Chapter 3

03

Jacob thought the whole thing was ridiculous, but he went and paid the fee anyway.

The hour I spent waiting for the results was the longest sixty minutes of my life.

At last the ultrasound room door opened.

The doctor was staring at the screen, her brow slightly furrowed, and then it smoothed out, and something close to a smile touched her face.

"Relax. Don't be nervous."

"Doctor, is there something growing in there?" My voice was shaking.

"There is something growing." She turned the screen toward me. "Look, here, and here. This is the gestational sac, this is the heartbeat. Congratulations, twins. And from the shape and position of the two sacs, very likely a boy and a girl. You're already eight weeks along. They're developing beautifully."

For a moment my mind went completely blank.

Twins? Eight weeks?

I turned my head with effort and looked at Jacob standing in the doorway.

He'd been leaning in to peer at the screen, and when he heard the doctor's words he froze where he stood, like he'd been struck by lightning. His mouth fell open, those shrewd little eyes bulging round.

"What? Doctor, what'd you say?" Jacob rushed in, jabbing a finger at the screen. "That's… a kid?"

"Yes, they're children. Two of them." The doctor handed him the printout.

Jacob took the sheet with a shaking hand, looked down at it, then looked at me. His face changed at a speed you could actually watch, from shock to wild joy, and then, right after, into something like utter bewilderment and… deep suspicion.

On the drive home the air in the car was suffocating.

On the way there he'd been humming a little tune. Now he gripped the wheel, knuckles white. He drove fast but steady, and he didn't say a word.

I sat in the passenger seat, clutching that ultrasound sheet, my own feelings all tangled up.

Was I happy? Of course I was. For a woman who'd been handed a "death sentence," having her own children was something she wouldn't have dared to dream about.

But the fear was greater.

I'd seen Jacob's report with my own eyes, the one that said his natural chance of conceiving was zero.

Two people with "incurable conditions" suddenly hit the jackpot, and with a double at that. To anyone, that looked like one thing. Cheating.

The car turned into the villa complex and pulled into the garage.

Jacob didn't get out right away. He lit a cigarette instead.

"Miriam." He blew out a ring of smoke, his voice cold and hard. "I might not have any education, but I'm not stupid. You know exactly what I'm like in that department, don't you? The specialist told me to my face that in this life, unless a miracle happened, I'd never have a kid."

He turned his head, his eyes like a wolf's. "You tell me. These two kids, where'd they come from?"

His look stung me. I straightened my back. "Jacob, you're suspecting me?"

"What else? You think it was asexual reproduction?" Jacob sneered.

"I've done nothing wrong, and I've got nothing to hide! These two months I went to the school to teach and came straight home, I never set foot outside! I have an infertility diagnosis too. I want to know how this miracle happened just as much as you do! But you don't get to insult me!"

Jacob stared at me for a long time, then crushed out the cigarette hard.

"Fine. I won't insult you. But I'm not going to be anybody's fool either."

He took a deep breath, and his tone turned strictly businesslike. "The kids, you carry them. I'll feed you, take care of you, the best hospital, the best nanny, I'll get it all for you. But—"

He paused, and said it one word at a time. "The moment those kids are born, we do a paternity test."

"If they're mine, I'll kneel down and beg your forgiveness, I'll give you half of everything I own and put you up like a queen. If they're not…"

His eyes went cold all at once. "Then you walk out with nothing, and you take your bastards and get lost. This hundred thousand in bride money, plus everything I've spent these months, you pay every cent of it back to me, with interest."

I looked at him, tears welling up in my eyes, but I held them back.

"Fine! It's a deal!" I said through gritted teeth. "Jacob, remember what you said. When the time comes, don't blame me for making you kneel where everyone can see."

The next seven months, we settled into a long cold war.

My mother-in-law, on the other hand, was over the moon, hovering around me all day, finding new ways to cook me good food. She didn't know about Jacob's suspicions. She just figured her "miracle tonic" had worked.

Jacob kept a cold face, but he really didn't shortchange me on anything material. He just rarely came home, and even when he did, he only slept in the study.

I knew what he was doing. He was waiting. Waiting for the proof that would nail that "cheating wife" label to me for good.

And I was waiting too. Waiting to be proven innocent.