Chapter 66: Sweet Relief
Moana
“Did you decide?” the doctor asked.
I felt completely helpless, and began to cry harder. The doctor was silent and let me cry, and when I was finally able to speak around my sobs, I looked up at him and shook my head.
“I can’t do it,” I said, my chest heaving with each word as my lungs felt like they would explode. “I don’t want to go through with the abortion.”
The doctor nodded. “Okay then,” he said with a warm smile. “You don’t have to do it.”
He left to let me get dressed again. As I did, I felt Mina practically leaping with joy inside of me, and I couldn’t help but smile a bit. I finished dressing, then headed back out to the elevator with the intention of calling a cab home since Edrick thought that I would be spending the night here.
When the elevator doors slid open, however, I was utterly shocked to see Edrick standing there with a blue surgical mask on to hide his identity. He had a panicked look in his eyes, We stared at each other for a long few moments before he finally spoke.
“Well?” he asked. “Did you do it?”
I shook my head. “I couldn’t. I decided that I want to keep it.”
He seemed relieved and let out a deep sigh. “Come on. I’ll drive you home,” was all he said, but I could tell just from his body language that he was happy with the decision.
Without another word, he turned around and walked back to the door. I couldn’t help but notice the rude secretary’s eyes on me as I walked past with Edrick — no doubt she was shocked to see a human walking out with a werewolf.
Edrick held the door open for me, and once I was inside, he came around to the driver’s side and pulled away from the curb. I began to feel suddenly light and free, and was certain that I’d made the right decision. Whatever obstacles we faced, I was sure that we’d take them all in stride. In a way, we were going to be a team now, and that was a comfort.
“I’d like to tell Selina and the maids,” I said as we drove.
Edrick nodded, but didn’t say anything else out loud. I wondered what was going through his head, but decided not to pry.
The drive home was mostly quiet, aside from that brief agreement to tell Selina and the maids about the decision when we got home. Finally, I couldn’t contain my curiosity any further, and I broke that silence.
“What made you come back?” I asked. “I thought that you were going to pick me up tomorrow.”
Edrick paused for a moment, then shrugged nonchalantly. “My morning meeting got canceled, so I decided to come and check to see how everything went.”
I didn’t ask any other questions, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that he came back for a different reason.
…
When we arrived back at the penthouse, Ella was playing in the living room with Selina. Ella was surprised to see me there; meanwhile, Selina looked rapidly between Edrick and I with a worried expression on her face.
“Moana!” Ella shouted, jumping up and running over to me. “I thought you were gonna be gone all day.”
I smiled, then shook my head and crouched down to her level to pinch her cheeks. “I decided I missed you too much,” I said, blinking away the tears that threatened to form in my eyes.”
“Ella, why don’t you go and play in your room for a little bit?” Edrick asked then. “Moana can come and play with you soon.”
“Okay!” Ella exclaimed as she scurried off. Once she was gone, Selina stood. I noticed that she was wringing her hands nervously.
“Well?” she asked.
Edrick didn’t answer. Instead, he gestured for both Selina and I to follow him to the study, and called for Amy and Lily to come as well, who were standing in the kitchen doorway looking concerned.
Once the door was closed, Edrick sighed. He opened his mouth to speak, then promptly closed it again and cleared his throat; I could tell that he was struggling to find the right words, so I decided to take it upon myself to reveal the news.
“I decided to keep it.”
Selina let out a sigh of relief. Amy and Lily sighed too, and in that moment I realized that they certainly already knew about the pregnancy, despite Selina having promised not to tell anyone. Still, I couldn’t be mad at her for secretly telling them.
“Oh, this is wonderful,” Selina said. Much to my surprise, the housekeeper walked briskly over to me and wrapped me in her arms. Once again, I was taken aback by her sudden display of affection, but it was over more quickly than it began. She stepped back, then looked between Edrick and I once again.
“Are you going to tell Ella?” she asked.
I looked up at Edrick; we hadn’t talked about it even once, and I was still unsure as to whether he would even tell her that the baby was her sibling, or if we would hold up a facade that the baby had a different father.
For the second time in those few moments, I was shocked again.
“Of course,” he said without hesitation, nodding. “We’ll tell her.”
“And what will you say, exactly?” Selina pried. “Do you have a plan?”
Now, Edrick finally hesitated. He glanced over at me, looking surprisingly unsure of himself. “I… I admittedly haven’t thought that far ahead,” he said quietly. “I must confess that this is not a situation I thought I would ever see myself in.”
Selina frowned, folding her arms across her chest.
“What about you?” she asked, looking at me. “Surely you’ve thought about it.”
I bit my lip. Much like Edrick, I also hadn’t thought that far ahead. Less than an hour ago, I had been fully planning on aborting the child. Before that, I was too preoccupied with what decision would be best to make to even think about the impact it would have on Ella. I was a bit embarrassed that how she might react didn’t even cross my mind once.
Selina, seeing my hesitation, sighed deeply and even groaned a little with exasperation. “I suppose you have time,” she said, glancing down at my stomach. “But if you wait too long, you’ll start to show, and it will only hurt her even worse if she feels like you’ve been keeping a secret from her.”
“I just worry about her reaction,” Edrick chimed in, surprising me again with his own candidness. “You know how she’s been in the past with nannies… She might think poorly of Moana after this.”
I looked up at Edrick, taken aback that he had actually taken time to consider how Ella’s knowledge of the pregnancy might affect her relationship with me. All this time, I thought that he was too self-absorbed and superior to think such things, but now I couldn’t help but wonder if something had changed when he discovered my pregnancy.
“You have to make sure you handle it well,” Selina replied. “It’s important to be mindful of your child’s emotions when you introduce the prospect of a new sibling. And it’s equally important to work hard to ensure that she doesn’t think she’ll get replaced.”
Once again, Edrick and I looked at each other. At that moment, I felt myself soften as I looked up at his face; he had a worried expression on, but at the same time, he seemed excited and not so hard and cold as he usually was.
Now, we had to face our second obstacle as expecting parents — but at least we would be doing it together, as a team.
