His Wife (A Contract Marriage Story) by Heer Mangtani

Chapter 69
11
Gabriel.
It’s me. Sofia. Baker.
I’m sorry if I’m intruding, but please don’t discard this voicemail and hear me out.
When I left from your house, I never had any intention of coming back into your life or contacting you ever again. I don’t want
anything from you.
I.. Um, ever since I left, I’ve been sick. Even the week before that when my Grandpa passed, I... I was sick. I kept throwing up
and feeling nauseous all the time and we both discarded it as my grief. It was, I think, but when I didn’t get any better, I went to a
doctor last week and she asked me to get a pregnancy test.
Any way, long story short, I’m pregnant.
I’m about ten weeks along, eleven now, I think. That’s a little over two months, just so you know. It’s yours, just so you know, and
it’s two of them. I haven’t been with anyone except you in a very long time, but if you wish, we can get a paternity test or
something.
I don’t, I’m not doing this to get anything from you. If you’ve moved on and are happy in your life with... I guess what I’m saying
is, you don’t have to be a part of this. I don’t want anything from you, especially not your money. I’m just letting you know so that,
well, you know. I’m keeping the babies.
Um. Yes. That’s it, I guess. Call me back when you can? This is my new number. Bye”
I draw in a long breath, putting the copy of ‘what to expect when you’re in pregnant’ at the cashier’s desk, removing the last
twenty dollar note in my bag and placing it on the book.
The cashier eyes me weirdly, and my cheeks flush. The note was folded and slightly crumpled, the kind it becomes when you
leave it in your jeans pocket and forget about it for weeks.
I hadn’t forgotten this note in my jeans pocket. I was just severely out of cash, and I’d dug this one out from a corner of mas bag
to put off going to the ATM and withdrawing money.

I knew I had to, if not today then tomorrow when the groceries of the house were due, but I wasn’t prepared for the rea check
and the inevitable need for me to get off my a*s and get a job.
I was going to get a job, even if only for the next two months which is when I shift back to my hometown. But I had to save both
those paycheques if I wanted to rest at home in the third trimester and prepare for the babies. Not to forget the few months after
the birth when I couldn’t be working, but that was a problem for another day.
“You pregnant?” The cashier at the bookstore, who I thought was immensely disinterested in me earlier asks, and I nod at the
barely-twenty goth girl.
“Congrats.” She says, pulling out a bag from one of the drawers and putting the book inside it along with the bill. “Your change,
$1.50. You want it or should I donate it?”
“Oh. Uh. Sure.” I squirm watching her put the 1.50 into the little box on the side with a sticker of dogs over it.
There goes my bus money to get back home. Luckily, it was just a twenty minute walk, not much.
“Nice ring.” The girl’s dark lips rise into a smile, and my eyebrows knit when my gaze falls to my wedding ring stit
on my
1/3
T
finger.
Oh. I hadn’t even realised I was wearing it all these days.
“Thanks.” I give her a right lipped smile and grab the bag from her, getting out of the store as fast as I can.
The air felt chilly again, and the sweater I was wearing did a very poor job in keeping me warm. I hadn’t packed any coats in the
one bag I had dumped with some things that came to my hand, but I sure as hell couldn’t afford buying a new coat now.
Maybe I should start thrifting again. Even then, I wasn’t sure I could afford buying a coat just because the weather decided to
give a whiplash.

I checked my phone, something I had been doing every fifteen minutes since I sent Gabriel that voicemail in the morning. No
new messages.
I sighed, and the little happiness I had about hearing from him again and the hope to get an explanation or some sort of closure
fizzled down when I slept that night and there was still no word from him.
My sleep was disturbed at five on the dot when the rock guitarist had for a neighbour decided it was time to begin his daily
practice, and made my way out to see a frowning Luna in the living room. “I don’t like him,” she grumped, making her way to the
bathroom after adding, “Rest. I will be right out and make you breakfast for 3.”|
I sigh, and was just about to go back to my room when loud banging noise outside stopped me. I shouldn’t have headed out as
fast as I did, and a wave of disappointment greeted me when there was no one at my door.
Instead, someone was knocking on my neighbour’s door, and the brown haired guitarist with more tattoos than I could count on
one hand made his way out looking frustrated.
“Keep it down, d*ckhead. Your neighbour is pregnant and she needs her rest. A familiar voice yelled at the man, whose eyes
narrowed at me.
I shifted my weight to the other foot, all ready to denty being pregnant to avoid being in his anger-zone, but he just flashed me a
small smile. “Sorry. I’ll keep it down. And if you need anything or anyone bothers you, you can ask me for help any time.
“Can you flirt any less obviously?” The girl from the book store shakes her head at the man who rolls his eyes before shutting the
door behind him.
“You didn’t have to do that.” I tell her, giving her a smile. “But thank you.”
“Someone needed to tell my brother his 5A.M. practices aren’t making him the lead in any band any time soon.” She retu the
ghost of a smile back.
“I’m Sophia,” I tell her, “Would you like to come in for some coffee?”
“I’m Maeve. My brother is Brown. And, maybe some other time. I’m running late for class.” Brown gives me a dismissive nod kind
of action and I awkwardly smile as I watch her curvy frame disappear into the stairs, heading down..
The guitar’s sound doesn’t make its way to me any more, not the morning, and not any morning after that.

Maybe this place wasn’t as bad after all.
I had considered all possibilities when I sent Gabriel that voicemail, ranging from him demanding a paternity test or not wanting
to be emotionally involved, to him demanding full custody of the children when they were born (which I’d probably hit him for and
then kick him out). But in everything that I thought and imagined, him never reaching out wasn’t one of them.