Youre quick enough to open your legs, but when it comes to taking responsibility, youd rather abandon your child.
Lydia and her husband had longed for this babytheir first. For nine months, hed cared for her, walking her to and from university, especially forbidding her to go out in icy weather. But just before the birth, he was sent away on business. He couldve refusedhed planned to quit his job anyway once the baby arrived. It was no life, working away on shifts while Lydia was left alone with a newborn.
The contractions started as soon as Ethan had left. The pain was unbearable, and worse still, he wasnt there. This wasnt how shed imagined welcoming their first child.
The baby was healthy, but Lydia couldnt bring herself to tell Ethan. Let him hear it from someone else.
She glanced around the ward. Across from her lay a woman in her forties. Nearby, a younger girl chatted on her phone, while by the door, another woman wept silently into the wall.
Exhausted, Lydia sank into the thin blue pillow, stamped with a triangle, and fell into a deep sleep as if the world had dissolved around her.
Will you be breastfeeding? The voice pulled Lydia from her dreams. She turned eagerly, but the nurse was speaking to the woman by the door.
Well? At least hold her. Look how beautiful she is. The woman stood frozen, still facing the wall.
Youre quick enough to open your legs, but when it comes to responsibility, youd rather abandon your child. The nurse lingered a moment, then left.
The older woman, Natalie, was the first to speak, her voice sharp with emotion.
You think I wanted this? Im forty-threemy sons married! Im about to be a grandmother, and now this? But whats done is done. The babys innocent. If you didnt want her, why wait this long? Now shell end up in carehave you thought how shell feel, betrayed the moment shes born?
Anya sobbed harder, no longer hiding her tears.
What good will crying do? Natalie snapped. Take your baby, feed her, and stop being a fool.
Maybe she was assaulted, piped up Emily, finally putting her phone down. Or what if the fathers someone closeher stepdad, even?
Lydia listened, guilt gnawing at her. Here she was, with a loving husband, doting parents, and still finding reasons to complainwhile this woman had no one. And neither did the newborn, innocent yet already unwanted.
That little girl would grow up bitterblaming her mothers drinking, or the man whod promised marriage, then vanished the moment he learned of the pregnancy. No balloons to celebrate her birth, no flowers for her mother. Nowhere for either of them to go.
Shame and pity twisted in Lydias chest. If you had somewhere to stay would you take her?
Anya stared at her as if she were mad. Of coursebut thatll never happen. She turned back to the wall, silent.
Two hours later, Lydia announced, Youll live in the dormitory. My mothers the warden. Youll clean the floors, and theyll give you a room.
Oh! Emily cut in. Ive got a new going-home outfit spare. Let me call my husbandweve got two, why keep both?
Ill bring clothes, Natalie added. My daughters old thingswashed and pressed. Theyre good quality, but we dont need them. My sons grown, and the grandkids get everything new.
By the next day, women from other wards were offering helpa pram here, a cot there, a blanket.
Ive nothing to give, admitted a young mother from another room, but Ill buy formula. Just in case.
Anya wept openly nownot from despair, but from the sudden kindness. Ill pay it back, she mumbled, but the mothers just patted her shoulder. Pass it on to someone else who needs it.
That night, drifting off, Lydia smiled. Everything would be alright for Anya. Shed find a good man someday.
And her daughter? Shed be fine too. She had her mother now. What more did she need?
Have you ever witnessed such a twist of fate in your own life? Share your thoughts below.
