When Zed slammed the door shut, I went out of the room. But then I felt a cramping sensation in my lower abdomen. I hurried upstairs to rest, ignoring Zed's calls.
This was what I was too scared about. That this constant nervousness and tension I went through would eventually bear me down and risk my pregnancy. I forced myself to sleep, hoping that this cramping would be gone when I wake up. But somehow, the symptoms persisted until morning.
I took a quick shower, preparing myself to see Dr. Mitch. I also wondered where Zed had gone to, but I shook it off, thinking that Zed wouldn't want to see me after that conversation with Kim.
I was already pulling out of the garage when Ara called.
"Where have you been? Zed had been drinking all night."
"Zed? He doesn't drink," I argued, but Ara insisted that he did.
"He fell asleep here on the porch. He thought you would come here after running away."
"Don't wake him up," I said. "Let him sleep so that he'll forget the pain when he wakes up."
"What's your plan now?" Ara asked further, her tone worried.
"Nothing."
I ended the call and went to Dr. Mitch's clinic. But the secretary told me she was at the hospital in the next city, and wouldn't be back until next week. I didn't want another doctor to see me, so I went after her.
"Miss Yen, your condition is not good. You should take a bed rest," Dr. Mitch said after running her probe around my lower abdomen.
“What is it, doc?” I asked, looking at the black and white view of my inner uterus.
“I find something that might threaten an abortion.”
I knew it. I wouldn’t feel this menstrual-like cramps if there was no problem inside.
“For a while, I’ll save this video first.”
I watched Dr. Mitch as she ran her fingers on the ultrasound monitor. She looked calm and beautiful, but all of a sudden, she furrowed her brows.
“Were you admitted to this hospital before? What’s your maiden name again?”
I also answered her nervously, wondering what it was that she found out about me. She then stood up and ran her fingers on the intercom.
“I need Miss Yen Perez’s previous records right now. I’ll send in her details through our portal.”
“What happened, Miss Yen? You looked stressed,” Dr. Mitch diverted my thoughts from that call. Why would I have a record in this hospital when I had never set foot here before?
“Maybe due to the pressure of work,” I lied. I could never tell her the chaos of my personal life.
“Could be.”
The Medical Records Department was fast. In less than ten minutes, my records were already in the hands of Dr. Mitch. She flipped on the pages, then looked at me.
“I remembered the first time we met. It was because you were still a virgin even after four months of marriage. But the record here says you underwent a surgery called, “Hymenoplasty.”
I trembled right away after hearing this. Even without the doctor’s explanation, I knew that it was a surgery to repair a torn hymen. And it was so frustrating and shameful to remember that I had been thinking I was a virgin. This was also one of my questions when Kim came into my life. If we were married five years ago, then why would I be a virgin?
“Miss Yen, I don’t understand. Why did you do this? And why did you pretend you were a virgin before?”
I immediately broke into tears after seeing Dr. Mitch’s frustrated expression. “I also don’t know, doc. I lost my memory.”
Her jaw dropped open as she glued her eyes unbelievingly on me. I then narrated to her my story in a brief way. After hearing me out, she looked down on my records again and said,
“Your informant during this admission is Mr. Zed Ramos.”
I lost my strength at this revelation. If Zed wasn’t guilty, he wouldn’t have hidden so many secrets. I cried aloud, not minding anymore that I was in front of Dr. Mitch. She reached out and pulled me up, encircling me in her arms afterward. But even with that comfort, a burst of fluid broke out from my orifice and down into the draw sheet.
I then felt a sharp pain in my lower abdomen, radiating to my back. I screamed at the top of my lungs, and then my environment turned black. Different scenes then floated in my mind, including that scene in the hotel.
I saw myself screaming as that man forced himself on me. But since I no longer had the strength to fight, I just cried hard and let that man exploit my body. The door then opened, and I saw two men entering the room. One of them was Zed. I wanted to ask for help from him, but my environment turned black again. I didn’t know how long I lost my consciousness -- I only saw Zed later, hovering over me. He only wore skimpy shorts.
___
I no longer knew what happened next -- I lost my consciousness. I only wake up later to find Zed staring at me worriedly. His eye bags were swelling as well, and his eyes were red. It looked like he was crying.
“How’s our child?” I asked.
“I’m sorry, dear.”He broke into a sob and shook his head. I understood then that we lost the baby.
“Why are you sorry, Zed? After all the many things you have hidden from me? All this time I was thinking that you were a saint. I even fought for you and asked Kim to forget me.”
“I’m sorry. It’s because I don’t want you to worry.”
“So, you admit that you were there on the night I was raped? And you were one of them? You even hide the evidence in our stockroom.”
“Dear, please calm down. We will talk about it later.”
“I don’t want to see you anymore, Zed. From now on, everything between us is over.”
“Yen, it’s not what you think - “
“Really, Zed? How can I believe you after those hundred lies you make?”
“I may have lied, Yen, but there’s one thing that I didn’t.”
“What? That you’re a great deceiver?”
“That I truly love you.”