A Complicated Situation
Rachel
I can't be pregnant!
That thought pounded in my mind, leaving me stunned as I returned to my room with Lindsay's help. She remained silent until she saw me lying on the bed.
"There's no use saying once again that you're okay, Rachel," she began. "It's clear that you're not!"
I looked at Lindsay with concern and decided that I needed to confide in someone, and better than her to listen to me, someone whose opinion was very important to me.
"Do you believe I could be pregnant, Lindsay?" I asked, apprehensively, and I noticed that even my voice was trembling with nervousness.
"Pregnant!?" Lindsay exclaimed, horrified and wide-eyed. "Is there a chance you could be pregnant?"
I didn't expect her to return the question, but I had an answer to her inquiry. I recalled the times Enrico and I had sex and the fact that we never worried about protection. I also hadn't thought about it while caught up in the excitement of the moment, with desire guiding my actions.
"There's a big chance, yes," I admitted, embarrassed. "What do I do now, Lindsay? My situation is already so complicated, and a child would only make everything even harder."
Lindsay seemed stunned by my confirmation. She immediately got up from where she was sitting next to me on the bed and, standing up, looked at me with even more concern.
"The first step is to confirm if there is a pregnancy," she reasoned wisely. "Even if there is that possibility, we can't be sure before taking a test."
She was right, but I didn't feel up to walking even to the front entrance of the house, let alone to the subway station to go to a clinic to get a lab test and have absolute certainty if it was a pregnancy. I was feeling very weak, and unable to eat for two days straight. We concluded that it would be better to buy a pregnancy test at the pharmacy, as they were currently quite reliable. When Joseph knocked on the door, Lindsay took the opportunity to discreetly leave and get one.
Joseph stayed in the room with me for a considerable amount of time, showing the same insistence that I had with him to finish the meal on his plate. When Emma brought orange juice with toast at Lindsay's request, it again triggered my nausea. However, I struggled to control it without him noticing what was happening.
There was a shadow of suspicion in Joseph's eyes as I caught him staring at me with a questioning look. However, he chose not to address the matter directly and only commented on the importance of eating, even if I ended up vomiting everything later.
Before Lindsay returned, to my surprise, a few minutes later, Enrico showed up in my room with a doctor in tow, without bothering to consult my opinion on the matter. Reluctantly, I ended up conceding to Joseph's request, and the doctor, to my relief, asked them to leave the room so I could have more privacy.
The doctor, named Dr. Learns, was a kind middle-aged gentleman. His first question, naturally, was about the symptoms I was experiencing, and I didn't hide any of them. I needed to know the truth, and delaying that answer wouldn't change the complex situation I found myself in.
"Based on the symptoms you're reporting and the fact that you haven't used any contraceptive methods during sexual intercourse in the last month, there are strong indications that you may be pregnant," he said understandingly. "What was the date of your last menstrual cycle?"
Any trace of doubt about a possible pregnancy was immediately dispelled by that simple question. I realized, at that moment, that my menstrual cycle was late. It was extremely late, precisely three weeks. I was in trouble!
I communicated the date of my last cycle to Dr. Learns, and he typed something into his laptop, looking at me with a gentle smile, which alone confirmed my suspicion. I was pregnant, and the blood sample he collected from me would be the definitive confirmation of this fact.
After prescribing me some medications to combat nausea and recommending vitamins, Dr. Learns assured me that the test results would be available in a few hours, at most in two. He would take the sample to his clinic's laboratory, and once it was ready, I would receive the results by email. He packed up his equipment in his briefcase and bid farewell.
As the doctor opened the door to leave, Lindsay hurried in, her hands discreetly hidden in the pockets of her coat. After seeing him off to the living room, she quickly returned to the bedroom, looking around as if to make sure we were alone in the room.
“Enrico was already waiting for the doctor in the living room” she recounted, apprehensively - What did the doctor say?
“The same thing we've been suspecting,” I said with a sigh, getting up quickly and reaching out to her - Where's the test? I can't bear waiting for the exam results.
“It's here - she said with a humorless smile” I hid it so no one would notice what I went to buy at the pharmacy.
Lindsay took a small box from her coat pocket, where I already imagined it would be, and handed it to me. Hurriedly, I made my way to the bathroom, my heart pounding uncontrollably in my chest, although I already had a deep sense that I was indeed pregnant.
Back in the room, as we waited the five minutes necessary to be sure of the result - because I didn't want to look before that time to avoid premature despair - Lindsay didn't stop talking for a second, babbling incessantly.
“If you're pregnant, you must be at least three months along” Lindsay pointed out, doing a quick calculation with her fingers. “You haven't left this house since we arrived in London, and that was almost three months ago!”
I didn't want to have to tell Lindsay, but if my suspicions were correct, she would soon find out that I didn't need to leave that house to get pregnant. Conception could have happened in that very room where we slept every night.
After the five necessary minutes for confirmation of the result had passed, I wasn't exactly surprised, but rather trembling and breathless. However, I couldn't articulate a response.
“You are pregnant, Rachel!” Lindsay exclaimed.
At that exact moment, the door opened without us noticing, and to my absolute despair, a pale Enrico stared at me with fury in his eyes.
“How could this happen, Rachel?!”
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