Fate Interrupted

29.1 - Ren's Confession

Gio

"Wait. What?"

"I mean, I can't. Gio. I'm infertile. I can't ever have kids!" A choked sob escapes from her throat, and her face screws up as raw emotion floods her.

"Oh, Bella!"

I gather her into his arms, and she crumples against me. Hiding her face against my chest, I hold her tightly as she drenches my shirt with her tears. Her acute anguish pierces into me, and my heart aches and bleeds out for her.

"I'm so sorry," I soothe, stroking her hair. Fuck. I don't know what else to say.

Did they split up just because they couldn't have kids? It's not like that's the end of the world. It doesn't make sense. It's obvious she wanted them, and I feel sorry for her... but I also feel...God—so fucking relieved!

After a minute or five, her tears let up. She sniffs and wipes her still watery eyes, turning them up to meet mine in the darkness—God, she's perfect!

"We watched the months tick by," she whimpers. "Stick after stick, being thrown in the trash. Every two weeks would be a cycle of meticulous planning & joyless sex, followed by impatiently waiting to test, which would inevitably end in defeat, heartache, and exhaustion—appointments, needles, hormones, uncomfortable expensive procedures, unending stress, and inevitable fighting. We just couldn't solve it."

She fans her chest, trying to keep herself together.

"I, we, tried everything... IVF... twice. The hormones gave me nausea and headaches. I was so stressed out all the time. I was having anxiety attacks regularly. We ran through our savings, our patience with each other, and our tears. We spent the whole down payment we had worked so hard to save—for nothing!"

"Oh, Bella." The pain in her voice strikes into my heart again. I hate hearing her so cut up!

"The thing we both wanted most in the world, I couldn't do it, and at the end of the day, it was all on me. My body doesn't work right! We ended up resenting each other. It's my fault. He wanted a family, and I couldn't give it to him—he left me for someone who could." She covers her face again as fresh, hot tears come bubbling out.

What the actual fuck? After all that she went though, he up and leaves her for another woman! Fucking asshole! My pulse rockets. Hot blood boils with anger inside me.

"I'm sorry, Lauren, it's NOT your fault. Did he tell you that? That makes me so...ugh—pissed off! I'd never treat you like that, never! He married you, not just someone who could make him a baby! I could tell he was a complete prick from his photo."

"You saw a photo of him?" Her head pops up, and she wipes away tears with the back of her hand. "How did you see a photo?"

"On Facebook, Ren. Where do you think? You had lots of photos of you two on there."

"But you're not on Facebook."

"Yeah, but Adam is..."

"I'm not friends with Adam on Facebook!" she refutes.

I close my eyes briefly to stop myself from giving her an eye roll. She is so clueless about internet security. "Hate to break it to you, Bella, but your account isn't very locked down. Any user on Facebook can see all of your profile photos, and you have unsecured albums on there, too... you should think about that."

"Oh..." her brow furrows thinking about that. "Well, anyway, what about you, Gio? Don't you want kids someday?"

Whoa, hold up. How'd this conversation suddenly turn on me?