“Why?”
“Just eat it, please.”
“If there’s nothing in it, pick it up and take a bite.”
He pushed the plate away.
“No.”
I froze. That single word seemed to confirm my worst fear. I jumped up and grabbed my phone.
“If you don’t tell me right now what you put in that pie, I’m calling the police.” What happened next read in the comments
Victor stared at me in silence for several seconds. Then his eyes filled with tears. I had never seen him cry before. He slowly
took the white container from his pocket and placed it on the table.
“Open it,” he said.
There was no poison inside. There were only small pills.
“What are these?”
Victor sat down and covered his face with his hands.
“Vitamins. Medication that the doctor prescribed for you.”
“What doctor? I haven’t been to a doctor.”
He looked at me and said the words that turned everything upside down.
“Three weeks ago, you fainted in the bathroom. When I found you, you couldn’t remember what had happened. I took you to the hospital. After the examination, the doctor told me that you were pregnant.”
I couldn’t speak.
Years earlier, doctors had told me that I would almost certainly never be able to have a child. I had stopped allowing myself to even dream about it.
“I’m pregnant?”
Victor nodded.
“But the levels of iron and several important nutrients in your blood were dangerously low. The medication was necessary, but you’ve always refused to take pills. You struggle to swallow them. The doctor said I could crush them and mix them into your food.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Victor lowered his eyes.
“I wanted to give you the good news on your birthday. It’s tomorrow. I prepared a room for the baby. I thought I only had to keep the secret for one more day, and then I could surprise you. I didn’t realize I was frightening you.”
“Then why did you refuse to eat the pie?”
“The dose was meant for you. I was afraid that if I ate it, you wouldn’t get your medication that day. I foolishly thought only about the medicine, not about what you might suspect.”
At that moment, my phone rang. It was an unfamiliar number.
I answered and put the call on speaker.
