"Are you certain about this? What about your husband? Wont he suspect anything?" The grey haired man in a lab coat, with a quiff haircut had a worried expression engraved on his face.
Renée stared at the posters of pregnant women and little babies plastered all across the room. She reached into her bag and pulled out a fat white envelope.
"You must be desperate to have gotten such a large amount in such a quick span of time." The man remarked, picking up the envelope from his desk.
He took a look inside and found his jaw drop at the authenticity of the notes, he redirected his gaze at her, utterly dumbfounded by her tenacity.
"Just like I told you yesterday, we will not bear any risk incurred by both parties. Do you have any intention of meeting with him beforehand?" He pressed, clutching tightly to the envelope.
"No. Id very much like to limit all contact with him." Renée confessed, grazing her thumb against her tensed knuckles.
"We will contact you and the other party once a date is fixed." The man, assumed to be a doctor informed her, carefully placing the envelope into his drawer.
She made an attempt to leave, but stopped abruptly, a questioning gaze lingered in her eyes, as she sat back down.
"Will he really not want anything to do with the child?" The woman sheepishly asked for clarification, her hopes were hinged on this.
"Sperm donors like him are all pieces of scum, they never want anything to do with the children they birthed. I can assure you, hes most likely a veteran." The doctors assurance was the final push Renée needed to go through with her desperate plan.
"Thank you for your time."
"No. Thank you Miss." The elderly man corrected, flashing a mischievous grin on his face.
As Renée walked towards the parking lot, her mind flashed back to the conversation she was fortunate to hear, while she was running errands.
*Five months ago*
"Dont worry Violet, Im already at the Korean themed restaurant, the staff are looking into finding his phone. Ill return to the set once I get it." Renée said, then disconnected the call.
A group of five women had reserved the entire restaurant, and were happily chatting, paying no mind to the woman, dressed in casual clothing.
"It came as a shock, that such a prestigious hospital was involved in such scandalous things. And to think that actress pinned another mans pregnancy on her rich husband." One of the women, in a white tiger skinned coat exclaimed, faking her surprise.
Renée half listened to them, purely because the person involved happened to be a famous actress. If anything, she wanted to confirm her identity and keep such a lady out of her husbands circle.
"I hear her husband is sterile and wanted a divorce, she must have tried using a kid to tie him down."
"Aish. Doctors like that give me goosebumps, he still managed to keep his license and got off by paying a settlement fine."
"Really?"
"Here, Dr Anders." The oldest looking woman in the group pulled out her phone and flashed the mans picture for all to see.
"Oh my. Youre right, to think such an old man is involved with this. Some people really will just do about anything for money."
"Here maam." Said the waiter who had left a while back to look into finding her husbands phone.
"We apologize for not realizing sooner he had left it in the VIP room." The waiter carefully handed the phone over to her and even offered to see her out.
"Its alright, thanks for the help." She said and hurried out of the restaurant, determined to not disappoint her husband.
*Present*
Looking back on that day, Renée felt disgust towards herself for daring to deceive her precious husband. She shrugged her shoulders, slapped on some sun shades and walked out of the hospital.
She had the driver take her to a spa, then used the employee exit to leave without getting noticed. She flagged a cab to the spa and plugged her earphones in to calm her tensed nerves.
Feeling uneasy about the identity of the man who would just throw away his sperm like it was nothing.
***********
"You look stunning." Violet said to Mrs Curran, who indeed looked very elegant in the body hug black dress, with long side slits.
"Thank you." She replied, wearing the gold necklace her husband had gotten her the day right after their marriage. Her fingers fondled nervously with the necklace which rested idly on her chest.
"Mr Curran is already at the venue, he asked me to specifically bring you." Violet informed her, standing at the door.
"He left already? I thought we were supposed to go together." She knitted her brows against each other, as she slowly took cautious steps towards the door, her left leg still giving her trouble.
"Something urgent came up, so he had to rush over there." The woman said with a fallen countenance, Renée raised a brow at her dampened expression but decided not to push the subject.
************
Renée had noticed that the driver took a different route than the one he was meant to use. She knew these streets all too well and was sure that they were headed to the wrong place.
"You look tensed." Violet observed from the passengers seat, staring at Mrs Curran through the rear view mirror.
"Im just a bit flushed, Ill be fine in a minute." No matter how hard she tried, Renée couldnt shake off the bad feeling she had, as though something horrible was about to happen.
The driver eventually pulled over at a house, one she did not recognize, "where exactly are we?" She questioned, holding her phone tightly.
"Mr Curran asked to bring you here, he insisted he had something important to discuss with you." Violet explained, as the driver opener the door for Mrs Curran.
Renée looked around, drinking in her surroundings, the property was a secluded one, with a decent structural design. Her eyes landed on her husbands new Porsche parked in front, a clear indicator that this wasnt a kidnapping.
"Why does he want to meet here?"
"I dont know the answer to that question myself, he gave us clear instructions to leave immediately after you arrive. This is where we part ways." Her gaze softened towards the latter part of her sentence.
"Im not going away, Ill see you at home." The cheerful Renée reminded her, ignorant to the situation she was walking into.
"I hope so." Was all Violet could muster up courage and say, before she crawled into the white car and left with the driver.
A confused Renée hurried her steps towards the brightly lit bungalow house, eager to see how dashing her husband looked in the red suit she had picked out for him.
"Aines Aines" she called out to him, omitting the h when she pronounced his name. Renée had trouble with pronouncing the letter h, which was why she usually refrained from using her husbands name.
As soon as she walked inside, the very first thing her gaze locked on, was the luggage neatly place together, with two duffle bags by the side.
On the table, laid a brown envelope and a golden pen, which rested on a neatly placed document, just begging for a signature.
Confused, Renée picked it up and read the heading of what seemed to be a letter.
Not just any letter...
"Divorce?" She cried out in unparalleled shock, almost losing her balance and falling face flat.
"What is this?!" Her panicked fingers dropped the pen and paper in her hands, instinctively her feet took some steps back, till she ended up landing against something hard behind her.
Someone, rather.
"Aines, What are you trying to say?" She asked, fighting back the battalion of tears about to fall from her eyes.
Her husband took a step back from her, and dusted the invisible speck off his tailored red suit.
"Sign it." He said, applying force to his words, "once you do, take your bags and get out of my life." His merciless tone caused a shiver to run down her spine.
"Aines, why are you doing this to me? Im the mother of your child." She pleaded, rubbing her stomach as she spoke.
Haines scoffed at her and took a step forward, which made her take two steps back, they continued in that manner, till he had her backed up against the nearest wall.
"You can stop pretending now, I know all about what youve been up to when I looked away." He said, caging her in between his arms.
"What are you talking about?"
He hissed under her breath and mumbled something too muffled for her to understand. His behavior pointed that she had done something, and he had found out what it was.
"Do you not know? Or was it too insignificant for you to keep to memory? Tell me Renée! Was aborting my child such a trivial thing as changing clothes?!" He dramatically punched the wall beside her, causing her to whimper in fear.
"Thats not possible, I wouldnt dream of aborting our child. You know how much Ive always wanted to please you. Believe me, its not true." She reached out and cupped his cheeks in her hands, bringing his eyes to meet hers.
"Stop with the acting, Im an actor and I almost believed your words! Just how low are you willing to stoop?" He ripped off her fingers from his face and pinned them above her head.
"Aines, youre hurting me...Aines..." She struggled against him, whimpering in pain.
"Bloody hell! Could you just stop calling me that? Ive listened to you mispronounce my name for ten fucking years! Is that a lie too?" He lowered his head to her line of sight, a disastrous look in his eyes.
"I will never forgive you for aborting my child." He stated in a distinct tone, meaning every word.
"Sign it, and just leave me Renée."
On hearing his words, she stopped struggling against him and couldnt help but feel broken.