06

“Goodness Gracious. What have you been doing? Why are you crying your eyeballs out?” Mia said as soon as Ruby opened her apartment door. A few hours earlier, Mia had received a phone call from Ruby, asking her to go to her house immediately. Mia could not figure out what emergency it could be. She had practically begged for permission from her superior at the company. And rushed over soon after she was allowed to take the day off.

Ruby did not speak anything and silently walked inside the apartment. She plopped down on the bed. Her tears rolled down without any break.

Mia noticed that and quickly moved closer to Ruby. She hugged her best friend and rubbed her back without speaking anything for now. Calming down Ruby was on her agenda for now. She could talk later.

After a while of crying out loudly, Ruby calmed down enough to speak. Mia handed some water to her. Ruby sighed and rubbed her eyes, wiping out the rest of the tears..

“So, are you ready to talk?” Mia asked softly. She did not want Ruby to howl again with tears streaming down like waterfalls. Ruby sniffed her nose and nodded her head.

“Remember yesterday night’s phone call with the hospital?” Ruby asked. Mia nodded her head remembering the late night phone call that had woken them up.

“I went to the hospital today. And they conducted a pregnancy report. And it read that I am pregnant,”

Mia stared at Ruby with confusion. Was it not the goal? Ruby did not say anything until Mia gave a reaction. So, Mia gathered her thoughts and spoke, “I am not understanding this Ruby. Getting pregnant was the aim right? Why are you crying now?”

Ruby closed her eyes, scolding herself in her mind for not giving proper explanation. “The doctor said that the semen tube that was supposed to be used for me was accidentally misplaced and somehow got swapped with some other semen tube which was given for the test.”

Mia blinked her eyes trying to digest what Ruby just said, “So, you mean, you are pregnant with someone else’s baby and not from the person you were supposed to?”

Ruby nodded her head. Mia leaned back on the chair. She simply could not understand how on earth can the hospital staff be so irresponsible.

“What did the agency say?” Mia asked, wondering if the agency can find a solution to this problem.

Ruby shook her head, “Lily had come to the hospital but after hearing the news, she excused herself saying about an emergency at the agency and left. She never returned. Maybe I should call her now.”

Mia knew by now that the agency was definitely not going to help Ruby in any way. The manager escaping from the hospital was a clear clue to how the agency will handle the situation. But Mia did not dare to voice out her thoughts. She stayed silent while Ruby dialed the agency’s number.

“Yes, tell me Ruby. What is it?” Lily’s voice came from the phone speaker. “Well, what do we do now?” Ruby asked. She was nervous for a reason.

“About what?” Lily asked as if she did not know what had happened.

“What do you mean by About what? Don’t you remember what has happened?” Ruby said in a louder tone. She did not understand why Lily was speaking this way.

“I am sorry this happened to you. We will find a different surrogate to the Hudson couple. But we are unable to sort this out for you.”

“What am I supposed to do now?” Ruby asked anxiously. She simply could not wrap the information in her head. Is the agency really trying to get themselves out of this mess?

“I can only suggest that you talk to the other party whose baby you are carrying and see what you can do further. We will be terminating the contract between you and the Hudson couple tomorrow.” With that, Lily disconnected the phone call.

Ruby began weeping again and louder and more intense than before.

“We can solve this, Ruby. Don’t worry,” Mia said.

“How are we going to find a solution to this? I’m doomed for life and I have no idea how I am going to survive?” Ruby said while fresh tears streamed down her cheeks. She could feel her eyes swollen and it was aching.

Mia sighed, getting off from the couch. “You need some sleep right now. Please get some rest and we will talk about it later. I am sure we will find a solution for it.” Mia attempted to put Ruby into sleep. She rubbed Ruby’s back and patted her head trying to soothe her.

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Gabriel looked around the bar trying to spot Luke. Earlier in the evening, Luke had called him to the bar to talk about something important. Gabriel did not understand why Luke was so anxious as if the sky were to fall on his head.

Gabriel quickly spotted Luke in one of the bar stools. The bar was a bit crowded so he had to squeeze in between the people to reach Luke.

"I thought you were on medication and did not drink anymore," Gabriel said, taking a seat next to his friend. And then he signaled the bartender for his drinks. It was the regular that the best buddies visited, so the bartender was aware of their orders.

"Fuck medicines. I am going crazy," Luke muttered and chugged down his drinks in one go and ordered another one.

Gabriel chuckled, "Easy there, Champ. What happened? Anything serious?"

Luke nodded his head, "Very serious. As serious as it can be."

Gabriel hummed while he took his drinks. "Tell me what it is?"

"Remember the time when the hospital staff had misplaced my sample?"

Gabriel remembered it very well, "Oh you mean the semen sample?"

Luke hissed, "Don't say it so loudly." Gabriel could not help but laugh at his best friend's embarrassment. It seemed like this whole medical test scenario was making Luke as embarrassed as he has ever been.

"Okok. I won't say it loudly. Now continue your story," Gabriel said, ordering more drinks for himself and Luke as well.

"So, the mystery of his disappearance has been debugged. The staff happened to have swapped it with a sample that was supposed to be used for insemination."

"Like IVF or something?" Gabriel questioned.

"Something like that. But in this case, a surrogate is involved. And she is pregnant right now-"

"With your baby," Gabriel completed the sentence for Luke.

Luke nodded his head, "And the worst part is that the surrogate is the girl that we bumped into a few weeks ago at the coffee shop."

Gabriel's eyes widened at the new information. How coincident can this be? He wondered.

It took a good amount of time for Gabriel to digest every piece of information. By the time he was ready to speak again, he had done some calculations inside his head and had chugged down a few more glasses of alcohol.

"This girl, what does she do?" Gabriel asked.

"Apparently, she is an orphan. And she is struggling to make ends meet. She is also earning and saving for her final year of graduation in the university. And she had a few part time jobs which she dropped in plans of being a surrogate mother."

"That's the entire history of her," Gabriel commented. "I had my personal investigator look her up. He did not have to do much work. Everything was transparent about her," Luke replied.

Gabriel hummed acknowledging Luke's words, "Why don't you try to take advantage of this situation to your benefit?"

Luke looked at his friend with confusion. "How can I get benefits from this situation? She is carrying my child."

"Exactly. She is carrying your child. You can make a proposal to her asking her to pretend like your girlfriend and not to terminate the baby, that is if you want to keep the baby. And also tell her that you will support her financially as long as she is your baby's mother. I'm sure you can support one human being. And she sounds like she is nice since she is working so hard to make a living and not get into any dirty business. And more importantly, you can shoot the idea of your stepmother of getting you hitched with her Barbie doll niece."

Luke took in everything Gabriel said. The idea sounded fairly good. They both can have a life and also keep the baby. Luke was sure that his father would be very happy since his lineage would be secured.

A wicked smile made its way onto Luke's lips. Gabriel joined him in the plan. The buddies clunked one last glass of alcohol before they called it a night.