Chapter 66

"What should I do? If my parents find out, they'll kill me," sobbed the girl, her cries intensifying with every breath.

Layla's heart clenched at the sound.

Her friend was blunt, "You should consider terminating the pregnancy quickly. Nothing good comes from entangling yourself with a guy who's already taken."

"But... but I love him..."

"Come on, you're hung up on some low-life who's only in it for a good time? What's there to love? Plus, he comes from a prominent family and he's got a girlfriend. He's not going to step up, and he'll probably think you're trying to trap him with the baby. If you don't go through with the termination, he'll just pressure you into it anyway."

"But what if he wants the baby?"

"Then let him break up with his fancy, well-off girlfriend first. But will he? He's just playing you. You've barely graduated and don't even have a job; how will you support a child? Being a single mom is tough. Don't let a moment of weakness ruin both your lives. Giving birth to the child would be the real harm."

Layla managed a wry smile.

So many others shared her plight.

In her heart, she knew whether the child should stay or go; she was simply too indecisive to face it.

With Samuel's perfect fiancée in the picture, even if Layla wanted to keep the baby, he'd make sure she ended up in the operating room.

Keep it? Subject her child to a lifetime of scorn for being illegitimate?

Her laughter grew more desolate.

Laughing until her eyes darkened with resolve.

Her phone vibrated.

A call from Samuel.

After a few seconds of hesitation and a deepening look of determination, Layla hung up.

...

The next morning at the clinic.

The hallway was filled with young girls close to Layla's age, their faces ghostly pale and their eyes filled with dread.

"It really hurts, I'm... I'm so scared, Alan... I... I can't do this," a girl around twenty clung to her boyfriend, "Maybe we should keep it? They say once you've had an abortion, it's hard to get pregnant again."

"We're still in school, silly. How could we afford a baby?"

"Why didn't you think of that before? You said if it happened, we'd keep it, and that's why I..."

"Stop being stubborn," her boyfriend replied, growing impatient, "Just do as you're told!"

The nurse called a number, and the girl, still sobbing, followed, looking back repeatedly, hoping her boyfriend would change his mind.

"Go on, don't be scared," he encouraged.

As her hope faded to despair, she walked into the clinic.

Once she disappeared, her boyfriend pulled out his phone, "Yeah, I'm at the hospital. Break up after the abortion? No way am I letting my future kids live in a 'secondhand' home."

The callousness sent chills down Layla's spine. Are all men this cruel?

"Sweetheart, you know you're my one and only. Don't worry, I won't let you suffer like this, my love."

What a jerk! Layla glared at him with disdain.

"What're you looking at?" he scoffed, giving her an annoyed glance before leaving to smoke.

"Layla, number 22!" The nurse called out loudly for her.

The words echoed in her ears as Layla steeled herself for what was to come.

Layla shivered, her instinct screaming at her to flee.

"Layla, that is you, right? Hurry up and come in, there's a line out here," the nurse urged impatiently.

With heavy legs, Layla moved toward the operating room, where the cold, metallic scent of blood hung thick in the air. She almost gagged.

The stark operating table made her recoil and take two steps back.

"Come on! Are we doing this or not?" the doctor asked, his brow furrowed in indifference.

Clutching her skirt, Layla mustered a shred of courage. Her legs shook and tears swirled in her eyes, but she forced herself forward. She couldn't back down; she couldn't make a choice she'd regret forever.

It's better to endure short-term pain than long-term suffering.

Terminating the pregnancy was best for both her and the baby.

"Hurry up! Lie down."

As she laid on the table, the bright lights stung her eyes, and she couldn't hold back her tears any longer.

" Please lie back and place your feet in the stirrups."

"Come on, spread them! You've been through this before. How can I proceed if you're clamping them shut? You young people, why didn't you think of the consequences earlier?"

Gripping the edge of the table fiercely, Layla willed her legs to part, tears streaming down her face-panic-stricken, despairing, agonized...

A hollow tube slowly made its approach.

No, please no-

"I can't do this!" Layla blurted out, eyes snapping open, her voice a cry of defiance.

The doctor stopped in surprise, his hand frozen in place.

The OR door burst open with a slam, and the doctor was virtually thrown out of the room.

"Get out!"

Samuel's furious face invaded Layla's vision as she sat up in horror on the operating table.

He's back? How?

"Layla, how dare you try to abort my child while I'm away! Are you out of your mind?" The man's deep roar was deafening, sending the medical staff scrambling to escape.

Layla wanted to run too, nearly tumbling off the table, but Samuel grabbed her wrist.

"Let me go!"

"This is my child, not just yours," Layla shouted in panic and struggle.

"Yours? Do you think you could have done this on your own?" Samuel, like a mighty beast effortlessly restraining a frantic little creature in his grasp, his eyes blazing with anger, growled, "The child in your belly carries my baby, Samuel's!"

"It's not yours; it's from another man, it's none of your business!"

"You've been with other men?" Samuel sneered. Even knowing it was just a spiteful retort, he couldn't stand the thought. There was only one man for her, and that was him!

"Why can't there be others? If I can get drunk and sleep with you, I can sleep with anyone. I might have been with dozens, a hundred men, and I don't even know who the father is. That's why I want to end it! You're definitely not the father, stay out of my business!" Layla kept on screaming, struggling violently.

"Hmm, is that so?" Samuel's smirk carried a trace of sinister plotting that seemed to pierce Layla's very bones with ice.

What did his smile mean? Why did it instill in her a dread of being ensnared in some dark conspiracy?

"Unfortunately for you, from the night you threw yourself at me, I've decided you are going to have my child."

Layla's face drained of color. "What... what do you mean?"

"Did you buy something after leaving the hotel that night? Are you certain what you took was birth control?" Samuel's grin was chilling. He hadn't intended to reveal this, but her secrecy about getting rid of the child behind his back had infuriated him.

Layla's eyes were wide with shock. "How did you know?" A sudden realization dawned on her. "You switched my pills?"

So what she swallowed wasn't birth control at all; that explained the pregnancy.

"You bastard!" Layla lunged at him in fury. She wanted to destroy him!

"Do I deserve death for what I've done?" Her eyes were bloodshot with rage, her voice was laced with fury, and her fists hammered against his chest in frantic accusation. "Why are you ruining my life?"

But her efforts were as effective as scratching an itch through a boot; they were futile against Samuel. He easily restrained her wrists, his laughter cold. "Then perhaps you shouldn't have drunk yourself into a stupor and thrown yourself at a man."

Layla wept even harder, her sorrow compounded by the realization that it was her own actions that had led to this. If she hadn't drunk herself into oblivion, none of this would have happened. She had brought this upon herself.

Tears streamed down her face.

A twinge of pity surfaced in Samuel, but he quickly suppressed it. "It's too late for regrets. You will have my child!"