Chapter 172 - The Intruder... Will Be My Intruder - mddos
Verónica
She was on the verge of making one of her usual mistakes. I didn't say anything, just looked at him, waiting for him to speak.
"Don't play dumb," he muttered through gritted teeth. If those were the words coming out of his mouth, I can't imagine the truths swirling in his head. "Do you want me to be specific?"
"Be careful with what you're about to say, Roland. Think before you speak."
"How could you get pregnant?! You've ruined everything!" My heart broke a little. I thought of my child; I had to be strong. "We're going right now to get rid of that intruder, because it's going to be a huge burden." That was the last straw for my sanity. His watch started beeping. "That's right! Go ahead! Call your heroes. I don't give a damn who comes. You're going to fix this problem!"
My eyes filled with tears. If I matched his anger, it could affect my baby. The tears started to fall.
"I'm sorry, I didn't expect this either, but the abomination you're asking me to do, I will never do."
"Verónica!"
I didn't look away. With a heavy heart, I finished saying what I needed to and what was essential to clarify.
"Maybe it's easy for you to end a life, but for me, it's impossible. And I won't try to kill the result of the love between us. Even if it costs me my marriage, my child will be born!" He furrowed his brow, and his watch beeped again. "You have to decide. I stay by your side, or we separate, but at no point will 'my child' be a topic of negotiation. My baby will be born, though it's a shame I can't call it ours." The tears kept falling, but I didn't look away.
"Don't challenge me, Verónica!"
"I don't give a damn what you think. I'll defend my child from any idiot!" I shouted, and he punched the wall. "Is that your final word?"
"I don't want you with that intruder."
My lips started to tremble. At that moment, Inés arrived, drawn by the shouting. Roland turned his back and left the room.
"Inés, pack my clothes."
"Ma'am..."
"He asked me to have an abortion." She covered her mouth. "He doesn't want me with an 'intruder.'"
"Vero..."
"I won't kill my child, so it's best if I leave." My hands were shaking. I knew it would be complicated, but not to this extent. "I'm going to the gynecologist's appointment. Help me pack. I'll come back for D'Artagnan. That's the only thing I'll take."
"Are you going to leave us? Ma'am, you're trembling. You're not well. This isn't good for the baby."
"Help me."
I quickly packed my clothes, crying the whole time. How dare he suggest that to me? We took the suitcase downstairs, put it in the truck, and I drove off. Keep your composure. I caressed my belly.
"We'll be fine, love. Daddy will love you too." I didn't have time to go to my mother-in-law's house; I'd do it after the appointment. I had driven far enough from the ranch...
......
Roland
I entered the office, knocking everything over in my path. I had been happy, looking forward to spending the afternoon by the stream with my wife, and it turns out she got pregnant. So much for being prudent!
"If you really love your wife, follow her. She could have an accident on the road or have another psychological breakdown!" She left? I looked at Inés.
"Did she leave?"
"Sorry, Roland, but now you've really turned into a true..." My old lady was angry.
"Now you're going to defend her?"
"It's not about defending! Things happen for a reason. She didn't conceive that child alone, remember that a part of you was inside her."
"We had an agreement!" I left the office, and as I reached the living room, Miguel walked in. "One of my wife's heroes has appeared!" I said sarcastically.
"What's with that tone? And don't mess with me today, Roland." Diana watched the confrontation and stood by Inés.
"Miguel, please follow Vero. She left in a terrible state, and she took her clothes." When Inés said that, something exploded inside me.
"She did what?" I asked.
"You gave her an ultimatum. She did what any good mother would do, choose her children."
"So, Verónica is pregnant!" exclaimed Diana. I looked at her with a desire to kill.
"What did you do to her, Roland?"
"I didn't do anything! I just told her to fix that damn problem."
Miguel came at me like a bull, and before I could react, he landed two punches to my stomach, knocking the wind out of me. I fell to the floor.
"Who put that child in her womb, you big idiot?!"
"She probably did it on purpose," I replied as I got up. If he hit me again, I would beat him to a pulp.
"Aren't you the one who takes her to get her shots? No contraceptive method is entirely reliable. Haven't you thought that maybe it happened for a divine reason? Is it Verónica's fault that the method failed?" I didn't respond, he was right. "Tell me, oh great Roland," he exclaimed mockingly. "Did your intelligence vanish from your brain?"
"I don't want that intruder."
Miguel stared at me. They respected me, but when it came to Verónica, they were different... They were friends, they defended her, even from me.
"Don't tell me you said that crap to Verónica."
"I told her to fix the problem."
"What if your wife dies in the process?" I started to breathe heavily, I would die if I lost her.
"You shouldn't think too much about who Veronica chose," Diana intervened. "You've been very reckless, Roland. I want to think that this reaction of yours is due to emotional imbalance. I don't believe that a man who did what he did for love would ask his wife to abort the result of that love. Are you willing to lose her because of your stupid negligence? Or lose her because you made her choose?"
A wave of remorse crushed me, I even felt like crying, but I showed nothing.
"Miguel, son. Please, find her."
Ines pleaded. Miguel left the house after kissing his wife on the forehead. It seemed strange to me, they were always kissing and touching each other at any moment. Their goodbye was very simple.
"Is it impossible for you to imagine having a child with the features you adore so much in Veronica?"
Diana was putting images in my head that I didn't want to have, but my brain, instead of blocking them, sent me a beautiful girl with those honey-colored eyes and light brown hair that, when the sun hit it, showed golden highlights, the ones I adore so much. I tried to hold back the tears. I became a bastard again.
"Veronica won't be coming to sleep tonight, and I don't know where she'll stay."
Ines' words made that image vanish. Tonight I won't sleep with my wife?
"Roland, you've behaved like a... I don't want to offend Consuelo, but you've behaved as if you had no mother! She came down this morning happy, saying she didn't expect it, that a piece of you was being created in her womb and she would defend it with her life. Lord God... What test is this? Are you going to throw away your marriage because she chose to defend your child?"
"I don't..."
"You're going to Dr. Saray's clinic right now, she's the gynecologist who will see your wife this afternoon. If you manage to get there in time, maybe you can fix the stupidity you committed. Veronica knew you'd get hysterical, so she was going to start addressing the issue today to avoid giving you the news all at once, but you see..."
"Nothing goes as I plan." I smiled. "You always surpass yourself. I've been scum, no child would be proud of me," I finally confessed my fear of being a father.
"Children love their parents not for what they did in the past, but for what they do from the moment they exist," Diana said. "So, will my son hate me for my past? I trust he will admire me, I kiss him all the time to show him a new image of myself through my actions. Is it so hard for you to see the act of bravery your wife is showing by defending your child? She is defending your blood, your legacy, your descendants. Such is the love she professes that she defended that little fruit of the love of her life."
"I..."
What the hell was I going to say? A few minutes ago, I wanted to kill anyone who crossed my path, now I felt like the biggest bastard in the world. Lord God, what do you want from me now? I don't want to lose Veronica, I would die without her, and if I have to accept this intruder... well... he'll be my intruder.
"Are you going to stay here or go find her and apologize?" I looked at Miguel's wife.
"Come with me, Diana," I said finally.
"You're starting to come to your senses."
She replied. We went out, and I had to wait a bit for her to get settled, she got into the passenger seat as if something hurt.
"Are you okay?"
"Yesterday, to prevent Isaac from falling down the stairs while he was crawling, I threw myself to catch him and took a hard hit, we already went to the doctor, they prescribed ointments and anti-inflammatories."
"Good to know now that... was I thinking of saying parents?"
At the clinic, Veronica was standing, talking to a doctor at the entrance of the office and her two guardians, my mother holding Milena, and her look said it all, she wanted to give me two lashes. I have to confess... I deserved them, now I have a clear head and I know I messed up big time.
Luisa rolled her eyes at me while feeding Andrea. My nieces were identical, only their mother could distinguish them from birth, I don't know how she did it, but to me, they were like two peas in a pod, anyway, while we figured out how to identify them, the solution was; Milena wore purple in all its shades and Andrea wore the typical pink.
"Veronica, come in, who is the father?"
"I am," I said. My friends looked at me with furrowed brows and my wife ignored me.
"Are you going to behave?" Rata, as always, confronted me.
"The two punches I got from Miguel were enough, as was the moral lecture from Diana and Ines."
"I hope so, bastard." He gave me a pat on the back, not as a greeting, but as a warning.
"Doctor, if this fool does anything stupid in your office, let us know."
The doctor, a woman in her fifties, made a face that seemed like a smile.