Baby Dream Blocked, Ring Tossed
I'd been married to Joshua Merck for five years, but we still didn't have kids.
To stay healthy, I took those pricey custom vitamins he ordered from overseas—never missed a dose.
Then my cousin came back from studying abroad, took one look at the bottle, and was like, "That brand doesn't even make custom vitamins."
I sent them to the hospital for testing.
The lab report hit me like a truck—birth control pills. Powerful ones.
Suddenly, all those mornings with Joshua hovering over me, acting so concerned while I took my "vitamins," made sense. The whole thing had been a lie. Five years of lies.
Just as I was gearing up to confront him, my phone buzzed—a group chat notification. Shirley Hoare had tagged Joshua.
[Honey, I had a prenatal checkup today, and the doctor said I'm carrying twins! Your family's about to get two grandchildren at once—excited?]
My heart turned to ash. Everything clicked.
Fine. We were done.
I pulled out my phone and replied to my childhood sweetheart's message from three days ago:
[After watching the northern lights, I still wanted to see penguins in Antarctica.]