Hey everyone. So, given the fact that I've been working on this story for roughly two years now, I don't wanna end it any time soon. I have some pretty good ideas for where to take this and I want everyone to bear with me. I promise that you'll get some good chapters, many of them will be short because I really don't like going over 2,000 words in one chapter, I feel like that's overkill especially because updates will become more and more frequent. I hope all of you enjoy the pregnancy route as I'm afraid I've lost a lot of you for making that choice. Tell me if you enjoy this chapter or let me know if I've lost your interest as readers. Thank you - "MJ123"
After a long while, they sat at the kitchen table together, across from each other as if the whole ordeal was some kind of formal business meeting. Norma was the first to break any form of silence as her husband still seemed stuck in the shame he felt for keeping the baby a secret.
"You can't say that you're surprised here," she said, her tone slightly bitter, honest. She refused to show him sympathy when he lied to her about something so big. It killed her to know that he was still capable of keeping secrets even with vows locked down. She was always fairly honest with him now, it was a major double standard.
"Mm," he grumbled softly, perching up in his chair, "Actually, I can. As a forty year old man, I can say that I'm pretty shocked that we're expecting. I mean...c'mon Norma, did you really think that we we're gonna get pregnant?"
His tone upset her quite a bit, who was he to get angry with her about this situation? "It wasn't on my mind, no. But I never heard you complain one bit when it came to sex without birth control. Aren't you supposed to have condoms handy whenever we-"
"Don't even start with that, Norma. We are both to blame there, okay? I don't see you popping a little pink pill every morning to keep pregnancy out of the picture. How could you blame this on me?" he asked, his tone sharper than intended. Though he didn't really wanna fight with her, she was pushing him, and Alex hated it when she pushed him on certain things. It brought him back to when they first met and she was an overbearing pain in the ass. He was madly in love with her now, but regarding the topic at hand, she was being bitchy. Silently, he wondered if this was hormones already coming out to attack him.
She scoffed and shook her head, "I'm not blaming you. I'm saying that if you were this protective over preventing pregnancy, then you would've cared and took more initiative when it came to things like condoms or pulling out."
"And with that statement, are you saying that you didn't care about preventing pregnancy?"
"I wouldn't care if I was pregnant or if I wasn't pregnant. But here we are and I am pregnant and I'm trying to get excited about it. You're here and practically making it impossible for me to enjoy this. I know it's still early and everything but he or she is gonna be here before we know it," she added, thinking about how quickly the time during pregnancy goes by. The fastest nine months are always the one's spent expecting.
He sighed and stood from the table, "So you're just making the decision here? This baby is gonna be here, right? No other options besides what you want?" the words flew bitterly from his mouth as he gripped the side of the table. No way he would be ready for this baby, not even close.
"Other options, huh?" she asked, standing as well to face him, "You want me to abort it? Get rid of it and pretend it never existed and just move on, happily married to you? I would never ever fucking do that, not to my child!"
"No one said the word abortion, Norma! I'm a cop! I know plenty of families around here that would love to have a baby to adopt!" he shouted, not giving any care in the world about how loud he was being.
"You want me to give our child up for adoption? Send it off to someone else though we are perfectly capable of taking care of it here?" she asked, her eyes on the verge of tears.
"Norma," he began, pinching the bridge of his nose and sighing, "I just don't think we-"
"Answer the goddamn question straight up. Do you wanna give our child up for adoption?" she asked, her voice dark with intent though her face read something totally different.
"If that's what's best".
She shook her head, "I knew it, I knew you weren't the perfect man for me. So why don't you just get the fuck out of here, leave me and your child in the dust while you go off and live a life with no responsibilities. Leave me if you don't want this baby because I don't want to raise another child in an unhappy situation."
"I'd never leave you, Norma. I promise, okay? I'm just not ready. I'm not ready to be a father and I'm not ready to take care of a two people, keeping you both content and happy…" he trailed off, he wished he could tell her more, he wished he felt more confident in there love to tell her the darkest reasons behind why he didn't want to keep their baby.
"I don't wanna stay with you if you don't wanna help me raise our baby, I just want to be happy."
"I know, I know that. I wanna make you happy, I'm just not ready for a baby," he repeated, hoping that she would understand and agree to some kind of alternative.
"Do this for me," she began, seeming to calm down a bit, "Stay with me throughout this pregnancy, okay? See where we are and how you feel in about eight months and if you're not happy, you can leave. If you're okay with the way things are, then you can stay here with me and your baby and we can all be a happy family."
It was an ultimatum. Something Alex gave to the people he arrested. The more he thought about her offer, the sadder he was. It was an agreement to think things over and see where it left them. He wanted to be with Norma more than anything else on the Earth but he couldn't handle the thought of being a father.
"Alright. I'll take you up on that. I'll do whatever you need, whenever you need it because I'm yours and I promised to take care of you in our vows."
"Sounds like we have a good deal here," she said, walking away from him casually after a few moments.
"That we do."
Please leave a review and let me know what you thought of this chapter!
