Chapter 25: Chapter 25

Emma has been crying for hours. She kept remembering all the times she had spent with her little brother, how they used to play together and how he’d come to her room to spend the night whenever he was scared. She couldn’t believe that after much effort to save his life, he still didn’t make it, was she that horrible as a sister? Emma thought. She didn’t want anyone bothering her, that was why she refused answering the door whenever Anna came to check on her.

Richard came home quite early that day. He needed to rest, because his client’s case was further adjourned to next month. On his arrival home, Anna welcomed him and told him that Tracy received a call earlier today and went out, but when she came back, she had gone straight to her room and hasn’t come down since then. She was worried because Tracy hasn't eaten all day and she hoped she hasn’t done something dangerous to herself because it looked like Tracy received some bad news.

On hearing that, Richard rushed upstairs to the bedroom. He opened the door and found Tracy on the floor wrapped up in a ball, crying. He has never seen Tracy this way and he couldn’t help but wonder what may have caused it.

“Tracy?” he called

As soon as Emma heard Richard’s voice, she ran up to him and hugged him, crying even harder. He held her tight as if to say everything was okay but her crying didn’t stop.

“Tracy, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”

Emma pulled away from the hug and looked into Richard’s eyes, which held concern. She desperately wanted to share what she was going through with him, but she couldn’t risk messing things up like Tracy had warned her.

“I need you Richard”

As soon as she said those words, she began to kiss him. She needed a distraction from everything. She felt so bad doing this but she needed him this way.

Richard didn’t want to force Tracy to tell him what happened, maybe she would tell him when she felt better, so he went along with her request and made love to her that night.

It’s been three weeks since Emma lost Raymond. She hardly spoke to anyone. She managed to bury his remains in secret. She barely ate anything and that made her weak. She decided to eat something to stop her frequent dizziness, so she asked Anna to prepare some Mac 'n' Cheese for lunch that day. She went to the dinning room to eat and felt like throwing up on seeing the meal but she ignored it and took her first spoon, the feeling came back, so she ran to the bathroom to puke her lungs out. When she was done, she looked at herself in the mirror, she couldn’t believe how pale she had become, then it hit her.

‘Oh my God, I haven’t seen my period. No, it can’t be!’

Emma became even more pale at that thought, so she went into the closet to put on something more appropriate and left the mansion to the nearest pharmacy. She came back with a pregnancy test and rushed into the bathroom.

After waiting for several minutes, Emma dreaded to look at the result, hoping her imagination won’t become a reality, but to her displeasure, the result turned out positive. She tried several times but the results were the same. Emma’s knees felt weak, so she slowly slid down the bathroom wall and sat on the floor.

“This can’t be happening right now” Emma cried

She had no idea what to do. She tried calling Tracy again but her number still wasn’t going through. She wondered why Tracy would even think of giving her a phone number that was unreachable. She quickly cleared the bathroom, because Richard would be home soon and she didn’t want to risk him finding out.

Richard got back home that night. He went into the bathroom to take a shower. Emma came into the room to let Richard know that dinner was ready but she noticed that he was still in the shower, so she decided to wait. Richard walked out of the bathroom.

“Tracy, are you pregnant?”

Emma was shocked at that question. She turned to see Richard with a pregnancy test in his hand, she didn’t know what to say. She kept staring at the pregnancy test like it was some ghost. She pondered whether or not to tell him. An abortion wasn’t an option for Emma, then she thought about Tracy, she knew Tracy wouldn’t be happy at all about this, then there was Richard, he was the father of the baby and deserved the right to know.

Richard was waiting for Tracy’s reply. He was hoping she’d say yes to his question, but at the same time, he was praying that she hasn’t done something stupid because he knew how much she kicked against starting a family.

“Richard, um… I… um. Yes, I'm pregnant” Emma stuttered while replying

Richard couldn’t believe what he just heard. This was like a dream come true for him. He walked up to her, carried her bridal style and spun her around before speaking again.

“Are you being honest with me right now?” he asked

Emma nodded. Then he kissed her and said

“Thank you Tracy. Thank you so much for this gift”

Emma hoped and prayed that she wasn’t wrong in telling Richard about the baby.