“How awful,” someone else said. “And the old woman isn’t doing well either. They locked her up and made her sew three thousand blessing charms. Her eyes are bleeding.”
I looked up, shocked and desperately pulled my grandmother and my son’s bodies from the mud. I wiped the dirt from their faces. There was a wound on my son’s chest and my grandmother’s eyes were swollen and red.
They had hidden everything from me. They suffered in silence while I knew nothing.
I was so angry I couldn’t hold it in anymore. My head spun, I coughed up blood and everything went black.
When I opened my eyes again, I heard the doctor speaking nearby.
“The two people who were brought in... they’re already dead. They were tortured before they died. There’s no chance of saving them.”
“And also,” he continued, “it’s a miracle that Mrs. Lombardi is pregnant at all. Her emotions must be kept calm. She’s had more than ten miscarriages in the past few years. Her uterus is so thin now, it’s like paper.”
Mrs. Lombardi looked shocked when she heard this. Then, as she understood, her face filled with anger.
But I didn’t care. With great difficulty, I said, “Abort the baby.”
I had already decided to leave. There was no reason to keep this child.
Mrs. Lombardi looked surprised. Then I saw something strange in her eyes—like she didn’t want to let go of the baby either.
“Sophia,” she said gently.
She then continued desperately, “You got pregnant with this baby on purpose. It would be a shame to lose it.”
“I know Angelo hurt you badly, but the child is innocent. Your son indeed just died and now this child is here. Maybe it’s a sign that Angelo still wants you,” she told me.
At the mention of my son, my heart shattered. I couldn’t stop the tears from falling.
Mrs. Lombardi saw that I was emotional and quickly called Angelo, asking him to apologize to me.
She called more than ten times, but he never picked up. Then, finally, he called me.
As soon as I answered, his angry voice came through the phone.
“Sophia, what’s wrong with you? Will you die if you don’t complain for just one day? Actually, I should’ve also pushed you into that statue! Besides, it seems that you enjoy playing mother and son so much anyway.”
“And stop making my grandmother side with someone like you! So what if you brought them back from the mud? Do you think a miracle doctor can really raise the dead?”