Page 75 of Tension

She looked at him, then hung her head.

“You're not the only one. I just keep asking myself how long I'm going to put up with this.”

“Baby, let's not worry about that right now. We're about to have a baby.” Brian tried to caress her cheek, and she pushed him away.

Tears ran down her face as she grabbed her stomach, a contraction ripping through her.

“Get him away from me,” she screamed.

The nurses took her back, and Chris, the security guard, came over to get Brian. He tried to fight back, yelling for his girlfriend, but Chris had him hemmed up and headed out the door.

A hand settled on my back.

“Come on,” Vel said calmly. “Let’s drop the kids off so you can eat.”

His face was neutral, but his eyes were watching me closely.

We didn’t speak much until we got into the car. I’d just had to ask the kids their ages on the walk over.

“The whole time I was with him,” I said, finally in the car, staring straight ahead, “he has an eight-year-old, a five-year-old, and one on the way…”

Vel stayed quiet.

“You don’t have anything to say?” I snapped, knowing my anger wasn’t really aimed at him.

“What do you want me to say?” he replied evenly.

And just like that, I started crying.

“Do you still want that nigga, Chris?” Vel asked calmly.

“Hell no,” I shot back. “I’m not crying over him. I’m crying for her.”

Vel exhaled, relaxing a little. “She knows he’s cheating. You saw the way she acted.”

“Vel,” I said quietly, “if you have to question me about Brian… do you even trust me for real?"

“You’re right,” he said without hesitation. “And I’m sorry. Don’t overthink it. I just got a little jealous.”

I took a breath.

“I’m pregnant.”

I couldn’t hold it in anymore.

Vel froze.

His eyes widened, then dropped to my stomach, which had definitely rounded out more than before. He’d been calling it relationship weight.

“But… you got that thing inside you,” he finally said. “Your birth control…”

I snorted through tears. “You pushed it too far up my cervix. It caused spotting that I thought was a period. The birth control became ineffective once it wasn’t in the right position. So, I had it removed when the spotting lasted more than seven days. That’s when I found out I’m about twelve weeks.”

“Twelve?!” He looked back at my stomach like it might answer him.

There was a long pause.

“What do you want to do?” I asked him.