1 While recovering from my abortion, I was scrolling through Reddit when I stumbled upon a trending thread: [What is the most satisfying thing you have ever done in your entire life?] The top-voted response read: [Last week, I switched the prenatal lab results of my childhood best friend’s wife.] [She was carrying a perfectly healthy baby boy, but I intentionally falsified the report to tell her the baby had Down syndrome. She actually believed it.] [I performed the abortion on her myself. While I was in there, I ‘accidentally’ removed her uterus too. She’s never getting pregnant again.] [She stole the man who had revolved around me since we were kids. I choked down that resentment for three years, and now I’ve finally paid it back. It feels amazing!] I instinctively pressed my hand against my flat, empty stomach. A user replied below: Does her husband know? [Of course he knows.] [We work at the same hospital. He was standing right next to me when I swapped the file.] [He was the one who ultimately convinced her to abort the baby, all because I told him I couldn’t stand the thought of him having a child with her.] My hands were shaking violently as I clicked on the user’s profile. It was Chloe Sinclair’s burner account. The feed was filled with mundane, romantic little anecdotes about her and Arthur. The sheer, suffocating rage caused me to hemorrhage on the spot. When I opened my eyes again, I was transported back to the exact day of my abortion. Chloe was prepping the surgical tray next to me, her tone gentle: “Don’t worry, Mia. You’re making the right choice. Bringing a baby with Down syndrome into the world would only cause you both endless suffering.” I propped myself up on my elbows and stared at her: “I changed my mind. I’m keeping my baby.” … The entire pre-op room fell dead silent. The surgical forceps in Chloe’s hand dropped back onto the metal tray with a sharp clatter. Even with the surgical mask covering half her face, I could tell her comforting smile had frozen completely. Her eyes darted frantically toward Arthur, then snapped back to me. “Mia, you need to calm down.” She took a half-step forward, her voice dropping into a soothing, patronizing tone—like she was trying to pacify a delusional child. “Raising a child with Down syndrome is a lifelong, agonizing burden. You’re still early in the first trimester, the surgical risks are lowest right now. We can’t delay this.” I stared intently at her hands. In my previous life, those were the exact hands that reached inside my body, severed the umbilical cord, and permanently stole my ability to ever be a mother again. My stomach churned violently. I gripped the edge of the operating table so hard my fingernails felt like they were going to split. Arthur took a step forward, his brow furrowed deeply. It wasn’t fake; he looked genuinely anxious. “Mia, stop being unreasonable.” He was suppressing his irritation, his tone bordering on a reprimand for a difficult patient. “If we bring a child with Down syndrome into this world, the baby will suffer its entire life, and we will be permanently dragged down with it.” “We already agreed on this, remember?” Agreed. I almost laughed out loud. Yes, they agreed. He and Chloe had agreed on everything. I stared at him, forcing every single word out through gritted teeth: “It is my baby, and I am keeping him.” “I do not care if he is perfectly healthy or not. I am having my baby!” I said it with absolute, unwavering conviction. Arthur’s face darkened into a scowl. “This is not the time to be sentimental. The medical data is right in front of you. Science doesn’t lie.” “If you have this baby, are you just going to sit at home crying every day for the rest of your life?” Chloe immediately jumped in, her voice even softer, dripping with fake empathy. “Mia, Arthur is just looking out for you.” “Please don’t be mad at him for being blunt. We’re doctors, we’ve seen countless cases exactly like this. The longer you drag this out, the harder it will be.” “You are still so young, you can always…” Always what? I snapped my head up and glared at her. What did she write on her burner account? [I performed the abortion on her myself. While I was in there, I ‘accidentally’ removed her uterus too. She’s never getting pregnant again.] “I can always what?” My voice sounded like it was being scraped against sandpaper. Chloe shrank back half a step under my intense glare, her smile faltering nervously. “You can always… you can always have another, perfectly healthy baby in the future.” The anesthesiologist walked over, holding a syringe, looking visibly annoyed. “It’s time for the anesthesia. Are we proceeding with the procedure or not?” Two nurses standing nearby murmured to each other in hushed voices. “She’s literally on the table and she’s backing out.” “I’ve seen so many of these delusional mothers. They always regret it once the kid is born.” “Exactly. A Down syndrome baby… it ruins the entire family.” Every single word felt like a needle being shoved into my eardrums. Surrounded by a sea of white lab coats, I felt like an animal trapped in a hunting circle. Everyone in the room was looking at me like I was insane. But I knew the truth. I was the only person in that room who was completely, lucidly sane. I was carrying a perfectly healthy baby boy. And they were actively manipulating me onto a surgical table, treating my child like medical waste to be incinerated. The needle moved closer. Chloe shot a subtle glance at the nurses, and they immediately stepped forward, pressing down firmly on my shoulders. “Just relax, Mia. Take a nice, deep breath, and you’ll be asleep before you know it.” Her voice was still so impossibly gentle. Arthur turned his back, checking the clock on the wall. “Chloe’s right. Let’s get this over with. The OR schedule is backed up today.” The blood rushed violently to my head. I violently wrenched my arm free and aggressively ripped the IV line right out of the back of my hand. Drops of dark blood instantly splattered across the pristine white hospital sheets. “DO NOT TOUCH ME!” I violently threw myself off the side of the operating table. My knees smashed hard against the metal step stool, the pain blinding me with a flash of white. “I am completely lucid, and I do not consent to this surgery!” “If anyone in this room pushes that anesthetic, I will have you arrested for medical battery and forced sterilization!” I forced myself up and glared murderously at Arthur. “Get the Chief of Medicine down here right now!” 2 Every single person in the room froze perfectly still. Arthur slowly turned around, his eyes as cold and sharp as a scalpel. “Mia, if you stubbornly insist on giving birth to a baby with Down syndrome, have you considered the catastrophic consequences for this family?” He enunciated every single syllable clearly, sounding like he was reading a terminal diagnosis from a clipboard. “Have you even bothered to consider what his quality of life will be?” My chest felt like it was being crushed by a vice. It was so painfully ironic. In my previous life, right up until the moment I died, I couldn’t figure it out. Did he actually believe the falsified lab report, or did he force me onto the operating table simply because Chloe told him she didn’t want him to have a child? But seeing him standing there right now… cold, detached, completely rational. It was so sickeningly rational it made me want to vomit. Chloe immediately rushed over, crouching down in front of me, her tone urgent and saccharine. “Mia, Arthur is only doing this because he loves you.” “Think about it. How many cruel, judgmental stares is this child going to face if you bring him into the world?” “You can’t let your selfish desire to be a mother ruin an innocent child’s entire life.” She grew increasingly animated, her eyes turning red with fake, theatrical tears. “I work in Obstetrics. I’ve seen too many of these tragedies. I swear to you, those families always end up broken.” The nurses nodded in solemn agreement. I braced myself against the edge of the operating table, forcing the words out one by one: “I said, I am having my baby.” “Even if the entire world tries to stop me, I am giving birth to this child.” Arthur closed his eyes, adopting the exasperated posture of a man dealing with an irrational hysteric. “You are far too emotionally volatile right now to make any major medical decisions.” He turned to the nurses: “Transfer her to an observation suite. We’ll hold her there.” “We won’t discuss this again until she has calmed down.” I shot up from the floor. “You’re going to hold me hostage?!” Arthur looked down at me, a flicker of genuine exhaustion in his eyes. “This is for your protection. To protect you, and to protect the baby.” Protect. I almost ground my teeth to dust. It sounded so incredibly noble. That was exactly what happened in my previous life. I was locked inside an observation suite in this hospital. No one answered my calls, no one came to help me. By the time I was wheeled into the operating room, I didn’t even have the physical strength left to fight back. Two nurses flanked me, grabbing me by the arms. “Mrs. Hayes, please don’t make this harder than it has to be.” Chloe kept up her performance, hovering nearby: “Mia, please, just go rest for a bit. You don’t want to stress your body out even more.” “Once you’ve had time to think clearly, we can sit down and talk.” The heavy door clicked shut behind me. The deadbolt slid into place from the outside. I sat on the hospital bed, my entire body shaking uncontrollably. Less than half an hour later, frantic, clicking footsteps echoed down the hallway. The door was violently shoved open. Arthur’s mother stormed into the room in her designer heels, slamming her Birkin bag onto the table. “Mia! Have you completely lost your mind?!” Arthur’s father stood right behind her, his face dark as thunder. “Has the Hayes family ever mistreated you? Why are you insisting on giving birth to a retarded child and turning us into a public laughingstock?!” My mother-in-law slapped the table, pointing her finger aggressively in my face. “If you don’t abort this thing right now, don’t ever expect to step foot inside our house again!” “Arthur is still young and building his career! Why should he be permanently anchored down by you and an invalid?!” I looked up at her, and slowly, genuinely smiled. “I am the child’s mother.” “I am the only one who gets to decide if he lives or dies.” My mother-in-law’s face twisted with pure rage. “You! You are completely unreasonable!” “Chloe is an incredible doctor! She was trying to advise you out of the goodness of her heart, and you treated her like garbage!” “You are intentionally trying to destroy the Hayes family!” I noticed Chloe was standing quietly in the doorway, her eyes rimmed with red. “Mrs. Hayes, please don’t get so upset, it’s bad for your blood pressure.” “Mia is probably just struggling to accept the reality of the diagnosis. We just need to keep trying to reason with her.” A few nurses were lingering outside the door, whispering and gossiping. “Is that the one refusing to abort the Down syndrome baby?” “I honestly don’t get what is going through her head.” “She married into the Hayes family and she’s still throwing tantrums like this. So ungrateful.” “I feel so bad for Dr. Sinclair, having to deal with a sister-in-law like that.” I sat perfectly still on the bed, absorbing every single word they said. Every single person in this hospital was on Chloe’s side. They were all conspiring to decide whether my child deserved to live. I closed my eyes, my brain working in overdrive. I couldn’t expose the falsified lab report right now. Chloe’s father was a major financial donor to this hospital; this was literally her territory. If I tried to expose them now without concrete proof, I would only alert them and give them time to cover their tracks. I had to wait. I had to wait for the perfect, undeniable opportunity to nail her to the wall.
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