Rachel raised the bottle to her lips and chugged down the wine.
She drank a little too fast, so wine spilled from the corners of her mouth, down to her jaw and her
slender neck, staining the collar of her shirt.
After a while, the bottle was completely empty.
She threw the bottle aside carelessly and it met the ground with a loud crash.
At that point, she was dizzy as hell and had trouble standing on her own two feet.
All of a sudden, she felt a stab of pain in her stomach.
Pale faced and gritting her teeth, Rachel started reaching for the second bottle, but as soon as her
fingers brushed against the glass, her stomach lurched violently.
"Ughh..."
She had just enough time to lean forward before her stomach emptied its contents on his own accord.
Her body rejected the red wine she had drunk as if it was a foul poison, its smell spreading in the air in
the room fast.
Rachel, still doubled over, placed one hand on her aching abdomen.
Beads of sweat dripped from her forehead to the ground and mixing with the bright red pool of vomit.
Victor felt the urge to stand up and help her, until a thought popped into his head.
"You are not fooling anyone, Rachel.I know what you are up to! Remember that day you made a scene
in the company because you were drunk as a skunk? And now you are telling me that you can't even
handle one bottle of wine? Please! Go on then.Keep drinking!"
'Damn it! The old Rachel is the one that made a fool of herself whenever she got drunk! Not me!"
Rachel thought, trying to breathe through the pain.
Her whole body felt fuzzy and ached, making it impossible to tell if it was just her stomach hurting or
every single body part.
But Victor seemed determined to force her to drink all three bottles.
When she straightened up, ready to reach for the second bottle, her stomach felt like it was on fire.
A wave of nausea came over her again and she couldn't help vomiting for the second time that day.
Rachel thought that her stomach would have nothing more to expel, but she was wrong.
Her body was purged from every single drop of alcohol she had so carelessly consumed.
In the end, she felt a little better.
The day had gone while all that took place and the moon had already started rising.
Victor hadn't turned on the light, so the room was dark, except from a few rays of bright, silver
moonlight.
One of those rays happened to be falling right on Rachel's face and only then did Victor notice her
sickly pallor.
"Ughh..."
Rachel's stomach made a final attempt to empty its now meager contents.
‘'Just one bottle and she is vomiting all over the place! That's weird...But wait a second; didn't she also
retch before even touching the wine?' He gave a searching look at Rachel, and a wild thought flashed
through his mind.
"Rachel, are you pregnant?"
Victor's voice came out hesitant, almost incredulous.
Rachel was trying to stand up straight, her hand gripping the sofa so tight that her knuckles had turned
white.
Victor's question shocked her to the core and her mind went blank for a moment.
"That night...We didn't use protection.Are you on the pill? Is there any chance..."
Victor went on, sounding doubtful.
The mere thought that Rachel could be pregnant with his child awakened an unprecedented feeling in
him.
Rachel came back to her senses then and smiled crookedly.
"So what would you do if I'm really pregnant, Victor?"
Her answer felt like a punch in his gut.
What would he do if she really was with child? He hadn't even thought of having a child with Rachel
while they were married.
In fact, he hadn't even thought of having children, period.
A year and a half ago, Rachel had climbed into Victor's bed in the dead night, sending him in a fit of
rage and kicking her out.
She had stood in the middle of the room back then, clearly embarrassed and in tears, saying that all
she wanted was a child of their own.
What had he said? The memory came back to Victor, clear as crystal.
"A child?" he had shot back.
"Rachel, who the hell do you think you are? Do you deem yourself worthy of carrying my child? Get out
while I'm still calm! And get it through your thick skull; you and I will never have a child together!"
He remembered the tears that had streamed down her face as she retorted.
"Who am I? I'm your wife, Victor.Why am I not worthy of being the mother of your child? Please...Let's
give it a try.What if..."
"No!"
Victor hadn't even let her finish her sentence.
"Even if by some miracle you did get pregnant with my baby, I would insist you get an abortion! There
will be no baby! Find a way to deal with that."
As the memory started fading away, Victor pondered if the answer he had given her a year and a half
ago still held.
Now that there was a high possibility that Rachel was really pregnant with his baby, he didn't feel that it
did.
"You don't really think I'm pregnant, do you?"
Victor remained silent, so she went on with a sarcastic smile on her lips.
"Well, sorry to disappoint you.I am on the pill and I even had my period in the meantime.There's
absolutely no chance I am pregnant."
As soon as she finished speaking, all the fight seemed to have left her.She reached out and took
another bottle of wine.
"Let's drink to that, shall we? It will also serve as further proof that I am not with child," Rachel added
bitterly
"Right.It was just one night.It's not that easy to get pregnant, is it?' Victor thought to himself.But still...
Why didn't he feel relieved when Rachel said she isn't pregnant? Why did he have that odd, empty
feeling in his stomach? Victor's feelings confused the hell out of him and that made him furious.
He narrowed his eyes and barked, "Get out!"
Rachel didn't wait around to be told a second time.She put down the bottle and practically ran out of
the room.
Just as the door was closing behind her, she heard the sound of glass smashed on the wall next to the
doorway.
In the elevator, Rachel leaned against the handrail weakly, her back all wet with cold sweat.
She raised her eyes to look at the floor indicator, her mind drifting as she watched the countdown.She
couldn't stop thinking about what Victor had just said.
Or that she had lied to his face! The truth was that she had forgotten to take the pill that night and as
for her period...
She didn't have her period yet.She was a few days late.She took out her phone and googled 'signs of
early pregnancy'.
Drowsiness, nausea, and loss of appetite was a few of the symptoms listed.
As she kept reading the list, she recalled all the weird things happening in her body these past few
days.
She was likely to fall asleep practically anywhere these days! Sometimes she just closed her eyes for a
second and ended up falling asleep without even meaning to.
And this kept happening in odd times during the day, not just when it was close to her bedtime...
She had thought that this was just a sign of exhaustion, brought on by her super busy days at the
office.
Now, though, she wasn't so sure.
Her frown deepened when she thought of all the days she had felt nauseated, vomiting for no good
reason and how little she was eating nowadays.
She looked at her pale reflection on the elevator doors and muttered, "It's impossible.
It was just one time.
Is it really that easy? So many women can't get pregnant after years and years of trying, and I did by
only having ¥ sex with Victor once? What are the odds? Slim to none I'd say! Yes, I am sure it's all in
my head..."
Two days later, in the office of Sullivan Group's CEO, Victor was still in a foul mood.
"Clap!"
He threw a pretty heavy folder to the director of planning department, who was standing right in front of
his desk.
The man caught it at the last minute, just before it landed on his nose and bowed his head so much
that his chin seemed glued against his chest.
"It's been two days and that's the best you can come up with? Take this garbage back and start again! I
want to see a proper business plan on my desk before I get off work tonight!"
Victor's order caused a shiver up the director's spine, as he used his most commanding voice, one that
broke no argument.
The man gave Victor a pleading look.
"Mr.Sullivan, could you please give us a little more time? All the employees in our department are
currently in the archive searching for documents and other things they need because there is no one
down there to help.
One day is a deadline we cannot keep, having to raid the archive and do over the entire proposal."
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