Pinpricks

Prologue- One Month Before

I open my phone for the hundredth time today, just to make sure I didn't receive a message in the three minutes it was out of my sight. I sigh heavily and lay my head back against Lucas's plush futon.
"Still nothing, huh?" he notes sympathetically.
I shake my head.
"Look Mick, maybe it's time to give it a rest, hmm?"
This is Lucas's kind way of telling me that I'm wasting my time. And I am, I know I am.
"He'll get ahold of me," I insist. "When he isn't so busy."
"You mean he's busy preparing for his baby that's due literally any day now. You have to stop this, Mick. So he didn't choose you, it isn't the end of the world."
But it is.
"That's not even true, Lucas, he did choose me. It wasn't until after that we found out about the pregnancy."
Lucas shifts uncomfortably across from me in his recliner. I can see written on his face the words he doesn't want to say. I'm being stupid. I have been the "other woman" for the last eight and a half months of Katherine's pregnancy.
When Jared and I got back together after our seven-month split, I thought we were finally putting ourselves back on track. Gone were the days where we would scream at each other and cry and tear our hair out. Gone were those bitter moments where we would say hateful things to one another, and gone were the bruises, the flying fists. I thought we could really get somewhere with a fresh start. And it was wonderful. For a week.
Then he started acting distant, and I didn't know why. A few days later, he and Katherine sat down opposite me in Jared's living room- a united front. I thought he was going to tell me that he had cheated on me with her, that he had changed his mind about rekindling our relationship and that he wanted to stay with her.
The last thing I had expected them to say was that Katherine was pregnant.
I remained firmly in denial for weeks, but eventually I had had to face the truth. She was having his baby. That stupid, trashy bitch.
And so began my own personal living hell. When the two of us stole precious moments to be alone together, Jared would fuck me with fervor, filling my head with promises that he would leave her as soon as he could.
"I just can't abandon her while she's still carrying my kid," he would say. "After she has the baby, I'll do it. I was never as happy with her as I was with you anyway. I didn't want this. I love you."
And so I have spent several months patiently waiting. But it's been two weeks since I've heard from him. I've sent several texts, and I even dared to call on two separate occasions, but I haven't heard a damn thing.
Lucas doesn't say anything, but he gives me a pitying look. I hate that look.
I don't want to talk about Jared anymore, and I know Lucas is tired of hearing about it anyway. There isn't anything he can say to make it better, and we both know it.
He picks up the remote and pulls up Netflix on his flat-screen, selecting reruns of Archer. I'd bet good money he's seen every episode ever made at least three times apiece.
I breathe a sigh of resignation and open my Facebook app. I scroll through my feed for a minute or two, already becoming bored, and then I see it. It's the first snippet of information I've had since Jared went AWOL, and it feels like a cold drink of water to someone who has spent days in the desert. My heart pumps furiously.
It was posted by Jared's mom, Beth. It is a slightly blurry picture with an extensive caption, and I click to read it. The picture loads and comes into better focus. It is a newborn baby boy lying in an incubator, swaddled in a hospital blanket with a curious look on his face. He has bright blue eyes, like Jared's. My heart cracks a little at the sight of him.
"Adam Michael Cliff was born last night at 8:34pm, 7 lbs 3 oz, 18 inches long. I am so excited to be a gma again!!! Thx to everybody for the prayers and well wishes, Jared and his wife Katherine are doing great!! So proud of these kids XOXO!"
I finish reading the caption, then I read it two more times. Jared and his wife. Jared and his wife. His WIFE?
That fucking bastard.
I throw my phone violently across the room, scaring the hell out of Lucas and making him jump. I watch the phone make impact and shatter into a thousand pieces that scatter across Lucas's room like shrapnel. And then I start to scream.