Desmond turned and walked briskly through the hospital corridors. His thoughts were tangled and heavy.
As he got closer to his mother’s doctor’s office to collect her medication, he couldn’t stop replaying his encounter with Anabel. Her coldness, her denial, and the sharpness of her words had left a mark he couldn’t shake.
She had insisted the child wasn’t his, calling him impotent. A word that hit like a dagger, even though he refused to believe it. Deep down, he was sure the baby was his, but doubt lingered at the edges of his mind. Could she be right? Could there be truth in her statements? The uncertainty gnawed at him as he tried to focus on what he came to do.
Meanwhile, Anabel stepped out of the elevator into the bustling hospital lobby. She hasn't stopped thinking about what Desmond said.
Desmond’s words about Vanessa’s surgery played on a loop in her head, rattling her confidence in Sylvester and Vanessa’s story.
She hated to admit it, but the seed of doubt he had planted was growing, coupled with her experience on the last visit. Sylvester had been too clingy to Vanessa as if they were lovers.
"Could it be true? Could Vanessa and Sylvester have been lying to me all along?" She shook her head as if to dispel the thought, but as she walked through the sliding doors and into the sunlight, she felt an unsettled urge to verify.
She needed to confirm the truth. She needed to know whether Vanessa had really undergone surgery. She owed it to herself to know, no matter how much it hurt to question her trust in Sylvester.
Her car was parked just outside the hospital’s main entrance, gleaming under the afternoon sun. Desmond's mother sat in the passenger seat, scanning the stream of people exiting the building. Bella, who was lounging in the backseat, had her head down, scrolling through her phone, seemingly uninterested in the world outside.
Suddenly, Mrs. Elizabeth straightened in her seat as her gaze locked onto a figure that was walking toward the parking lot.
“Bella,” she called abruptly, “look over there. Isn’t that Anabel?”
Bella glanced up, and her brow furrowed as she followed her mother’s pointed finger. She squinted for a moment before she recognized the person her mom was pointing at. “Yeah, that’s her. And she’s actually pregnant. She's pregnant!"
"So she is carrying my son's child, my grandchild,” she murmured softly, more to herself than to Bella.
"What should we do? Should we go and meet her?"
"We should go and apologize to her now. Let's go!" She said, and without waiting for Bella’s response, she pushed the door open and stepped out of the car. Bella didn't hesitate and joined her. Anabel, who was lost in her own thoughts, didn’t notice them at first.
"Hey, Anabel!" She heard someone call her name from the back and turned. When she saw it was Desmond's mom and his younger sister, she hissed and went on towards her car.
"Anabel! Please wait!" Desmond's mom called again, but she ignored her and kept walking. She reached her car and slipped into the back seat. She wasn't in the mood to talk to any of them.
They approached her car, and Desmond's mom reached the driver’s side window and tapped gently, calling out, “Anabel! Please, wait!”
Bella joined her, pleading, “Anabel, come on! Don’t ignore us!” But she ignored them.
“Anabel!” Mrs. Elizabeth called again. Her voice was softer now, almost pleading. “Please, just give us a moment. We are sorry. We need to talk.”
Bella knocked harder on the glass window. “Anabel, please! Just roll down the window!” But she wasn’t ready for this conversation. Whatever they wanted to say wasn’t going to change her mind or her decisions. She glanced at them briefly through the tinted glass before turning to the driver beside her.
“Take me out of here!"
The driver nodded, started the engine, and began to pull out of the parking space smoothly. Mrs. Elizabeth and Bella stepped back instinctively as the car moved forward. They watched helplessly as it merged onto the road and disappeared into the distance.
Bella crossed her arms and frowned, “Well, that was pointless.”