Reborn as a Mom

Chapter 1 I'm pregnant

In a dark unit room was a woman lying on her bed. Her puffed red eyes revealed endless pain and despair. Tear stains on her pale cheeks unveiled her desolation.

‘Everyone left me one by one; my child, my brother, my dad, and now my mom. They’re all gone. Faded away from my life one by one.’ Her heart was numb.

‘All that’s left for me are the pain and guilt of the past with no hope for the future.’ She wore a bitter smile on her face.

Dragging her tired body to the bathroom, she splashed water on her face. The cold water didn’t seem to calm her restless heart.

“It won’t wash away the stains on your conscience.”  A self-depreciative smile appeared on her face as mocked the face in the mirror.Searching for sleeping pills in the cabinet beside the mirror, she made up her mind.

‘If I take them all, will I get my retribution?’ Her heart was already dead. After making this decision, she felt relaxed.

As she turned around, her eyes fell on the dustbin nearby. Noticing something familiar in it, she picked it up.

She stood frozen on the ground.

It was a ‘pregnancy strip.’

A pregnancy strip with two red lines on it!

She grasped it tight upon picking up, afraid it’ll disappear, and it would be an illusion. Confused why such a thing still existed in her cold bathroom, she turned her head to look at the mirror again.

The woman felt her head exploding; her numb heart started beating again. A familiar yet unfamiliar face appeared in front of her.

What she saw was a woman in her prime, her glossy tousled bob cut shined under the light, and her pale face had a hint of glow. It contrasted to her then long unkempt hair and lifeless countenance.

“I had this haircut many years ago… Didn’t I…?”

She touched her face. It was clean and clear of any wrinkles and dark circles.

She stroked her clothes; a white full-sleeve shirt and a black skirt reaching her knees.

A formal dress she used to wear while going to the office.

‘What’s going on?’

Baffled, she ran from the bathroom to the bedroom, living room, and then to the study.

Yes, it was her old home or rather, her ex-husband’s house. She saw the date on the calendar hanging on the wall.

Reborn. Furthermore, it was a decade ago when she was 28!

She was bewildered.

‘Is this…real? Not a dream…?’She slapped her face, to wake up.

The woman verified the date again and again from the calendar.

While she stared at the calendar for a few minutes, in her mind, a thousand thoughts raced. She finally acknowledged the fact that God gave her a second chance at life.

‘Everyone is still alive at this point. I definitely won’t let the tragedy of the past repeat itself!’  She clenched the strip.

Moreover, I am pregnant…

‘The two lines on the result window of the pregnancy strip which felt like prison bars to me in my last life will be my wings this time.’ She thought with a great deal of determination.

She caressed her belly, “Baby, thank you for coming to me again. Mommy is sorry for not appreciating you in the past.”

The woman was Ira Luis who believed she deserved death for her sins. With her last relative, her mom gone, she had no will to live.

She was trying to kill herself, but God gave her a chance to right all the wrongs she committed in her past life.

Lost in her thoughts, the woman stood stunned on the spot when she felt a warm hand gripping her wrist.

The pregnancy strip fell on the ground.

“Are you… pregnant?” An anxious but sharp voice broke her chain of thoughts.

Vivan, her husband, was 27.

It was ironic how he looked the same as when he was 37.

In the past, during those years he remained handsome as ever. Whereas the crisis her family faced, and the burden of the company took a toll on her face.

Vivan came to her mother’s funeral in her past life. Ira did not meet him in fear of letting him see her wretched appearance. She saw him from a distance.

He, her ex had a ring on his finger, had a wife, had a kid.

Back from the troubling past, she glanced at his ring finger.

Like that time, he still has a ring, a wife, a kid.

Yet, unlike then, the ring he wore was their engagement ring, and she was ‘his wife bearing his child’ now.

Thinking about this a sense relief washed over her. She closed her eyes after taking a deep breath.

He pulled her hand, “Are you pregnant?” He asked prodding for an answer.

Ira didn’t reply. Overwhelmed with emotions, she stared at him. Guilt rushed from the bottom of her heart, followed by large teardrops and a sore nose. She cried and wailed like a child.

Vivan got confused. Scratching his head, he wondered how to react in this situation. The woman hated his mere touch much less his hugs and kisses. He extended his hands but retracted them back. A moment later he felt pressure on his chest. Realizing it was Ira who attached to him like a koala bear, he shivered in pleasure. He was on cloud nine.

As he was about to hug her back, she covered her mouth and started reaching.

“Are you sick? Let’s go to the hospital! Have you eaten something bad?” Vivan panicked as he held her with trembling hands.

“Viv, you idiot. I’m pregnant. It is morning sickness. It has been two months already.” She hugged him tight and started weeping once again.