Chapter 21 - Jenna
Earlier that day
“I can assure you that she is going to be fine. You can come back to see her later, but for now, she must still be under close watch,” Doctor Patel informed me reassuringly.
I nodded my head and let out a deep sigh of relief, knowing that my mother was, at least, fine.
“Thank you, doctor,” I whispered and started walking out of the hospital.
I was halfway to the exit when I suddenly remembered another issue that had been bothering me for a while. Since I was already in the hospital, I decided to tackle it at once.
My period was late. Even though it wasn’t that odd, since it had happened to me a few times, I had a kind of strange feeling about it—especially since I was getting some other symptoms, too. I feared that I might be pregnant.
I stopped in my tracks and turned back to the doctor, who was staring at me with his eyebrows raised.
“Is there something else?” he asked, and I shrugged my shoulders.
“Can I book a gynecologist appointment?” I asked.
“Sure,” Dr. Patel said and directed me toward the reception.
***
I was sitting on my bed in my room now, hugging my legs tightly to my body. My head rested on my legs that were pressed together in front of me, and I felt the tears dripping from my eyes onto my legs and wetting the thin fabric of the pajamas I had on.
This was not the way I’d expected to reveal my pregnancy to Feliks. I knew we were not the ideal couple, and our marriage, to an extent, lacked some fragments of romance that were usually applied to normal couples, but still, I wanted to reveal the pregnancy to him in at least a romantic manner, maybe with a broad smile on my face and maybe a little bit of teasing him and asking him to guess what I was about to say.
I handed over the paper to him and stood behind him with a smile on my face as I watched his facial expression change from that of curiosity to whatever expression he’d have on finding out that I was pregnant with his child.
There were millions of other ways I would have broken the news to him in my head, but certainly not with him choking me and trying to stuff life out of me in the process and only letting go of me when he found out I was pregnant. I mean, Feliks finding out I was pregnant with his child was the only reason my lifeless body wasn’t lying somewhere around the house, hidden under a blanket, or even in a morgue. The thought of that made me flinch, and I pulled myself closer into my bed and hugged my body more tightly.
I didn’t think that the sight or the image of Feliks’ face when he held me and attempted to kill me earlier was going to leave my head in a hurry. He hadn’t held me like he was trying to scare me or something—he’d choked me like he had the intention of killing me.
The fury in his eyes, the hatred with which he’d looked at me, and the merciless grunts that had escaped his lips when he’d tightened his hold on my neck. . .
I cringed again at the thought of that and hugged my body closer.
More tears streamed from my eyes, almost blinding me, and I would run my palms over my face occasionally to get rid of the tears.
I was currently in a separate room from him, and that was why I had the space to cry as loudly as I wanted. I was too scared to stay in the same room with him. I’d witnessed his fury, which I definitely didn’t want to experience again. I thought staying away from him would be the best thing to do.
He was equally too furious to stand my presence.
With a deep sigh, I reached out to take the second pack of tissues from the bedside table. I’d already exhausted one pack by blowing my nose and wiping my tears; the end result was several wet tissues littered all over the floor in my room, but I didn’t care. The only thing that bothered me at the time was the situation I was in.
I knew I’d made a mistake by not quickly texting Feliks then to inform him about the situation at hand and that I needed to get to the hospital. It would have made things easier if it had happened that way.
Then again, I wasn’t entirely to be blamed. I’d been too worried about my mom to even think of anything else. But then, look at where it landed me.
I gritted my teeth as my sorrow briefly gave way to anger, the anger I felt for Veronica because this was all her fault. In fact, she had the highest blame in all of this. She’d found the perfect opportunity to get me into trouble, and she did not hesitate to take it because of how much she despised me.
I reached out to the pack of tissues once again to take another to wipe my face.
After the third failed attempt, I angrily picked up the entire pack and flung it against the wall while screaming my lungs out.
My eyes were already stinging from all the tears, and my head hurt from crying so much, but I didn’t want to stop anytime soon.
I finally rose from the bed, where I’d been sitting for the past hour, and went into the bathroom to splash water on my face, hoping to get rid of the stinging in my eyes.
I looked up into the mirror in front of me after wiping my face with a soft white towel. My eyes were all swollen, but I didn’t want to stop crying yet. I was so hurt by everything that had happened that I wanted to stay in my room for the next week and cry my eyes out.
While I stood there, staring into the mirror, more tears began to flood from my eyes and down to my neck till they tricked down into my clothes.
I sluggishly dragged my legs out of the bathroom and was startled to see the housekeeper standing in front of my door.
She looked awkwardly from me to the pieces of messed-up tissues scattered all over the ground.
Her eyes roamed all over the floor until she noticed the half-full pack I had earlier tossed to the wall. Her eyes were wide, and her lips pulsed, but she did not say a word. I was too messed up now to mind.
I looked at her for a while and went over to sit back on the bed without bothering to ask why she was there.
“Dinner is ready. Mr. Feliks has decided to skip dinner, so I already laid the table for one. If you would come downstairs so that—”
I quickly cut her off before she could finish her statement. “I’m not hungry.”
“But you look pale—you could be doing some harm to yourself if you don’t—”
“I said , I’m not hungry,” I said, this time more crossly.
She nodded and walked out of my room.
“Get out!” I yelled, even though she was already out of sight, and punched the bed repeatedly.
This was all Veronica’s fault. I guess she was happy now after getting what she wanted. She’d succeeded in getting me into trouble and causing me pain, like she’d always done all my life.
I swallowed hard and gritted my teeth. I wished there were a way I could take revenge on her for what she did to me. I wanted to get back at both her and Leo and make them pay for what they’d put me through.
Leo must have contacted Veronica when he couldn’t reach me because he knew she’d be able to help him get to me.
Veronica, knowing that I must have been in the hospital, must have tipped him off on my whereabouts and come running. Both had ruined things for me; just when I’d thought I could settle down and enjoy my home with Feliks—regardless of how we had gotten married—then this happened, thanks to Veronica and Leo.
More tears were streaming down my eyes and almost blinding me, and because I’d thrown off the wet wipes, I had nothing to wipe my tears with.
I ran my palms repeatedly over my eyes and nose, but it was getting harder. I cried so much that I began to hiccup, but that didn’t stop me from crying more.
No matter how angry I was at Leo and Veronica, more than anger, I felt disappointed at Feliks.
He hadn’t even tried to hear me out; he didn’t even try to find out from me if that was what happened if I was even cheating on him. He didn’t even stop for a moment to think that this could be a misunderstanding and just went ahead to pour out his rage on me.
He’d immediately believed what he saw without trying to think it through; he’d done exactly what his enemies had wanted him to do: helped them to achieve their aim of punishing me. He didn’t even try to see my side of the story; he went ahead to act on his anger.
I swallowed hard as I thought of it and tried to get rid of the lump in my throat, which was starting to get painful.
It was becoming impossible to wipe my tears with my palms. I sought an alternative to get rid of the tears. An idea came to my mind almost immediately, and I quickly yanked off the sheets from my bed. They were soft and fluffy, and I didn’t think twice before I ran the fabric over my eyes and nose to get rid of the fluid.
The more I thought about everything that had happened, the angrier I felt at Veronica and her accomplice, and the more disappointed I felt at Feliks.
I’d thought earlier that, after spending so much time with me and getting to know me to an extent, he would have at least had a degree of trust in me. If he’d even had at least the tiniest faith in me, he’d have tried to find out if what he’d thought was actually the case before going off on me like he did.
I knew I’d at least given him a level of trust, but I regretted it because he didn’t do the same. It was even more annoying that he tried to snuff the life from me mercilessly, and the only saving grace was the fact that he’d found out about the baby.