In 1999, one of Steven Stone’s worst nightmares was about to come true. A nurse had called him at work to inform him that his cheating wife was about to have another man’s baby, though she didn’t put it in those exact words, of course.
So much for not addressing his sexual dysfunctions, which, for the first time in his life, he was actually glad for because it served as good birth control. The more he got to know how sick, twisted, and even dangerous his wife was, the more certain he became that he didn’t want to have a child with her. However, he should have figured that sooner or later, the stubborn Janelle would cheat as both a means to get the sex he had been denying her and to conceive. He just didn’t think she would succeed in getting what she wanted because of her less-than-pleasant appearance. In the six years they’d been together, she’d done nothing but sit around, eat, smoke, and kill—and when she wasn’t actually killing, she was certainly plotting how she could get even with whoever had pissed her off the most lately. His wife had always insisted she was unlucky, yet to get away with what she had gotten away with—either because she hadn’t been caught or due to some stupid technicality—was anything but unlucky.
She wouldn’t be lucky today, however. First, he was going to make sure he wasn’t in the delivery room with her and would blame it on construction holding him up, something his gullible and even stupid wife would immediately believe.
Then he was going to take the kid away.
He waited until the end of his shift answering phone calls at an IT center and reached the hospital just over an hour later. When he got to the maternity ward, he wasted no time letting the head nurse know that he wasn’t the father and didn’t want to be part of the birth.
The nurses understood and seemed to know who Janelle was. And why wouldn’t they? She had been in the news enough times. She was disliked enough for being a racist, but even more so for kicking a woman’s child out of her womb out of rage and jealousy. He knew she would be pointing the finger at the woman and associates once the child was gone, too. He would be the last to know about whatever suspect she had in mind, but that was Janelle for you… she believed what she wanted to believe, and right now, he wanted to keep it that way.
He was seated in the corridor outside the delivery room where they were preparing to perform a C-section on his wife. Much to his delight, he could hear the terror in her voice as she pleaded with the nurses to see if her husband had arrived yet. As instructed, however, they told her they had contacted him and that he was on his way and would send him in as soon as he arrived.
Soon, the child was delivered, and Janelle was moved to a private room with the baby. The nurse who came to fetch him said that they were asleep and led him to the room. She opened the door and put a finger to her lips to signal that he should be quiet. He quietly took a seat in the room a few yards from the bed, staring at the product of Janelle’s desperation and cheating. As soon as the nurse left and shut the door, however, he wasted no time clearing his throat loudly.
As expected, Janelle woke up instantly. The baby started wailing too.
“Hey,” said Janelle with a smile.
Steven could see the exhaustion in his wife’s eyes.
“You finally made it. What happened?”
Steven shrugged and said, “Construction, as usual.”
Janelle sighed loudly over her baby’s wailing. “Figures. But you’re here now, and we’re doing okay. Thanks for asking. Come and see.” She motioned for him to come closer, but he didn’t move.
The next day, when they were discharged, Steven silently drove his wife and her "mistake" back to the house. The baby wailed, and Janelle tried unsuccessfully to calm it. If he didn’t know any better, he would have believed without a doubt that the baby was utterly terrified of its mother. He didn’t blame it for that.
His wife, pretending everything was just fine, said she was utterly exhausted and asked if he wouldn’t mind “taking over” while she slept.
Oh, he definitely didn’t mind. “Do what you’ve got to do,” he told her.
As his wife walked into the house ahead of him, he discreetly pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, wrapped it around the handle of the cheap used carrier someone had given her since she couldn’t lift anything, and brought the screaming child into the house, placing it on the living room table. He then shoved the handkerchief back in his pocket while his wife used the bathroom and undressed. He plopped himself down in the plush chair across the room.
With his wife in bed a few minutes later and the baby still wailing in the carrier, he rose from his chair once he was sure his wife was really asleep by the sound of the snoring coming from behind the bedroom door. After she quickly cooed to the baby and told them to “take care” of each other, he was ready to do just that.
Fortunately for him, this was a time when cameras were still scarce. As long as no one was coming or going from the small entryway where he planned to drop the baby off, he felt confident that no one could ever prove he was there. He was going to a section of the hospital where babies could be surrendered anonymously without question. He thought about taking the box of diapers her friend had given her but didn’t want to make the job any harder on himself. He just wanted to make the drop quickly and get out of there. The parking lot was crowded, which made him more confident that his ordinary-looking car would blend in.
He pulled up in front of the small entryway he had scouted out previously so he would know exactly where to go. He took the handkerchief out to grab the handle of the carrier in the back seat, placed it on a bench inside the lobby, rang the buzzer, and left.
The baby never shut up the whole time.
He wasn’t sure if anyone saw him, and he didn’t really care. He just wanted the baby out of his house. He couldn’t even stand to look at it. Besides, he knew it would only be a matter of time before Janelle abused it, and he didn’t want to get caught up in her future legal battles.
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