4

I was lifted off the bed and onto a gurney and the medical staff moved swiftly as they prepared to take me to the labor room. I felt a surge of fear mixed with pain as I was wheeled out of the room, Jared's voice echoing behind me, still refusing to consent to the emergency cesarean section.

"Let her push the baby out naturally," he insisted, his words still cold and unyielding. I tried to respond, to tell him to stop being ridiculous and sign the papers, but my voice was hoarse and barely audible.

I heard his mother's voice and could tell she had arrived the hospital. I hoped against hope for her to atleast be on my side as a mother and to convince her son to sign the consent form but what I heard from her broke me the more.

"She will do as my son says. A C-section is too expensive. Who would you expect to pay the bills? My unemployed daughter-in-law?"

I tried to forget what I had heard her say to the nurses still trying to convince my husband to sign the consent form and neither could I believe it. I was unemployed? When I made her son whom he was from my inheritance. The C-section was expensive? Wasn't it from my assets that the fees would be paid. She spoke as if she didn't know all these and as if she didn't know her son became whom he was today because of me.

We reached the labour room and I felt like I was being torn apart from the inside out. The contractions were intense as I got induced for labor and I could feel the baby's distress. I tried to cry out but my voice was barely a whisper. My body was paralyzed with pain and I couldn't move or scream.

The doctor's voice was calm and reassuring, but I could sense the urgency beneath her words. "Push, Esmeralda, push!" she urged.

I tried to push but my body felt like lead. The pain was suffocating me and I felt like I was drowning.

I heard Jared's voice faintly.

"You can do it, Esmeralda," he said, his voice devoid of emotion. "Just push like other women do. Why do you have to be so different"

I tried to respond, to curse him and to threaten him but my voice was caught in my throat. I was helpless and unable to speak or move. All I could do was lie there, trapped in a living hell, trying my hardest to push. To give my son the chance of living and raising him right, and being different this time around.

I felt a surge of adrenaline and my body responded pushing the baby out with one final, excruciating contraction. I felt a sense of relief wash over me, but it was short-lived.

Tears fell from the corner of my eyes as I heard the slapping sounds on a body.

"He's turning blue, we need Oxygen!" I heard one nurse say but the doctor had been engrossed with me trying to revive me.

I felt my spirit come out of my body and I stood watching as the doctor tried frantically to save me from the shock.

I noticed the nurses give up on my baby and in a few minutes after, I saw the doctor giving up on my body as well.

"Stand up Esmeralda! Stand up!" I urged my body. "This isn't going to be how it ends. This won't be your end. You need to have your revenge. You need to take back all that is yours. They didn't value you, didn't you see? You need to wake up and take back everything from them" I rushed to my lifeless body and cried but regardless of what I did and said, i couldn't go back in to my body.

"She had a cerebrovascular accident which resulted to a maternal shock and caused her death" I watched her sadly tell my husband.

" What about the baby?" Jared asked her his voice devoid of emotions and his hand not leaving Victoria whom he held tightly.

The doctor was hesitant for a moment before she finally spoke. "He had a hypoxic- ischemic encephalopathy""

I didn't need her to finish. I knew. I could feel it. My baby was gone.

"And died from the lack of oxygen" she completed, trying hard to refrain herself from blaming him for what had happened.

I could see her lips twitching and knew very well that it had been what she wanted to say but bridled her tongue not to.

Jared's eyes drooped slightly and he let out a slow, deliberate sigh. "Esmeralda is so lazy," he muttered, shaking his head. "What woman dies from having to push out babies?" His voice was laced with a hint of disdain and his eyes flicked briefly to Victoria, who stood beside him, her hand tucked into his.

For a moment his gaze lingered on her and his expression softened, before he turned back to the doctor, his face a mask of pretended concern.

"I'll take them" he muttered and proceeded to leave the hospital premises with Victoria by his side.

As they walked out, I followed them and overheard as he called a funeral home for my body and that of my baby's to be incarcerated.

"I don't want the remnants of her being us ill luck" he had told Victoria as the entered his car, the car i had bought for him as a wedding gift.

"Who are you calling?" Victoria asked him as she noticed him dialing another number and I listened attentively to know as well.

They were inside the car but my Spirit stood outside the car and watched them.

"My lawyer, Victoria. I need to know which of our names she wrote in her next of kin" he muttered.

I couldn't believe my ears as I heard that. I had finally died and here was nothing else obstructing him from transferring my inheritance to his name. Wasn't that enough for him to be convinced I was never returning and for him to throw a befitting memorial service for my baby and I?

Was he still concerned about my inheritance and my next of kin a few minutes after I died from his refusal to sign a C-section consent form?

Victoria leaned towards him and they locked lips in a passionate kiss. Jared's hands roamed over her body with his fingers tracing the curves of her waist and hips. As they kissed, he pulled her closer and slid his hands under her skirt.

I watched in disgust as Jared's fingers began to fondle Victoria's breasts in the car and his thumbs rubbing against her nipples. Victoria moaned softly, her eyes closed in ecstasy.

Jared's hands moved lower, his fingers slipping under Victoria's skirt. He began to finger her and his movements were rough and urgent. Victoria's moans grew louder, her body arching against Jared's.

I felt a wave of revulsion wash over me as I watched the scene unfold. How could Jared be so callous and devoid of empathy? Hadn't he just witnessed the death of his wife and child? Didn't he care that I was gone, that our baby was gone?

I was lost in my thoughts for a while that I did not notice a vehicle coming through. I wanted to run out of the way but then a thought flashed through my mind reminding me that I was already dead.

Thus, I didn't move out of the way but my surprise came when the car hit me and I fell, unconsciously to the floor.