Strangers In Romance

Chapter 2: Parent

Mother? I was the mother? Did she just say that?

I looked around the hospital room, knowing immediately that I was the subject of a prank.

My laughter bounced off against the walls, my head reared back by how utterly ridiculous this was. "Mother," I guffawed. "Of your child? But we're both women!"

"But—"

"Look, Miss. . . What's your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Via. My name is Via."

The strength of the voice behind how she'd spoken the name made me stare, my stomach knotting. Her name was Via? That was beautiful.

I shook my head. "Via. . . Vee-ah? Whoever you are, the father of the child you're bearing—that bastard—judging from how he probably left you hanging for you to seek out people like this in your bout of confusion, will give you child support if you take him to court."

"But—"

"Not me," I emphasized. "But the father of your baby. Okay?"

That was when the woman raised her head, her hair falling to the side to reveal her face. "But you're the mother," she repeated. "I'm sure of it."

I stood dumbfounded. She sounded so much like. . ."Veronica?" The words slipped out of my mouth like a cruel joke.

"No, it's Via. My name is Via."

But her pouty lips. Her blue eyes. Those were there. I've seen that not only from the pictures before.

The moans from last night penetrated my senses before other things caught my attention. Things in the present. Like the uncertainty in the woman's stare. The tremble of her fingers. The wavering of her lips. This was not Veronica. This was Via. They were different people.

Why, Veronica wouldn't look weak like that, and Via was so.

I backed away, hands raised. "Look, I know that this is a joke. Or confusion. But I forgive you. Just. . . Just please leave me alone."

"I need your help," she said.

"I'm sure you do, sweetheart. But I'm not the one to give it to you."

"Sniff. . ."

Was she crying?

My throat clammed up. "Hey. . . Hey. . ."

"YOU'RE THE MOTHER!" Via hollered. "LOVE OUR BABY!"

My God, she was a psycho. "I'm not!" I said. "And if, only if, which is impossible, you can prove in a twisted reality that I am?" I snapped my fingers in front of her. "Then I'll love our baby. Goodbye."

Back in my office, Arthur rushed to me, forehead matted by sweat, soon as he saw me. "Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine. And you just came from the hospital."

I tugged at my collar. Via, whoever she was, had shaken me down to the core. Taking out my phone from my pocket, I stared at the conversations I had with Veronica, or the lack thereof from this morning. I'd been messaging soon as I got out of the hospital, but there was no reply.

"She's just busy."

"Who is?" Arthur leaned back as if slapped as I glared hard at his direction.

"No one you have to know," I said. "Now let me get to work."

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Oh, and Arthur?" My voice was commanding. "If you make the same mistakes as last night with the drink you gave me? The one where we don't know who came from? You're fired."