The Mistress: Her revenge [18+]

ESMERALDA BERTILLON

3 YEARS AGO

I remember the way the envelope crinkled between my fingers as I stood outside his apartment door. My heart raced, faster than it should have, and the nervous energy humming through me was suffocating. I'd spent hours rehearsing how to tell him, playing out every possible reaction in my mind. Would he be happy? Surprised? Or...something else? I didn't know if he wanted a child—heck, I didn't even know if I was ready—but I knew this moment was bigger than anything we'd faced together before.

I pushed the door open, hesitating on the threshold. He sat there, completely absorbed, scrolling through his phone, his brow furrowed in focus. He barely looked up as I entered, the glow of the screen casting a faint shadow over his face.

"Hey," I greeted softly, the word shaky.

He glanced at me briefly, distracted, his thumbs moving across the screen as if they had a mind of their own. "Hey, babe. Everything alright?"

I swallowed hard, stepping further into the room and holding the envelope behind my back like a secret I wasn't sure I was ready to share. "Yeah...uh, can we talk?"

That finally seemed to grab his attention. He set his phone down and looked at me with raised eyebrows, concern flickering briefly in his eyes. "What's up?"

I took a deep breath and moved toward him, pulling the envelope from behind me. My hands trembled as I offered it to him, and I forced a smile to calm myself. "I... I have something to show you."

He took the envelope, a question in his eyes, before slowly pulling out the contents—the pregnancy test result and the scan. His eyes scanned the documents, and for a second, just a fleeting second, I saw something flash in his expression. A tightness around his mouth, a flicker of something that looked suspiciously like anger, but it was gone so quickly I thought I might have imagined it.

Instead, he smiled—too wide, too sudden—and looked back up at me. "How far along are you?"

I tried to push down the unease that crept up my spine, returning his smile even though it didn't feel as genuine as I'd hoped. "Just a couple of months. The doctor said everything looks good so far."

"That's... that's great." His voice had a forced lightness to it, and I couldn't shake the feeling that he was working hard to keep his expression neutral. Still, I clung to the hope that maybe I was just reading too much into it, that this was a lot for him to take in, and maybe he just needed time to process.

I sat down next to him, still holding onto the nervous energy. "Do you think it's a boy or a girl?"

He chuckled, though it sounded a bit strained. "Well, I'm hoping for a boy, obviously. Someone to carry on the family name."

I let out a soft laugh, though the tension in my chest didn't release. "Yeah, a little boy would be nice, wouldn't it? But what if it's a girl?"

He hesitated, his smile slipping just a little before he masked it again. "Either way, we'll be fine. A girl... sure, why not? But you know," he winked, "boys are just easier. Less drama."

I smiled, but his words tugged at something in me—something that made me want to defend the idea of having a daughter. "Girls are strong, too. Maybe she'd be like me."

He didn't say anything for a moment, just looked at me, his smile still in place, but his eyes held something else. Something I couldn't quite place. "Yeah," he finally said, patting my hand absentmindedly. "We'll see. We'll see how it goes."