Chapter 2 - The Shattered Mirror
The words hung in the sterile air of the examination room like poison gas.
Megan’s arms slowly dropped to her sides. Linda’s grip on the blue cashmere blanket loosened, the expensive fabric slipping through her fingers and falling to the linoleum floor with a soft, pathetic thud.
David stood completely still, his face turning a deep, mottled purple. His eyes were wide, staring at Dr. Aris as if the doctor had just spoken to him in a foreign, demonic language.
"A... a vasectomy?" Linda whispered, her voice cracking as she turned to look at her son. "David... what is he saying? You have two children. How could you be...?"
"I... I had it done after Chloe was born," David stammered, his voice dropping into a desperate, sweating whisper. He looked at the floor, his hands beginning to tremble. "Catherine... Catherine wanted it. She said two children were enough, and she didn't want to go back on birth control. She... she booked the appointment. I didn't think... I didn't tell you because it wasn't any of your business!"
"You had a vasectomy?" Megan shrieked, her voice losing all of its polished, upper-class pretension. "And you didn't tell us?! David, you’ve been bragging for six months about how you finally 'conquered' Catherine by getting a boy! You told us this baby was the Coleman legacy!"
"It is!" David yelled, turning frantically to Allison, who was now clutching the hospital gown to her chest, her face completely pale, her eyes darting toward the door as if she were looking for an exit. "Allison! Tell them! Tell them the doctor is wrong! The test must have been a false negative! Or... or the surgery reversed itself! It happens, right, Doctor? Reversals happen!"
"Spontaneous recanalization of the vas deferens is extremely rare, Mr. Coleman," Dr. Aris said coldly, leaning back in his chair. "Less than one in ten thousand cases. And even in those rare instances, the sperm count is extremely low. The fetus we just observed on the monitor is currently at twenty-two weeks of development. It is robust, healthy, and genetically typical."
The doctor then turned his gaze slowly to Allison.
"Furthermore," Dr. Aris continued, his tone dropping into a dangerous, clinical register, "there is another detail on the ultrasound that we must address. Allison, during your initial intake, you claimed your last menstrual period was in January. However, the biometric measurements of the fetus's femur and biparietal diameter consistently indicate a gestational age of twenty-four weeks. That would place conception in mid-December of last year."
David’s head snapped toward Allison. His eyes were bloodshot, his chest heaving as the timeline began to click in his mind.
"December?" David whispered. "But... but in December, Allison, you were in Aspen for two weeks. You told me you were visiting your sister. You said you were staying at her cabin..."
"David, please," Allison sobbed, her tears finally breaking through her makeup, leaving dark, messy streaks down her cheeks. She reached out to touch his arm, but he flinched away as if she were covered in battery acid. "It was... it was a mistake! I was lonely! You were still living with Catherine, and you kept delaying the divorce! I didn't think you were ever going to leave her! He... he meant nothing to me!"
"Who?" Linda screamed, stepping forward, her fingers curling like talons. "Who is the father of this child?! Who have you been bringing into our family's name?!"
"It... it was Marcus," Allison wept, burying her face in her hands. "David’s business partner. He... he came up to Aspen to bring me some documents David sent. We had too much to drink, and... and it just happened! But David, I swear, I love you! The baby... we can still raise him as a Coleman! No one has to know!"
"No one has to know?!" Megan roared, her face twisted in a mask of pure, ugly fury. She grabbed the blue cashmere blanket from the floor and threw it directly into Allison’s face. "You trash! You absolute, parasitic trash! You lied to us! You let us buy you a condo! You let us throw you a shower! My father was planning to put you in his will!"
"Get out," David whispered, his voice incredibly quiet, yet vibrating with a violence that made the room shake. He looked at Allison with a hatred so deep it seemed to consume him. "Get your things and get out of my sight. The condo... the lease is in my name. I’m having the locks changed tonight. You have until five o'clock to get your garbage out of there."
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"David, please!" Allison cried, reaching out to him, but David had already turned his back.
He marched out of the examination room, his heavy boots slamming against the linoleum. Linda and Megan followed him, their voices rising in a shrill, chaotic chorus of insults and panic as they ran down the hallway of the clinic, leaving Allison alone on the table, sobbing in the cold, blue light of the monitor.
