He Kept Me Barren, Yet Had Kids

For five years, I was married to Joshua Grayson. He was known as the gentleman of the tech industry and was never arrogant. In fact, he was always cool and collected.

A shame we never had any children of our own. I asked every single doctor I could get my hands on, but nothing helped. For that, I kept beating myself up.

Joshua told me that it was fine if we had no children, and that what mattered was that our souls were perfect for each other. We did not need any children to secure our bonds. I believed him.

And then I found an unsealed box of Plan B in a secret space in his study. It looked exactly the same as the vitamin tablets he fed me all the time.

A phone sat under the box. The screen was a photo of him with his top secretary, Yvonne Wellington. It was a family of three.

Then, a message popped up on the screen.

'Our girl's born, Joshua! Haven't thought of her full name yet, so we'll call her Cece for now.'

'Oh, right, you fed your wife contraceptives for five years. Now that we have a perfect family, you should kick her out and make me your wife instead. When's that going to happen?'

The message hit me like a lightning bolt that came out of nowhere. To think I wasted five years beating myself up for never getting a baby. To think I looked forward to one. And now, everything was crumbling around me.

Decision

"Welcome home, sir!" The servant greeted Joshua. He was back.

I tucked the phone and meds back into the secret space and closed it up. At the same time, the door swung open.

Joshua saw me, and a frown furrowed his brows. "It's late. What are you doing in my study? You should be sleeping."

He was still caring and warm, as if he hadn't cheated on me and had a family out there. He approached me. "You look awful. Did work get to you?"

He wanted to touch my forehead, but I stepped back without thinking and evaded his touch.

His hand hung midair, and a hint of surprise flickered in his eyes, but only for a moment. Then, he composed himself.

"Nothing. Just missing you too much, and it was keeping me up, so I wanted to find something to read here. Well, you're back now, so I can go to sleep.

"Get some rest too. Don't let me wait."

The last sliver of my composure was the only thing that kept me up as I wobbled out of the study. As I returned to the bedroom, I thought about the private clinic Joshua owned.

The doctors there were the ones dealing with my apparent infertility.

…

It was 3:00 am. Joshua was sound asleep. I crept out of bed as quietly as I could and contacted a nurse who used to work there. Yvonne's meddling shoved her out of that place.

Her name was Jessica Oliviero.

She said yes to my request.

"I can pull it, off the record." Hesitating, she continued, "Are you sure you want to see this, Ms. Ferrero?"

"Yes," I replied. "I'm sure."

Then, I got the copy. Every single stat showed that my body was perfectly healthy, but at the end of every single report was a special request. Every single one of them was signed by Joshua.

'Continue the special multivitamin treatment,' the request read. 'Make sure she takes it once every day. No interruptions allowed.'

I knew something like this was going to happen, but the sight alone drained all my strength. I collapsed to the ground, shaking uncontrollably.

Five years. For five years, I took the 'multivitamins' not knowing it was a contraceptive. And I was dreaming about raising a family with him. A family with children.

I had to suffer the looks his mother gave me, and the one who told me that matching souls was the most important part in a relationship already had children of his own.

"Don't give yourself too much pressure. Children or not, it won't change what we have, Angelica. We're having it good even without children."

Those were the things he told me when I needed something to soothe me. My brain kept replaying it again and again. It was nauseating. Vomit-inducing.

Then, I grabbed my phone. "Mr. Wesley? This is Angelica Ferrero." I continued calmly, "I'm getting a divorce."