SINGLE MOTHER AND CEO

Two months later

Sofia:

Having completed four months of pregnancy, with a noticeable weight gain, I was lying in my room resting. I had finished drawing up the balance sheets required by the company that had hired me virtually.

My friends, for the past two months, had found work for different accounting firms, which required young, inexperienced recent graduates. This job offer was a blessing, since none of them wanted to return to their place of origin.

As I was about to go to sleep, because it is precisely between eleven and twelve o’clock in the afternoon that I get very sleepy, I heard the doorbell ring. I was surprised, because Shayla and Sheyli each have their respective keys and never arrive so early.

Ding, dong! ding, dong! ding, dong! ding, dong!

“Must be some neighbor or someone from the condo board,” I thought walking to the door, putting on over my pajamas, a baggy robe, which doesn’t so pointedly show my bulging belly, though it doesn’t totally disguise it either.

-I’m coming! -I shouted, hoping they could hear me, because the insistence on the doorbell caught my attention.

-Surprise! -my parents shouted when they saw me. Although, they were the ones who were surprised when they saw my overweight figure.

-Daughter! -cried my mother in astonishment, putting one of her hands to her mouth, “Sofia, are you pregnant? -she asked immediately.

My father’s expression froze, his face changed completely, it became bitter, cold, impenetrable. His gaze was fixed on my lower abdomen. My mother, on her side, began to cry, shaking her head from side to side.

They, stood silently with their eyes fixed on my lower belly. Suddenly, my father grabbed his chest and walked angrily towards me, intending to slap me, but I moved quickly, despite how heavy I am.

-Juan Carlos! -How are you going to hit him, in his condition? -She claimed- Argue if you want, but don’t raise your hand to hit her She’s pregnant! -she asserted.

None of them closed the door of the apartment, which is why some of the neighbors, who were arriving at that time for lunch, heard the screams and observed Sofia’s pregnancy, looking at her with astonishment, since she had not been seen for several weeks.

-Dad, Mom, I’m sorry! It was never my intention to put you through this embarrassment, but Aha! It happened to me, I can’t do anything about it,” she clarified, accepting her pregnancy, but thinking how to tell them the other thing: that she doesn’t know who the father is and that they are triplets.

“God! -I commented loudly, never imagining the arrival of this moment. I had ruled out having to give explanations to my parents, as I had thought about taking them to them when they were born, so that they could meet them.

-Whose is it? You, you have never presented us with a boyfriend,” my father questioned, breathing heavily and putting his hand on his chest, demanding an answer, “No wonder you did not want to assume your engagement with Jose David,” he said.

-At no time did I accept the engagement you made with your friend’s son,” I answered defensively and even arrogantly, despite my shamelessness.

-I am sure that if you had committed to him, this would not have happened to you, because Jose David is a gentleman,” he clarified, “Tell me, who is the father? I demand an answer,” he growled, walking back to me.

-I don’t know who he is! -I answered, leaving my parents astonished.

-How so? -asked my mother, puzzled and covering her face with both hands.

Dad froze, he didn’t react. He was surprised, as was she. However, his face was reddened with rage and anger that he was controlling, so as not to hit me. His eyes had a deep look in them.

-WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T KNOW WHOSE IT IS? -He shouted so loud, it echoed through the building and the window panes rattled.

-BECAUSE THEY DRUGGED ME! -I also shouted back angrily, remembering that if they had come to my graduation, surely this wouldn’t have happened to me, but it wasn’t worth it to add fuel to the fire.

-Did you file a complaint? Where did you go? -he asked as if he doubted the answer I gave him.

-No, I didn’t file a report. Because I wasn’t sure what had happened to me. I only corroborated it when the doctor diagnosed the pregnancy,” I explained, lowering my voice, trying to calm down, because the babies seemed to feel what was happening, I felt a lot of movement in my abdomen.

-This can’t be! -my father reproached. When I looked at my mother, she was in tears, she had not uttered another word so far.

My father, in a rage, threw all the ornaments that were on the table in the main room to the floor. So the condominium staff approached the apartment, to find out what was happening, remembering that this is an exclusive area, where no scandals are allowed.

-In my apartment I do whatever I want,” was the response of my father, who was threatened by the secretary of the board, so that he would stop his attitude and calm down. That was how my mother spoke again.

-Excuse me, sir! We will leave the place, to avoid more scandals,” answered my mother, “We are honorable people, who have never liked this.

-We will thank you, madam! -answered the secretary, with his eyes on me, because he was someone who always complimented me when he saw me coming down or going up to the apartment. I was surprised. “See you later, Sofia!

-See you later! -I said goodbye.

-By the looks of it, you’re about to give birth,” my father said.

-I’m only four months old,” I clarified, looking my mother in the eyes, who was only watching my father.

-Why have you put on so much weight? Are you controlling yourself? -asked my mother very seriously. Maybe she thinks I’ve started using drugs again, because the first and only time I did it, she noticed, because she was spending a few days here with me.

-God! I tell you, this has not been easy for me -I swore, adding- My pregnancy is multiple, I’m going to have triplets….All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

I didn’t finish pronouncing this well, when my father fell lengthwise on the carpet, short of breath, hitting his head hard on the furniture table and losing consciousness.

In the face of this situation, my mother became desperate, screamed and begged for help to take my father to a clinic. Neighbors who had been aware of what was happening called an ambulance, which arrived immediately.

The paramedic, upon examining him, began the resuscitation maneuvers. He started his pressure on the thorax, placed his hands on the upper abdomen and compressed downward in 30 repetitions alternating with two mouth-to-mouth breaths, covering my father’s nose and looking at his chest, I deduce to see if he was breathing.

When they found that he was, they rushed him down on a stretcher to the ambulance, which sped off. Meanwhile, my mother and I were behind the ambulance in my car. According to what the doctor told us, he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and it was all my fault…