My boyfriend, Nathan Bardot, stared at me in disbelief. “I’m asking about the baby in your belly! What’s going on?
“I’ve been gone for ten months. If you got pregnant the moment I left, you should have already given birth by now. Explain yourself! What’s really going on?”
He grabbed my wrist tightly. I felt a sharp pain and tried to pull away.
His face darkened, and he tightened his grip. I got annoyed and snapped, “Are you crazy? I’m pregnant! What’s there to explain?”
“Harriet, you got pregnant while I wasn’t home! You won’t even tell me whose child it is?”
Before I could respond, he slapped me across the face.
I stared at him in shock. I instinctively shielded my belly.
“Nathan, how dare you hit me? Do you want to end up in jail? I’m warning you, this baby wasn’t easy for me to conceive. If you lay a hand on me again and something happens to the baby, I won’t let you off the hook.”
Nathan suddenly started laughing. “That baby is illegitimate. All the better if it’s gone!
“Harriet, I must’ve been way too nice to you all these years. How dare you fight with me, your partner, over an illegitimate baby? Is this how you repay me?
“You cheated, and you still think you were right!”
His yelling drew a crowd. A man stepped forward and blocked him as he tried to come at me again.
Nathan froze for a moment and then sneered. “So, you’re the father of the baby, huh?”
