Memories like that one had happened more than once.
My nose stung, the ache low in my belly sharpening as the thought dragged me back to the present.
"Felicia?"
Greg pressed me again, his eyes fixed the whole time on the pill in my hand.
"Just take it, would you? If the drug shows no problems in a pregnant woman, I'll have the overseas R&D team produce a batch right away."
I nodded, staring straight at him.
"All right, Greg. You won't regret this?"
He didn't follow.
"Regret what?"
"You won't regret it if our baby miscarries?"
"Felicia, stop overthinking everything. You're not like Sophie. You're young, your embryo quality is good, you're at the perfect age to have a child. Sophie's carrying a mixed-race baby, so her embryo is naturally more delicate. Yours won't miscarry that easily."
"And what if it does?"
He answered without hesitation, pushing the cup to my lips.
"There's no 'what if.' I already told you, even if you miscarry, we'll have more children later. Sophie's different. It's not easy for her."
Not easy again?
I didn't say anything more. I swallowed the pill in one go.
Nothing. The pill wasn't as bitter as my life.
He kept me at the company for half an hour of observation, and then Sophia called on video and pulled him away. She heard I was there beside him, and made a point of calling out to me a few times over the line.
"Fee, lend your husband to me for a bit, would you? The morning sickness is really awful. I can't keep down anything anyone else makes, only the porridge your husband cooks. Send him over to make me some."
"Sure."
I kept my voice flat. I'd already made up my mind to have nothing more to do with her.
"No need to say 'lend,' it's too formal. Just take him."
Sophia paused for a second, then broke into an easy laugh, so loud that Greg fussed at her in alarm.
"Can you laugh a little more quietly? Aren't you afraid of startling the baby? Always so careless. Would it kill you to settle down a bit?"
"Fine, fine, fine."
She turned coy, her playful face filling the screen, sticking her tongue out to clown around.
"It's only because you take such good care of me that I get to be careless. Enough talk, I'm hungry, hurry up and come."
Greg was already itching to go. If he could walk through walls, he'd have been standing in Sophia's kitchen already.
Before he left, he ran through a few instructions: send him an update on how I felt every half hour, and write down anything the least bit off.
I agreed to all of it with a smile. Once he was gone, while there was still daylight, I took a taxi to the hospital's OB-GYN department again.
Only this time it was different. I registered with gynecology and asked for an abortion.
The doctor saw the dead look on my face and didn't ask much, assuming I'd run into some impossible trouble, and wrote up the surgery order right away.
I lied that my husband was dead, signed for myself, and walked out with the termination medication and an appointment slip to be in the operating room at nine the next morning.
"Take both of these once you get home. The drugs will start working after about half an hour. There may be some pain and some bleeding, that's normal. Come back tomorrow in comfortable clothes and we'll do the procedure."
It was simpler than I'd expected.
The moment I stepped out of the hospital I took the pills, then calmly caught a taxi home.
I'd barely gotten in the door when Sophia called on video. The camera was aimed at Greg, in a flowered apron, bustling around the kitchen like he was her husband.
"Fee, I completely forgot to ask you and Greg over for porridge at the start. How about you, is the morning sickness bad these days?"
Before I could answer, Greg cut in from his end with a sneer.
"Her? How could she be as fragile as you. She's as sturdy as an ox."
