One

“I’m done!” 

The words were so familiar to her, yet so strange coming from her husband’s mouth. They had been married for less than six months, and although it was an arranged marriage, Nita thought her husband was starting to develop feelings for her, so what could have gone wrong?

She found it hard to process his words, so she stuttered confused, “Nick…”

She wanted to ask more questions, but he was done listening to her.  He pushed a brown envelop towards her, “This is the divorce agreement, sign it and the necessary alimony would be sent to your account. Isn’t that why you married me? For money”

Nita had never felt that low in her life. 

Yes, she was from a poor family, and their marriage was an arranged one, but she had never once thought about the wealth that comes from being Nick’s wife. She had gotten married for her grandfather’s sake and now she had developed feelings for Nick.

When she didn’t say any word, Nick continued, “I’ll leave this house for you as part of your alimony, but I don’t want to see you anywhere close to me anymore.”

He turned away from her and left. 

For few minutes, all she could do was hold onto at the agreement in her hand; it was not possible that Nick was truly letting her go. She didn’t want to read whatever was in the agreement. She didn’t want to see her name and Nick’s in the divorce agreement. 

She felt her leg give way as she fell on the floor. 

One of the maids ran towards her, “Ma’am, are you okay?”

She wanted to reply. She wanted to ask her to call Nick back, so she could ask him more questions, but she felt dizzy and soon everywhere was dark.

When Nita opened her eyes back, she was in a room with beeping monitors. She adjusted her gaze to the room and saw the maid she had spoken to last sitting beside her with her hand covering hers.

Nita tried to speak, but her voice was hoarse. She cleared her throat before asking, “Where’s Nick?”

The maid sighed, “Ma’am we are at the hospital. You collapsed suddenly.”

She didn’t care about that as she remembered the divorce agreement Nick had given her. She forced herself up, although she still felt weak, “I need to see Nick. Now!”

The maid tried to hold her down, but she was too strong for the maid. As she opened the door to leave, the doctor came in with a wide smile on his lips. When he saw her leaving, the smile was replaced with a frown, “Where are you going to Mrs. Grimm?”

Nita couldn’t bother to answer the doctor as she tried pushing her way out of the door. 

The doctor sighed, “You don’t need to stress yourself, Mrs. Grimm. You’re pregnant and collapsed due to stress. Doing anything stressful is dangerous at this moment.”

His words stopped Nita from pushing through the doors. 

As if of its own accord, her hand moved protectively towards her stomach: a baby between her and Nick. A smile formed at the tip of her mouth. There was no way Nick would want to divorce her after finding that out. She needed to tell him about their baby. 

She thanked the doctor and rushed out of the hospital. 

The maid rushed behind her worried that something might happen to her on the way if she went alone. 

Nita called a cab to take her to Nick’s estate. She knew he wouldn’t be back in their house. He might be in one of his apartments in his estate. 

To her, it felt like the driver was taking a whole lot of time to get to his estate, so she kept trying to call his number. 

He didn’t pick up her calls. 

He had made it clear that he didn’t want to see her and he was pushing through that. She knew he wasn’t the type to change his mind so easily, but this – her hand rested on her tummy – was enough to change his mind. 

When she got to the estate, she started running through each of the apartments. She had no idea exactly where he would be, as she had only stayed in the estate once, and that was during their wedding. It was a low key wedding that took place in the estate with only family members, so she barely knew her way around here. 

As she stopped at each apartment, she hoped to bump into someone who would tell her where he was, but she didn’t. She was beginning to feel tired and dehydrated, when she opened the door to the next apartment. 

She stopped at the door. She heard weird sounds coming from the room and that altered her steps. Every apartment she had been in was silent. She had no idea why Nick had so many vacant apartments, but she once heard the whole family spent their holiday there, so it’s justifiable. 

She moved slowly until she stopped at the door. She waited to listen to those weird sounds again, but there was none. Nita sighed in relief and placed her hand on the door. She hoped Nick was in here this time around. With the last courage she has, she forced the door opened. 

Nick was there but he wasn’t alone, beside him were two ladies whom she couldn’t tell if they were naked or not. Nita steps failed her. It hadn’t been that long he brought her the divorce letter and he already moved on as if she meant nothing to him; maybe she does meant nothing to him.

But she had felt a connection between them during the last month; they had spent every night in each other arms. So, what could have happened?

She placed her hand on her tummy. Her child doesn’t deserve a father like this, it deserved way better than someone who would disregard them.

Nick had stopped to stare at her, but he didn’t say any word. It was as if he didn’t care that she had caught him. 

Nita moved back slowly until she was out of the apartment, then she started running out of the estate. The maid that followed her had just arrived at the estate in a different cab. When she saw Nita running, she ran after her, but before she could catch up with her, an oncoming car hit her.