Her Pregnancy Couldn't Trap Me

It was my seventh consecutive day of working overtime. I didn't get home until eleven that night. When I punched in the door code, the lock flashed red. I assumed I was too exhausted to remember it correctly and tried again. Then again. Still wrong. I called Grace. She didn't answer. With nowhere else to go, I stood outside the apartment and pressed the doorbell over and over. Ten minutes later, Ryan stepped out of the elevator carrying a six-pack of beer. He froze when he saw me. "Why aren't you inside?" Without waiting for an answer, he punched in the code with practiced ease and opened the door. I followed him in. The moment I crossed the threshold, a party popper exploded beside my ear. Confetti burst over my head, scattering across my shoulders and the floor. The apartment erupted in laughter. Empty beer bottles crowded the coffee table. Cake was smeared across the carpet, and the sofa covers I'd washed just that morning were soaked in red wine. Grace stood in the middle of it all, holding up her phone and laughing so hard she could barely stand. "Maybe next time you'll think twice before spending every waking hour at work and ignoring me." She grinned at me through the screen. "Now you know what the silent treatment feels like." I stood in the doorway without saying a word. That day, my boss had humiliated me in front of the entire team three separate times. I'd revised a proposal twelve times. I'd skipped dinner, and someone had stepped on my shoe on the subway ride home, splitting the side open. At eight the next morning, I had another presentation waiting for me. And now, on top of everything else, I was expected to clean up an entire apartment full of garbage. When Grace realized I wasn't going to chase after her or start an argument like I usually did, her smile disappeared. "What is that look for?" "It was a joke. God, when did you get so boring?" I bent down and picked up a piece of confetti near my foot. She let out a cold laugh. "If you can't do this anymore, then let's break up." I thought about the new door code, the one Ryan knew but Grace had never bothered to give me. Suddenly, I didn't even want to step inside. "Fine," I said. "Let's break up." ... The living room fell silent for a moment. Grace stared at me for several seconds before forcing a crooked smile. "Fine. Your words, not mine." I didn't respond. I turned and walked into the bedroom. Behind me, someone quickly tried to smooth things over. "Come on, guys. Let's all calm down. Evan's had a rough day." "Grace, you didn't have to scare him like that." They spoke so casually, as if the words I'd just exchanged with Grace were nothing more than a minor interruption to the party. I reached up to pull my suitcase down from the top of the closet. My arms were so tired that I lost my grip. The suitcase crashed onto the floor with a heavy thud. Grace followed me into the bedroom and helped me lift it. "All right, you've made your point. Come out and get something to eat." She straightened, brushing off her hands. "There are a lot of people here tonight. Don't make this awkward for everyone." I lowered my head and searched for my charger. I didn't answer. After waiting a moment, Grace's voice sharpened. "Fine, changing the code was wrong. But you know exactly why I did it, don't you? Every time I ask you to dinner, you're working late. I text you, and you take hours to respond. You might as well be married to your company. What's the point of being in a relationship if you're never around?" I rummaged through my bag twice before finally finding the charger. "My boss needed a proposal at the last minute." "Your boss. Your proposals. Always the same excuses." She laughed bitterly. "You always have a reason." Ryan appeared in the bedroom doorway. "Evan." I looked up. He'd already changed back into his own shoes. "Tonight wasn't handled very well," he said quietly. "Grace just wanted you to come home earlier. She wasn't trying to hurt you." Grace turned toward him. "Why are you apologizing? This has nothing to do with you." "But Evan seems to have misunderstood." "When doesn't he misunderstand you?" She turned back to me. "Ryan helped buy all this stuff for tonight, and you haven't even thanked him. Instead, you're treating everyone like dirt." I shoved the last shirt into my suitcase and yanked the zipper closed. Grace's expression darkened. "Enough already." She reached out and pressed a hand against the suitcase. "I've already given you a way to save face. What more do you want?" I looked directly at her. "Move." Her fingers stiffened against the handle. Slowly, she withdrew her hand. "Evan, if you walk out that door tonight, don't expect me to come looking for you." Everyone in the living room turned to watch. A few people were still holding drinks. When I dragged my suitcase out of the bedroom, they shuffled aside to let me pass. "Wait, you're really leaving?" "Come on, Evan. It doesn't have to be this dramatic." "We'll get the sofa covers cleaned tomorrow, okay?" Not one of the people who'd just offered to help clean up actually moved. The cake was still stuck to the carpet. Empty bottles had rolled under the furniture and across the floor. As I tried to put on my shoes, I couldn't get the damaged one on properly. One of the guys watched me struggle for a moment before speaking. "Man, you know you're just going to end up coming back, right?" There was no malice in his voice. Somehow, that made it harder to answer. Ryan followed me to the entryway. "It's late. Where are you going to go?" Behind him, Grace gave a cold little laugh. "Where do you think? Back to his parents' house." She was right. Apart from my parents' place, I had nowhere else to go. At one in the morning, I dragged my suitcase home. My mother opened the door and stared at me in surprise. "Why are you here so late?" "Grace and I broke up." The bedroom light came on. My father emerged in his robe, frowning. "Did you two have a fight?" Before I could answer, my mother sighed. "It's the middle of the night. We'll talk about it tomorrow." My father stood there for another moment before turning back toward the bedroom. The door closed behind him. Through it, I heard my mother lower her voice. "I told you he couldn't keep working late every night. Grace has a good temper, but even she can only put up with so much." "What good does it do to say that now?" "He's almost thirty. Where's he going to find another woman like her?" There was a brief silence. Then my father spoke. "Ask his older brother tomorrow. What happened to that girl he mentioned a while back? Is she still single?" I was still standing in the living room. Confetti clung to my jacket. The split in my shoe was visible beside the pocket of my suitcase. From behind the bedroom door, my mother whispered, "Keep your voice down. He might hear you." Neither of them had asked me why we'd broken up. The next day, while I was at my desk, my mother called more than a dozen times to arrange a blind date. "I'm not going," I told her. There was a commotion on her end of the line, and she sounded as though she was in a hurry. "It's just dinner. Stop acting like someone is forcing you to get married." "If you and Grace could still work things out, I wouldn't have to worry about you at all." "Just go. She's already there. Don't be rude." In the end, I gave in and hurried to the restaurant during my lunch break. Allison was sitting by the window. Half her coffee was already gone. The moment I sat down, she glanced at her watch. "Men really shouldn't push themselves so hard at work." She waved over a server and handed me the menu. "I heard you're in marketing? You probably work late a lot." "Yeah." "Well, once you're married, that won't work. Someone has to take care of the household." I said nothing. She studied the menu for another moment before asking, "Have you been in a serious relationship before?" "Five years." Allison's hand stopped turning the pages. "Five years?" "We just broke up." She looked up at me, and something in her expression cooled. "You just broke up, and you're already going on blind dates?" "My mother arranged this. I came because I wanted to be honest about my situation." "Are you still in love with her?" "That's not really the issue. I'm just not ready to—" "Evan?" Ryan's voice came from behind me. He'd just walked through the entrance with Grace. Grace noticed me first, then looked at Allison sitting across from me. She approached our table with a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "You moved out of my place two nights ago, and now you're already on a blind date? You must have been planning this for a while." People at nearby tables were beginning to stare. I lowered my voice. "My mother asked me to come." "So your mother tells you to go, and you just go?" Grace looked at me as though I had personally betrayed her. "Back when I asked you to have dinner with me, why was it so hard for you to make time?" Allison closed the menu. "Are you two actually broken up or not?" "We are," I said. "Some of his things are still at my place," Grace answered immediately. I looked up at her. She'd watched me pack my suitcase. She knew perfectly well that the only things left behind were a few old clothes I didn't want anymore. Allison's expression hardened. "You're still living together?" Someone at the next table had their phone raised. Ryan tugged at Grace's sleeve. "Come on. People are watching." His attempt to calm her down only drew more attention to us. Allison stood. "You two can sort out your own relationship. I'm not interested in being part of some performance." She walked away without looking back. Grace didn't try to stop her. She just stared at me. "You were in such a hurry to find someone new, and you couldn't even find anyone decent." I took out my phone and paid my share of the bill. Several people turned to look. Someone nearby whispered, "Isn't this exactly what people mean when they talk about moving on before a breakup is even over?" I didn't stay to hear anything else. I grabbed my bag and hurried out of the restaurant. My mother's call came almost immediately. "What did you do to drive her away? Your aunt just called me, and I didn't even know what to tell her." "Mom, I told you I didn't want to go." "If you didn't want to go, you could still have been polite once you got there." She paused. "Did Grace come looking for you?" I didn't answer. My mother seemed relieved anyway. "If she's willing to come back, don't keep playing hard to get. That girl Allison could never compare to Grace." I hung up. It wasn't until I reached the curb that I realized I was trembling. When I returned to the office, the people who'd been talking near my desk abruptly scattered. Megan, a colleague from my team, held out her phone. "You need to see this." The video was less than a minute long. The caption read: [Still Living With His Girlfriend and Already Sneaking Around on Blind Dates.] Someone in the comments had recognized me. Then someone else had dug up the name of my company. Just as I was watching, the elevator doors opened. Ryan stepped out behind someone from Human Resources, wearing a brand-new employee badge. Someone immediately recognized him. "Hey, isn't that the woman in the video your friend?" Ryan glanced at me, looking uncomfortable. "Yeah." "But honestly, it all happened so suddenly. Grace didn't even know about the blind date beforehand." The people around us fell quiet for a moment. Someone murmured, "So the date was already arranged before all this happened?" Ryan shot me a quick look. "All right, that's enough. It's their private business. Let's stop talking about it." A moment later, someone from HR came over and asked me to follow her. My boss was waiting in his office. A printed termination notice lay on his desk. I stopped in the doorway, a sinking feeling settling in my stomach. "The client called me this morning," he said. "You're handling our relationship and matchmaking campaign. Do you really think it's appropriate to have a video like this circulating online with your name attached to it?" "I can explain." "Explain to whom? Are you going to respond to every comment one by one?" I took out my phone. "I have messages that show what happened. Grace was the one who suggested breaking up, and my mother arranged the date—" "Evan." My boss leaned back in his chair, looking increasingly impatient. "You were together for five years. Why are you only breaking up now?" I stared at him. "Those two things have nothing to do with each other." "How do they not?" He looked at me as though the answer were obvious. "If you did nothing wrong, why did your relationship suddenly fall apart?" "It wasn't sudden." "Fine. Let's say it wasn't." He slid the termination notice across the desk. "The client doesn't want you handling the campaign anymore, and the company can't afford to be dragged into a public controversy." "You'll hand the project over to Megan. You don't need to clock in for the rest of the day." I stood motionless. "I worked overtime for an entire month on this project." "I know." His tone softened slightly. "You'll receive the maximum compensation we're required to provide. Just sort out your personal life and make sure it doesn't affect everyone else." When I left the office, Megan was already waiting for the handover. She couldn't quite meet my eyes. She only asked where I'd saved the client files. I told her. She nodded, gathered the documents, and walked away. The area around my desk grew strangely quiet as I emptied my drawers. Someone started to approach, but another colleague pulled them back. Nobody actually said anything cruel. Still, I suddenly couldn't remember how to pack a cardboard box. I put in a pen. It rolled straight back out. I tried to screw the lid onto my water bottle, but somehow couldn't get it to catch. In the end, I threw everything that wouldn't fit into the trash. As I passed the reception desk, Ryan hurried after me. "Evan, Grace is already trying to find out who posted the video." I kept walking. "Don't blame her. She was angry when it happened. She wasn't thinking clearly." The receptionist glanced at us, then quickly lowered her eyes. I carried the box outside into the rain. My mother had sent me a message asking when I planned to apologize to Allison. My boss had told me to leave the company group chat. At the bottom of my messages was one from Grace. [Now do you understand what happens when you rush out to find someone new?] I stood outside the office building, staring at it for a long time. Then a sudden, twisting pain seized my stomach. The box slipped from my arms, scattering its contents across the wet pavement. I crouched to pick them up, but my fingers wouldn't stop shaking. I'd spent the past month working overtime almost every day, keeping myself going with coffee or a few bites of cold takeout. Over the past several days, I hadn't managed a single proper meal. My mother's call came again. The moment I answered, she asked, "Have you apologized to Allison?" "Mom, I don't feel well." "Well, I don't feel well either after the embarrassment you put us through last night." "I was fired." There was a two-second silence on the other end. "Why?" I didn't answer. My mother quickly put the pieces together. "Because of that video? Wait a minute. How did you manage to drag your private life into your workplace?" "I didn't." "Then why is everyone posting about you and not the other people involved?" My father said something in the background. My mother sighed. "Just come home first. You can look for another job later. Stop standing out there making a spectacle of yourself." The call ended. Grace sent me another voice message. "Come back. Let's talk this through. I'll go to your company and explain everything myself." A few seconds later, another message appeared. "But first, tell me the truth. Did you go on that blind date just to make me jealous?" I didn't listen to the rest. The rain grew heavier, soaking the documents in my box. I picked it up and joined the crowd crossing the street. The pain in my stomach kept getting worse. Even the red traffic light ahead seemed to blur and sway. Someone shouted behind me. I turned. A car making a right turn was already almost upon me. When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed. A nurse told me I'd suffered some scrapes and a mild concussion. They wanted to keep me for observation. I nodded and closed my eyes again. The hospital room door opened soon afterward. Grace hurried inside, her hair still dripping from the rain. She stood beside my bed for a moment before speaking. "You really did this to yourself over that woman from the blind date?" I said nothing. "You can find another job. You only met her once. Was any of this really worth it?" So she thought I'd ended up here because of Allison. I was too tired even to be angry. "Leave." Grace blinked. "What did you say?" "I want to rest." She remained beside the bed. "Evan, I came all the way here in this awful rain to see you. Do you really have to speak to me like that?" I closed my eyes and stopped responding. She seemed ready to say something else, but then her expression suddenly changed. Grace grabbed the foot of the bed and bent forward, pressing both hands against her lower abdomen. Ryan happened to be walking in. "Grace? What's wrong?" She shook her head. "I think my stomach hurts." Before she could finish, her body swayed. Ryan rushed forward to catch her. A nurse hurried in at the sound of their voices. She took one look at Grace's pale face, then noticed the bloodstain on her pants and immediately brought over a wheelchair. "Let's get you to the emergency department." An hour later, Ryan came back to find me. He stood in the doorway, his expression difficult to read. "Evan, Grace is pregnant." I opened my eyes. "How far along?" "Seven weeks." Seven weeks. I calculated the dates in my head. The baby had to be mine. The doctor said Grace had experienced bleeding and that the pregnancy was unstable. She needed to stay in the hospital for observation. Ryan studied my face. "Aren't you going to see her?" I pushed back the blanket and got out of bed. When I entered the room next door, Grace was lying on the bed. The moment she saw me, her eyes filled with tears. "The doctor says the baby's okay for now." I stood at the foot of her bed, making no move to come closer. She rested a hand over her abdomen, her voice growing softer. "Evan, this is our baby." The room remained silent for a long time. I looked at her. "End the pregnancy." All the color drained from Grace's face. "What did you say?" "I said we should end the pregnancy."