“You’re what?” Leon said in disbelief.
“Oh, you heard me.” Bella turned and threw herself onto Leon’s bed, more tears running down her cheek. “I’m pregnant. And the best part: Lain might not be the father.”
Everything went silent; the only thing that could be heard were the crickets chirping outside and the sobs coming from the girl on Leon’s bed. She was pregnant. Pregnant. Leon’s mind shook as the word bounced around like a wound up spring, creating a ringing noise louder than anything he had ever heard. Pregnant. Leon couldn’t think. He couldn’t breathe. It was as if the world was ripped away from him, leaving only black. Bella was pregnant. Leon felt weak. Bella was pregnant, and there was a possibility that Lain might not be the father.
“Well, can’t you just abort it?” Leon spat, his mind still unable to filter the simplest of thoughts.
“Of course, not,” Bella sobbed. “Lain would notice right away if that kind of money were to suddenly go missing. And you probably can’t pay for it since you’re still trying to get the money back that you lost buying this lot.” She wiped the tears from her cheeks. As Leon pieced his thoughts together, a feeling of guilt grew inside of him as the silence grew in the room. “I know Lain and I had been fighting, but this isn’t the kind of revenge I wanted.”
“Well, what if,” Leon paused, “what if it’s his baby?” He felt better when he saw Bella’s head tilt up. “You’re probably ten weeks along, right? We could go to the hospital tonight and easily get a paternity test with just the two of us. It shouldn’t be that expensive, and, even if it’s not much, there’s still some hope in it.”
After a long pause, Bella sniffed. “Alright.” She sounded much more confident now. “Let’s go.”
The two departed for the hospital not long after their conversation, but even after the two left the hospital there was still a sense of unease. Leon couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if the baby was his. He had hoped more than anything that he could be with Bella one day, but not because of a child born out of wedlock. If that unborn child did happen to be his would Bella even decide to leave Lain and raise the baby with Leon, a man she barely even knew? And what if she decided to go to her grave stating that the probably blonde haired child was fathered by Lain. With these questions and many more buzzing around in Leon’s head, he didn’t know what he would do to keep his sanity over the days before the results were in. He didn’t even know what he wanted the results of the test of this whole event to be. But until the results were in, Leon figured he might as well spend some more time with the soon-to-be mother.
For the two weeks following the night Leon and Bella went to the hospital, the two began spending more time together than Leon had ever thought possible. They learned more about each other than a married couple would in years. And for those two short weeks, Leon could tell that Bella actually felt happy. And, slowly but surely, Leon fell in love.
“The test results are going to be here any day now,” Bella said, burying her face in Leon’s jacket.
Leon smiled. “I know,” he said, “it’s hard to believe it’s that time.”
Bella laughed. “Finally, I can get a solid confirmation that Lain is the father and just put this whole thing behind me.” She smiled. Leon forced a laugh, but he knew it sounded sarcastic. “What?” she asked curiously. Leon shrugged. It went without saying that they both knew now that Leon wanted to be the father of that child, even if Bella didn’t know exactly who she wanted to be with. Her life with Lain so far had been everything a girl dreamed of. Lain was smart, and that meant that he made money. If Bella really wanted it, she could’ve had it. When she was with Leon, though, she felt like she already had the world. She knew Leon, and Leon knew her, and that was everything compared to the emotionless relationship she had with Lain. Lain hadn’t even noticed that Bella started wearing maternity clothes. It would take a signal in the sky for Lain to notice that his wife was pregnant.
Suddenly, Bella sat up. “What is it?” Leon asked as she began fixing her hair. She climbed off of the bed.
“I think I heard the door click.” She said. “Lain’s probably home.” Leon sat up and slid off of the bed. As he fixed the sheets, he watched Bella run into the bathroom to check herself and run back. Leon checked his jacked to make sure there were no hairs or any makeup left behind. When he and Bella made eye contact, he couldn’t help but laugh. The two met in front of the door leading to the main part of the house, they kissed, and Leon reached for the handle.
As the two stepped out, Leon noticed something was wrong. Lain was holding a large, grey folder in his hand, and he was reading it intensely. The smiles faded from both Leon and Bella’s faces as the files fell to the ground. Leon looked up, his icy blue eyes were on fire.
“What’s wrong?” Bella asked worriedly, stepping out from behind Leon.
“Oh, nothing much,” Lain was fuming. “I just found out that you were pregnant.”
Leon’s eyes widened in horror, as did Bella’s. “Oh God,” she whispered, falling back against the wall. Leon felt his heart beating in his throat. “How did you find out?” she asked, breathing heavily. Lain turned his hateful gaze upon Leon.
“Oh, just a normal day at the hospital when someone I work with hands me a file and tells me it’s the results from the paternity test you took a few weeks ago. Curious, of course, I took a look inside. Turns out my wife is pregnant and the father is this guy.” Leon gasped, and tears began streaming down Bella’s cheeks. Leon had no idea how he wanted things to play out, or how he wanted to find out he was the father but this wasn’t it. Taking a sledgehammer to his best friend’s marriage wasn’t the way this was supposed to happen. Lain removed his resentful, icy eyes from Leon and placed them upon Bella. She let out a loud gasp among her tears when he did.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Lain said. His icy blue eyes began to melt as tears trickled down his face. “I loved you. You are-“ he sniffed. “You were my everything. I loved you and you threw me out like yesterday’s newspaper. We met in high school! You’re the only person I’ve ever loved, damn it, and you threw me away!” Bella’s moans echoed through the house. Lain wiped his face with his sleeves. He sniffed. “I loved you and you didn’t tell me. You . . . you . . . you.” Lain’s cold gaze returned to Leon. Leon watched, not knowing what to do as Lain’s breaths grew louder and louder. Suddenly Lain let out a cry of rage as he clenched his fist and ran toward Leon.
Everything went white. Leon felt his head hit the door. The only thing that Leon heard was Bella yelling:
“Lain!!”
