“Serena, move in with me. ” He pretty much demanded, surprising me by his choice of words. How could someone switch up like that so easily?. “Are you drunk?” I asked him and felt anger taking over. This time I wasn’t going to fall for any of his stupid games or promises. “No, you don’t want to accept the check and I don’t want my baby to suffer so move in with me. ” He spoke once again and all I could do was keep quiet. How could he say all of this when he was the one who told me to abort the baby?.  “Christian, do you remember what happened the last time when you said that you were going to take care of the baby and me?”. I had hoped for him to refresh his memories, but instead, he acted as those words had never been spoken. “Things have changed, if necessary I’m ready to fight for you and the baby,” Christian said, making me even more confused. “Fight, seriously? What the hell are you even on about!”. “Christian listen, I don’t trust you. I think it’s a bit shady to me that you’ve suddenly had a change of mind and I know that you don’t care about me so who says this is not just some kind of sick scheme for you to kill me?” I asked him and was looking forward to his explanation. “Serena you’re carrying my baby, so I have no choice but to care for you until the baby is here-“. “So you’ll kill me right after?” I chuckled in disbelief. He had no shame whatsoever in telling me his true intentions and had no reaction at the word 'kill'. “Listen, I’m not going to live like some sort of prisoner and wait for you to kill me or take away what’s mine after the baby is born. So I’m begging you, please just leave me alone!”. “Serena. I wouldn’t let you live like a prisoner. ” He tried to defend himself, doing the bare minimum. “Christian, do you hear yourself? You’re not even sure about what you want and you’ve already broken your promise once, so my answer is no. I don’t trust you and I don’t want to end up in a ditch. ” I tried my hardest to reject his offer in the calmest way possible, but he just wouldn’t take no for an answer. “Then marry me!” He suddenly spoke and it took me everything I had to not drop my phone. “M-marry?”. “Yes, I’ll introduce you to everyone as my fiancée so you know that both you and the baby are safe and after the baby is born we’ll cut off the engagement. I just want the baby to be safe. His words came as a shock to me and were completely unexpected. It felt as if he never thought things through and just went with the flow which was something I was extremely against. “Just so you know, killing fiancées is also a thing. “It’s not out here. If I’ll lay one finger on you or take away the baby everyone will disown me so you’ll have my guarantee that nothing will happen to you after the baby is born

All I want to do is make it easier for you, think about our child. ” He spoke as if I was the bad guy. “All I’ve been doing has been thinking about the baby, but I can’t say the same about you. I told you not to contact me anymore. ” I finished and hung up the phone before he could say anything else. Him coming back on this offer was extremely tempting, I was having a hard time at work and only having to worry about the pregnancy instead of money sounded like a good thing, but I couldn’t. Not after the disrespectful names, he had called me, and not after he had already broken his promise once. Disown?. Would his family really disown him fo r killing a knocked up stripper? If an ything they would praise him for that. Because of the phone call and Vincenzo dragging m e to his office some time had gone by and I was p retty sure that I was close to missing the subway. Eager to get home as soon as possible to hide under my blankets a nd the cold weather I ran as fast as I could. There were only abo ut five minutes left and the next one would be in thirty minutes. After what felt like running for a couple of h ours I had finally made it and took a deep brea th while closing my eyes.  One more minute. Exhausted from all the running I leaned my head against the wall and closed my eyes as I tried to push away the sudden dizziness I felt. My heartbeat was raising and I tried my hardest to calm down, but the sound of the train pierced through my ears, causing me to lose my balance. Before I could even real ize what was happening I felt my eyes close and out of instinct had immediately covered my hands around my stomach before I was met with sudden darkness. I heard several footsteps rushing over a nd tried to focus on the voices I heard while all I could think of was the baby. ‘Give h er some space’ . ‘Miss, are you okay?’ . ‘Someo ne cal l 911!’ . Blurriness was all I could see when I tr ied to open my eyes and heard a beeping sound.  That’s right, I had fainted. With all the power I had, I t urned my eyes and looked at a girl who was holding my phone. “My baby?” I whispered and saw ho w she had turned around to face me with a startled look on her face. “Oh my god you’re awake, your baby is completely fine, please wait here I’ll get someone to check up on you!” She spoke in a hurry and ran out. Hearing the news that my baby was doing fine made me feel guilt y because I knew that I was at fault. None of this would have happened if I had used my brains for once. I knew that all I had to do was listen to my body which was telling m e that I was overworking myself, but instead I ignored it and only th ought about myself while thinking it was in the baby’s best interest. “Hmm, you are awake!” The doctor smiled and walked over wit h the girl from before who still had my phone in her hands. I looked from the phone to her face and saw her frown at me. “Oh, there was no one in the system so I contacted your two last contacts, I texted a guy named Vincenzo and called some other guy who I assume is probably the baby daddy, but I don’t want to assume anything. anyway they’re both on their way and here you go. ” The girl ranted and gave me back my phone while I saw my life flash in front of my eyes

Forget about Vincenzo, n o one cares. She cal led Chri stian. He would not let me live for screwi ng up like this. While the doctor did a few more tests and checked up on the baby I prepared myself for what was about to come and was ready to ac cept anything Christian would throw on me, because I deserved it. If I had accepted his check, taken advantage of his mone y as he had offered, moved in with him— and sat down on the couch the entire day, none of this would’ve happened. The only thing which made me nervous was that he was also not aware that I had been working my butt off. I was grateful for the fact that he had als o agreed that he was invading my privacy and ordered Marc to stop checking up on me, but also bummed because if he never did then he wouldn’t have to find out about me working at a factory like this. I had even expected Vincenzo to tell him because they were friends, but for some reason he didn't. Before I got a chance to properly than k the girl for sticking by me she had already left me alone with the doctor. “Serena!” I heard a voice call out as the door opened and my eyes m et Vincenzo’s. He walked over to me, ignoring the doctor’s existenc e. “How are you doing?” He asked me and brushed my hair to the side. “She is fine and your baby is fine, so no worries. ” He sp oke and walked out of the room to give us privacy. The cl ueless doctor probably thought that he was the baby daddy. “B-baby? I-I thought you. ” Vincenzo questioned and quic kly realized what was really going on. “Serena. if I kne w you were pregnant I wouldn’t have let you work at all. “It’s alright, it’s my fault and not yours,” I told him. No matter how pushy I might’ve seen him as he had to know that t his was not his fault but mine instead for being so reckless. “It’s not, I should’ve known and I’m so sorry. ” He apologized once again. “Are you really okay?” He asked and brushed my hair to the side with a sympathetic look on his face. Even though I didn’t want to see anyone in this state and had acted cold tow ards him, he had probably dropped everything on his schedule to make sure I was alright, and for that, I could appreciate him. “I’m fine, I promise. ” I smiled back and stared into his eyes, but the only thing I co uld find behind them was regret. I had never truly thought about how my actions could also hurt others. “Serena, I’m sorry for everything up until now. please forgive me. I started to feel bad about how I had been treating him and thought it would’ve bee n the best to probably forgive him. After all, I was the one who lied to him, he as ked me about the test and I told him that I was not pregnant. “Don’t worry it’s o-“ . Just as I was about to accept his apology we got interrupted by the door getting sl ammed open by no one other than Christian