinner."

I moved closer to him, "I made your favorite."

He smiled and kissed me again before disappearing into the bathroom.

I quickly grabbed his phone and adjusted the calendar he had organized for my appointments at the hospital.

He had given me access to his phone to fuel my trust for him but it wasn't even his main phone!

His excited mood remained unwavering all through the rest of the evening.

This clearly showed that he had no idea that I now knew about everything.

By tomorrow, I will be far away from him, my child safe and protected with me.

No matter what, he will not be getting his hands on my child.