The Love Affair(Good Wife Better Mistress)

Mother And Baby

Nicole stares at the plain hospital wall. An efficient nurse sanitizes her arm and pricks her with a needle; her blood seeps into a small test vial. Nicole closes her eyes and tries to take deep breaths.

"I have no reason to be nervous," she thinks, "I've taken a pregnancy test, and it came back negative. I'm not pregnant—everything is fine."

The nurse takes the sample and leaves Nicole top wait for the results. Though it only takes thirty minutes to test her blood, time seems to move more slowly than usual. Nicole checks the clock on the wall so frequently it almost looks as if the hands aren't moving. Finally, the nurse returns, carrying a clipboard.

"I have exciting news for you," the nurse says, "The test results show that you're pregnant!"

The room seems to tilt sideways, and her head feels like it's going to explode. Nicole closes her eyes and counts to ten. When she opens her eyes again, she sees the cheerful nurse.

"No-no," she stammers, shaking her head, "I can't be pregnant. It's impossible. There must be some sort of mistake. I took a pregnancy test at home, and it said I wasn't pregnant."

"Those home tests are okay, but they're not the most accurate. Sometimes you can get a false negative," the nurse explains patiently, "The test we run in the hospital is much more accurate, and we ran it twice just to be sure."

Nicole stumbles to her feet and begins to walk.

"What's happening to me?" she wonders, "I'm terrified of birthing this child, but I'm equally afraid of losing it. If I'm honest with myself, a part of me is even a little bit excited. But why? I can't have a child with Alexandro—we're divorcing before it would even be born."

Her phone's ringtone pulls her from her reverie. She checks the caller ID and sees Alex's name. Immediately, she tries to reject the call, but her hands are shaking too bad, and she answers itinstead.

"Where are you?" he demands.

Nicole looks around "Umm, I'm at the shopping mall," she says.

"The driver says you insisted on driving yourself," Alex says with obvious suspicion, "Are you really shopping?"

"Of course," Nicole lies quickly, "I wanted to buy some materials to make your gifts."

"I'm coming to look for you," Alex says, "You better be where you say you are."

"No! Don't do that!" Nicole replies too quickly.

She doesn't feel prepared to face Alex. She needs time to process the news about the pregnancy and decide on a plan, and she's worried Alex will be able to tell that something was wrong with her. If he finds out that she's pregnant, she'll have to give birth to a child, but if she can keep it quiet, she can plan to have a secret abortion.

"Why not?" Alexandro asks.

"Because the gifts are for you," she says, "It'll spoil the surprise if you see what I'm buying."

She feels lightheaded and has trouble paying attention.    

"What's going on? Why are you quiet?" Alexandro asks anxiously, "Nicole, answer me. What's going on?"

Nicole takes a deep breath.

"I'm fine," she says shakily, "Really, I am."

Behind Nicole's back, there was a gentle and familiar voice. Nicole felt drumsticks kept banging on her heart. The voice kept echoing in her heart.

She slowly turned around. With her back against the window, she stared at him.

Conrad was in a white doctor's coat. His hair was short and neat. His eyes were so deep, and he also checked up on Nicole, "So surprised? I thought you should come over and give me a hug."