Chapter 2: Greeting Nightmare...Again

The splashing of water was both music and noise to her ears. The

more she soaked in the shower, the more her teeth gritted due to

the frigid waters from the shower.

She quickly gets out from the freezing bathroom that even

her little circular mirror was shrouded in a mist as a result of the

cold shower.

She wrapped her slender body and her now-circular womb

in a forest green bath towel. Her eyes caught what seemed to be

falling from the outside sky that made her realize why the water is

wholly gelid—snow.

Today is the first day of snow in the city—the first day of

winter. Now, that’s what you call total misfortune. She only has

one thick jacket left for the first day of winter. Two, if you’re

gonna include Derrick’s trench coat that happens to be still in his

former home.

She will get their remaining things from the now-sold

house after her appointment from her ob-gyn. At least her ob-gyn

was the sister of her mother’s husband. The doctor was her

mother’s sister-in-law, to be simple.

Her mother volunteered to answer the expenses for her

check-up. At least in that way, her mother, who now has another

family, still manages to “care” for her since the death of her

biological father five years ago.

Minerva was definitely still lucky amidst her unluckiness

oozing up to its brim. She still has a mother that has still a bit of

kindness left in her heart—that is if she still has one.

Her phone rings. She was still munching her sunny-side

egg when Mariella called her. She seized a glass of lukewarm

water and immediately drank it in just a matter of seconds.

“Wait for me, Mariella,” Minerva muttered then shove the

remaining fried egg and French toast into her small mouth.

Before she could speak further, three knocks interrupted

her simple breakfast.

‘Perhaps it's Ella…’ Minerva mused. “Coming!”

When she opened the door, Minerva was flabbergasted. It

was not her best friend, Mariella Chu.

It was her mother.

“Hello dear! I came to take you to your doctor, who

happens to be my beautiful sister-in-law. I already phoned Mariella

as she was also having an immediate family matter to attend.”

Minerva was about to open her mouth but chose not to as

she remembered that she was still chewing her French toast and

egg—the only breakfast she had. Perhaps the only breakfast she

will be having from now on.

In less than an hour, Minerva and Rhea—her mother—

were now driving towards the hospital to which the ob-gyn was

waiting.

***

The hospital’s scent was new to her senses. She felt like puking on

the very floor of the elevator. Or was it just because she was

pregnant?

Either way, the meeting with her ob-gyn was absolutely no

problem. It’s about the bills that made her head totally ache.

“What’s the price of you helping me?”

Her mother briefly looked at her from head to toe before

answering. “Nothing.”

Nothing. That was all Rhea said throughout the entire time.

From the very moment they stepped in the hospital to the time that

her check-up was finished, her mother’s mouth was wholly shut—

as if she wittingly sewed it shut to avoid conversation with her.

Minerva cleared her throat before speaking again…alone

this time.

“Well, if that’s the case, I will still pay you as soon as I find

a new job. I resigned from the high school I was teaching the

moment I got pregnant.”

“The moment you got pregnant? Or the moment you were

about to give the pussy between your legs to a man named

Derrick?” Her mother’s voice was thundering in the midst of the

four narrow walls of the elevator.

It took all the remaining strength that was left of her in

slapping her blonde-haired mother. She was entirely insulted by

that tone, by her words. She said there was no price in helping her

during her pregnancy. Yet, it seems that a liberated scold was the

price she silently chose to offer Minerva.

To be honest, she could take her down and choke her to

death into the very lustrous floor of the elevator if it wasn’t the fact

that her words somehow resonates verity, that there is actually

truth in her words. Her mother left her for another man on the

verge of her father’s terminal illness. That’s how maleficent her

mother was and is probably until now.

Minerva absolutely gave it all up just to live under the same

roof with Derrick, who happens to be six feet below the ground

now. And her mother will just insult them for that, insult her for

that.

‘That is why they always say to never give your entirety to

someone, even if you love the person more than you do to

yourself.’ Minerva’s own words bounced into the walls of her

mind.

Her fists are still clenched, ready to punch her own gold-

digger mother who left her own family for another man—for an

asshole billionaire.

She was, in fact, the first to witness them having sex in her

own parents’ room. Imagine banging your other man in the bed

you and your husband shared. That was wholly awful, unlawful,

and definitely inhumane. That is also the reason why Minerva

chose to stay with her father aside from the fact that she cannot

bear to gaze at the eyes of her mother’s man—who also looks at

her lustfully, as if inviting her to be fucked as well.

Her attention drew back to her mother as the elevator

opened, signalling the arrival to the basement to where her

mother’s car parked.

“It’s not that, Rhea. I already had planned on resigning

beforehand. Besides, me and Derrick planned my pregnancy

anyway.”

That was a lie. Well, she would rather lie than to be shamed

more by this bitch who calls herself her mother. That is also the

reason why she addresses her in her own name rather than calling

her a mother. A mother is such an honourable and glorified title

and the blonde woman in front of her doesn’t even deserve a

second to be called one.

Minerva was about to say more when, in the corner of her

eye, she spotted the man that she had always prayed she would

never meet or see or smell again.