Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
NO HAPPILY EVER AFTER FOR US
Sorinah
“What are you doing here?” Sorinah hissed, her voice low and sharp. She stood abruptly as the “client” was ushered in. Imogen, whom she gave a stiff nod, slipped out the door. Sorinah’s barely-there smile vanished as she faced the man who had fathered Mars.
Imogen had booked a new client as Sorinah’s last appointment before her week off for March Break. It was a last-minute addition, so her assistant hadn’t had time to vet the potential client. Now Sorinah wished she had insisted on proper screening.
The bastard had managed to see her under false pretences, but it didn’t matter; she had no intention of letting him stay long.
She hadn’t thought about him since he sent the ridiculous flowers.
After hanging up the phone, she had tossed them into the break room garbage and promptly dismissed him from her thoughts.
“I’m sorry I wasn’t forthcoming about who I was,” Albert said, shrugging his shoulders sheepishly. “I wasn’t sure if you’d see me.”
“You know I wouldn’t have. We have nothing to say to each other,” Sorinah replied flatly.
“I know why you’d feel that way, but I think we should remedy that,” Albert persisted.
Sorinah studied him then, really examining him for the first time since he had entered her office.
Time had been kind to him; he had always been a handsome man, but age had given him a debonair appearance.
He had put on a bit of weight, but his tailored suit complemented it, giving him an air of casual wealth.
He’d shaved his goatee, leaving his face clean and angular.
Of course, his polished exterior wouldn’t match his insides. Albert looked like the deal he had probably made with the devil—all glossy and well-put-together on the outside but undoubtedly rotten within.
“I can’t think of any reason we would,” she countered.
“I can.”
Sorinah tilted her head slightly, her left eyebrow arching high, her eyes narrowing as if daring him to continue.
Albert rubbed his hand along his jawline in slow, restless strokes, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. “Our son,” he uttered as if he had the right to claim Mars.
“You mean my son?”
He flinched, his lips parting as if to protest, but the words died on his tongue. The wince that followed felt too rehearsed, and Sorinah’s eyes flashed with the memory of how often he’d used that “pained” expression to manipulate her.
“I know I could have done better?—”
Sorinah snapped her hand up in a sharp gesture, cutting him off. “Really? You could have done better?” Her voice cracked with barely restrained anger. “I haven’t heard from you since I declined your offer to terminate my pregnancy.”
The words hung in the air, heavy with the weight of the past. She clenched her fists at her sides, remembering the icy silence that had followed her decision.
She’d been so hopeful when she’d taken the pregnancy test, her heart pounding with a mix of fear and excitement as she waited for the result.
Their relationship had been fiery and all-consuming, Albert showering her with whispered promises of how he couldn’t get enough of her.
They’d taken risks, blinded by passion; she’d been convinced their love would carry them through.
But Albert, with his endless excuses about his master’s program workload and part-time job, had made her feel like she was the center of his world, even when his time was scarce.
She’d been so na?ve, never questioning why he was always just out of reach, why his phone would light up with muted notifications at odd hours.
The truth had hit her like a wrecking ball.
He was married, with a life she’d never been meant to disrupt.
Sorinah’s chest tightened as the memory flooded back.
Then
“Albert, I’m pregnant.” She’d told him about the pregnancy two weeks later, her voice shaking but resolute, only to watch his expression shift from shock to something colder.
Her hopes for a future—however fragile—had crumbled into dust in that moment.
She bit the inside of her cheek to stop the trembling, refusing to let him see how much it still hurt.
She spoke past the lump in her throat, her voice trembling as his hands dropped from her waist so abruptly it felt like a slap.
“I know the timing is far from perfect, but I’m sure we can find a way to make this work.”
She tried to sound positive, her words a fragile attempt to steady herself, even as she noticed how his features twisted into something bordering on disdain at her news.
“You can’t have this baby.” His nostrils flared.
His voice was low, measured, and laced with hostility, making her insides shrivel.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, get an abortion. There is no way you can have my baby. This was fun and everything, but you being pregnant will ruin my life.”
Sorinah stared at him, her mind reeling. His words felt like a punch to the gut, but she clung to her composure, forcing calm into her reply.
“An unexpected pregnancy won’t ruin our lives; we can work through it together.”
“Make what work? Us? What fantasy world are you living in? You think my wife will just accept me bringing home a baby from some girl I knocked up?”
Sorinah’s heart stuttered in her chest. His wife? The words hit her like a sledgehammer, and she blinked rapidly, trying to process the revelation. She looked at his hands, her eyes searching for a ring, but there was no band, no tan line, no evidence he’d ever worn one.
“Your wife?” Her voice was barely above a whisper, the question hanging in the air like a bad omen.
“Yeah.” He shook his head, pacing the room, his movements agitated.
“You never told me you were married.”
“Did you ever ask?”
The accusation in his tone stung, but she refused to bear it. “Why would I ask you if you were married? I had no idea.”
“Deep down, you knew. When I couldn’t spend time with you and had to be with my family.”
Sorinah stiffened, her mind racing. No, she hadn’t known.
She wouldn’t have been with him if she’d had even the slightest hint he was involved with someone else, much less married.
But now, as she replayed their time together, she felt a sickening realisation creep in—his unexplained absences, the way he always came to her place, never his.
She was about to spiral into self-blame when another thought struck her.
“But you pursued me.”
Confusion and accusation dripped from her words, her voice hardening with betrayal.
“That doesn’t matter now!” The elevated volume of his voice made her flinch, and she clenched her jaw to steady herself.
“Get out.” Her tone was glacial, her posture rigid as she refused to let him see how much he’d unravelled her. After everything, she wouldn’t accept him speaking to her that way.
His expression morphed into a mix of shock and defiance, but she held his gaze, her resolve unwavering. The room felt small and suffocating, the air thick with the unspoken weight of his deception.
Albert stopped pacing, and his features changed. The aggression receded, replaced by a look of resignation. He knelt before her, his posture a mix of supplication and defeat.
“Look, I’m sorry about all of this, but there is no happily ever after for us.”
“No shit,” she snarled, anger simmering in her stomach like acid, her hands clenching into fists at her sides. At seventeen, she’d made a mess of her life, and this moment felt like an echo of that chaos.
“I’m sorry about all of this, but you can’t have this baby. This will ruin my marriage. Please, just get rid of it.”
He pleaded, reaching his broad hand out to her knee, but she flinched away, her body tense and repulsed at the thought of his touch. He wasn’t the boyfriend she’d come to love—no, he was someone else’s husband, a stranger in the skin of the man she’d thought she knew.
“Shut up, Albert,” she hissed, standing up abruptly and striding toward the door, wanting to put as much distance between them as possible.
“Tell me what you are going to do!?” His voice was edged with desperation, but she refused to turn around.
“Don’t worry about what I’m going to do. Worry about telling your wife about what you’ve done.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“It means you better tell your wife your piece of fun on the side is pregnant.”
She ushered him from her apartment with those words, her tone leaving no room for argument. Whatever was left of their relationship was shattered. The heartache was crushing, the humiliation devastating.
Having Albert’s wife contact her, hurling vicious accusations, had left Sorinah bedridden for days. Her sisters had helped her through the dark moments, but the scars lingered.
Present
Looking at him now, she realised there were parts of herself she’d never gotten back. Sorinah just wanted him gone.
“Whatever you might think of me, I’m sure he has questions about me.” Albert’s voice pulled her from the past.
Sorinah took a deep breath, steadying herself. She wasn’t the same person she’d been when she met Albert, and it was time she acted like it. She channeled the businesswoman she’d become, tucking away the hurt teenager who still ached beneath the surface.
“Why are you here?” she demanded, wanting to cut to the heart of the matter.
“I would like to get to know my son.”
“Not knowing him was a choice you made.”
Her voice was firm, her resolve unwavering. She remembered Nakinah’s advice when Mars was born, how her sister had encouraged her to reach out to Albert despite his rejection.
“He says he wants nothing to do with me or my baby, that I almost cost him his marriage.”
“Once you’ve done what you can, then you can have a clear conscience that you tried to make a place for him in the baby’s life. If he is too stupid to be a part of his son’s life, it will be on him.”