UnPretty – Chapter 1.2

Teardrops were like close cousins to raindrops. They both ascended from earthen vessels and came pouring down when the right circumstances were present. The amount of the flow depended upon the heaviness of the carrier.

As the dense clouds wept, Madeline Smallwood sniffed back a fresh set of her own tears. Her manicured hands clenched the fur lined steering wheel of the black luxury sedan she drove. She held on for dear life as she tried to steady her emotions and her mind.

Madeline was distraught yet again and it had nothing to do with her myriad of pregnancy hormones. Today’s tears stemmed from her husband’s latest indiscretion. Dale had, once again, violated their marital vows. He’d done so while she was pregnant with their second child. A child that she deliberately conceived in order to save their declining marriage. If only that child was a boy.

Madeline tried to give her husband a son for years now and only yielded one female offspring, a beautiful daughter named Amelia. When the word came that this child was also female, she’d seen the disappointment in Dale’s eyes. She knew then that it was only a matter of time before he reverted back to his old playboy ways.

But Madeline knew something else about her handsome husband. Something that worked to her advantage. She knew that as long as she kept having children by him, he would never leave her. Never…ever.

Dale would be ostracized by his socially conscious family and cut off financially in a heartbeat if he even thought about abandoning his wife and children. He was too spoiled, too accustomed to the good life to let that happen.

Dale wouldn’t know how to live without money and monetary connections. Madeline didn’t want to live without them again. She’d gone through enough poverty in her past to last a lifetime.

I guess a piece of a man is better than no man at all, she thought, willing to settle for less than she wanted or deserved in her desperation.

Just then, an old beat-up Pinto came blazing around the corner of the sleek winding road. It was going entirely too fast for conditions. It was also coming too close for comfort…rapidly.

Shocked out of her thoughts by the skidding car, Madeline braked suddenly and soon felt her own vehicle spin out of control.

Oh no! I can’t lose this baby, she thought right before their cars collided and darkness fell upon her.

© 2020 by Suprina Frazier

Photo credits:

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