Whose Third Baby Is It

My wife was pregnant. But I had been diagnosed with absolute infertility years ago.

After smoking on the balcony all night, my chest heavy with a suffocating weight, I made a choice. I decided to forgive her.

As long as you promise never to see him again and carry this baby to term, I will raise it as my own, I told her, my voice cracking.

But instead of looking relieved, Tessa handed me a signed abortion consent form, her eyes rimmed with red.

"I am going to say this one last time, Logan. I have always been committed to being childfree. I have never, ever done anything to betray you."

"I don't know how I got pregnant. I had the clinic preserve the embryo tissue because I'm going to the police. I was drugged and assaulted."

I clenched my fists, the blood rushing to my ears as I roared. "Are you insane? You want to go to the police so everyone can find out I can't have kids? You want the whole town laughing at me?"

"Tessa, you made a mistake and you're too cowardly to admit it. But trying to humiliate me like this? That is pure malice!"

Stunned by my harsh accusation, Tessa wept silently, ultimately agreeing to drop the police report to protect my pride. Seeing that she was willing to abort the child to save our marriage, I chose to bury my doubts and move on.

But to my absolute horror, barely a month later, Tessa tested positive again.

I lost my mind. I smashed almost everything in our living room, clawing at my hair as I screamed in agony.

"You're incredible, Tessa! Truly incredible! I am with you almost every single day, and you still find a way to run off and cheat on me!"

"Tell me! Who is he?!"

Tessa collapsed onto the floor, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe.

"I don't know! I swear, I have never touched another man! This past month, I've gone nowhere but the office and this house!"

This time, I was the one who drove her to the clinic. Immediately after the procedure, I booked two tickets for a secluded resort in New England.

"Sweetheart, I must have done something wrong to let another man slip into your life," I murmured, holding her close. "Let's get away for a while. Just you and me."

For an entire month, we were completely inseparable. We hiked, we read, and our relationship seemed to return to the sweet, passionate days of our early marriage.

But on the very night before our flight back, Tessa stared at a plastic stick in the bathroom, her face pale.

She was pregnant. Again.

I snapped the plastic test strip in half, my knuckles white, my eyes locked on Tessa.

"This past month, except for when you went to the bathroom, we haven't spent a single second apart."

"But I sleep heavily at night. If you were sneaking out while I was asleep..."

Three consecutive pregnancies. This time, the betrayal had happened right under my nose, and my sanity was hanging by a thread.

Tessa stood up abruptly, her voice pitching into a defensive shriek.

"I have explained this to you a thousand times! I have never betrayed you! You've never believed a single word I've said, have you?"

"Fine! We haven't changed hotels once this month. Let's go down to the front desk right now and pull the security tapes. Let's see if I sneaked out to sleep with another man while you were snoring!"

The raw, desperate hurt in her voice tore at my heart. I loved her deeply, and even with the evidence staring me in the face, a part of me desperately wanted to find a logical explanation to clear her name.

Closing my eyes, I let out a ragged breath. "Fine. We'll check the tapes. For your sake, I hope they show what you claim. Because if they don't, we are done."

But as the hotel security manager scrolled through the high-definition footage, my brow furrowed deeper.

"This makes no sense," I muttered, staring at the screen. "If my wife never left the room, and no one ever entered, how did she get pregnant? Is she capable of immaculate conception?"

I shot a suspicious glance at the manager. "Is she sleeping with someone on your staff? Did you alter these tapes to make a fool out of me?"

Terrified of a lawsuit, the manager quickly offered to send the raw footage to the local precinct for a forensic digital audit. Then, he hesitated, offering a quiet suggestion.

"I read a thread online once... about public pools. They said if a woman swims in a pool where a man has recently... well, you know, she can get pregnant. Since you two seem so close, did you visit any public swim areas?"

"No," I replied immediately. "She had just had a procedure before we came here. To protect her health, I kept our itinerary strictly dry. We only went to mountain lookouts, cafes, libraries, and scenic parks."

"Logan, please believe me," Tessa whispered, clutching my arm. "I could never love anyone else. I would never betray you."

Her words were deeply moving, but they only made the mystery more terrifying.

If she was telling the truth, and she hadn't sneaked out, how was this happening? Was she some kind of biological anomaly?

A bizarre, impossible thought suddenly flashed through my mind, making my heart hammer against my ribs.

Hearing my theory, Tessa burst into tears of hope, her eyes wide with desperation.

"Are you saying... your condition might have cured itself? That these babies are actually yours?"

I nodded slowly. "Is it possible? Because if it isn't me, who else could it be?"

Tessa shook her head frantically. "I've never touched anyone else! Logan, we can't do a paternity test on this new pregnancy yet, but I still have the preserved tissue from the first two clinics!"

Without a moment's delay, we caught the earliest flight back, driving straight from the airport to the medical lab.

While we waited for the genetic results, I booked an urgent appointment with a leading urology specialist. My chest rose and fell with a chaotic mix of excitement and anxiety. I had spent years believing I would never have a family, yet here was a miracle, chasing us down.

But when the specialist reviewed my file and looked at me with a look of quiet pity, a hot flash of humiliation rushed to my face.

Before I could speak, Tessa walked into the consulting room, a paper clutched in her hand.

"Logan, the paternity results are back," she said, her voice trembling. "Let's look at them together."

I forced myself to remain calm, locking down the urge to shake the truth out of her. I wanted to see her face when she read the document.

"Logan, remember, we agreed on being childfree," she murmured, opening the envelope. "Even if these babies are ours, I still don't want to keep them."

As her eyes scanned the page, the color drained from her face. She collapsed onto the clinic chair, the paper slipping from her fingers.

Paternity index: 0.00%. Logan is excluded as the biological father.

"Are you having fun playing with me, Tessa?" I whispered, my voice cold.

"What did I ever do to deserve this kind of humiliation?"

"Let's get a divorce. You can go sleep with whoever you want."

Her devastated expression didn't move me this time. I felt as though the blood in my veins had turned to ice. I turned and began to walk toward the exit, my strength entirely depleted.

Tessa chased after me, grabbing my coat. Her lips parted, but no sound came out.

What was there left to say? A woman doesn't get pregnant without a man.

"Logan, I'm so sorry," she wept.

I turned back, my eyes bloodshot, a bitter laugh escaping my throat. "You're finally admitting it? Good. At least let me leave this marriage with the truth, or I will hate you for the rest of my life."

But she looked at me with a gaze so intense, so desperate, that it threw me off.

"I am sorry, Logan. But this time, I cannot care about your pride. I am going to the police."

"I will not walk away from you carrying a stranger's child while bearing the reputation of a cheat."

"I love you, but I have to find out how these babies are getting inside me."

I was so angry I wanted to scream, but instead, I let out a dry, humorless chuckle. Even now, she was committed to this lie. I grabbed her by the shoulders.

"Fine. We'll go to the police together. But you better hope you're telling the truth, Tessa. Because if you're lying, I will make sure we both go down together."

With our persistent demands, the police finally opened an official inquiry. They sent Tessa for a detailed ultrasound to establish the exact conception timelines, while detectives coordinated with the resort local authorities to audit every single second of security footage from our trip.

A week later, the lead detective sat us down, spreading a massive, detailed timeline across the table.

"Mr. and Mrs. Lin, your wife's routine is incredibly simple. Aside from her office and your home, her only stops are the local grocery store and the dry cleaners. We have audited every camera along her daily commute. There is absolutely no window for sexual assault, and we can confirm she has not met with any other men."

I stood up, my chair scraping loudly against the floor. "That's impossible! She had a full medical evaluation last week. She hasn't undergone some genetic mutation. She cannot get pregnant without a man!"

"If she wasn't assaulted, and she didn't cheat, where are these babies coming from?"

The detectives exchanged uncomfortable glances. "Your wife has not been harmed, so we cannot pursue a criminal case. As for the medical mystery of her pregnancies, I'm afraid that is outside our jurisdiction."

Walking out of the precinct, I stared at Tessa's pale, terrified face. The mystery was growing deeper and more terrifying by the hour.

But at least I knew one thing: she hadn't betrayed me.

"Tessa, I'm sorry," I whispered, pulling her into a hug. "I was a fool. I should have trusted your loyalty."

"Maybe this baby is a gift. Let's not worry about how it happened. Your child is my child."

"Let's keep it. We'll raise it together, okay?"

Tessa suddenly shoved me away, her expression wild with fear.

"No! Don't you find this terrifying? A child randomly appearing inside me over and over again?"

"And I don't want children! That was the deal when we got married!"

My chest tightened. "But you fought so hard to find the truth. Didn't you want to keep it?"

"I wanted to prove my innocence!" she cried. "I wanted to know if I was sick or if someone was hurting me! When a person is sick, they seek a diagnosis so they can treat it!"

She turned and began marching toward the clinic.

A sudden, inexplicable panic seized me. A strange, quiet voice seemed to echo in my mind, urging me to stop her, telling me that we had to keep this baby.

I ran ahead, blocking her path.

"Are you going to abort it again? Tessa, please, let's keep this one. Our house will be so much livelier."

"Your body can't take another procedure so soon. Don't you see? Every time you abort, it just happens again. This baby is meant to be ours."

Tessa stared at me, her eyes filled with a sudden, deep sense of betrayal.

"You don't care about my health at all. You just want to use this baby to prove your own masculinity."

"You don't love me, Logan. You only care about your pride."

"I am a childfree woman, and whatever is putting these things inside me isn't normal. It's a monster, and I won't carry it."

As I watched her panic, a cold shiver ran down my spine. But her words triggered a memory.

I quickly pulled out my phone and called Preston.

Preston was a holistic, alternative practitioner. Years ago, my mother had suffered from an inexplicable fever that lasted fourteen days. No specialist could find the cause. Preston had visited her, claimed she was carrying a heavy spiritual attachment, and prepared a herbal wash. The fever had vanished that very night and never returned.

I believed in Preston's insight.

"Tessa, let's make a deal. We'll see Preston. If he can't find an explanation, we'll let the doctors handle it, okay?"

Tessa didn't fight me this time. She placed a protective, trembling hand over her stomach and nodded slowly.

Preston arrived at our apartment that evening. After examining the space and speaking with Tessa, he let out a long, quiet sigh.

"There is no negative energy here. If you wish to carry this child to term, you may do so safely."

I let out a massive breath of relief. Tessa leaned forward, her voice tight. "Preston, please, I can pay you more. Can you tell me how this is happening? If I don't know, I can't sleep at night."

Preston looked at us with a quiet, solemn expression. "The unborn carry their own path. I cannot speak further on the mechanism, or I will disrupt the natural balance."

As he turned to leave, Tessa called out to his retreating back. "If I abort this baby, will it happen again next month?"

Preston paused at the door, but he didn't turn back, leaving without another word.

I wrapped my arms around Tessa, pulling her close. "See, sweetheart? It's not a curse. He said it's safe. Let's keep the baby. I promise I will take care of everything."

By now, my initial confusion had turned into a desperate, eager anticipation of becoming a father.

But I could feel Tessa's body stiffening with a growing, wild terror.

"No. I cannot carry a child when I don't even know whose it is."

"Logan, if you want a child so badly, you can find someone else."

"I am going to get an abortion, and I am going to find the truth, no matter what it takes!"

My brow furrowed. I knew Tessa's stubborn nature; she would go through with it.

But my biological fertility was compromised. If I let her abort this child, I might never have another chance. This baby was a miracle, even if she had to be the vessel for it. Why was she being so cruel to me?

Once the child was born, she would learn to love it.

Driven by a desperate, manic protectiveness, I decided to keep her confined at home.

Using my physical strength, I easily locked her in the master bedroom.

She went on a hunger strike, throwing herself against the walls, trying to trigger a miscarriage. Terrified for her safety, I had no choice but to secure her to the bed, administering nutrient IVs to keep her and the baby alive.

"Tessa, please, I promise you won't have to raise it," I begged, kneeling by her bedside. "This might be my only shot at being a father. It's the only proof that I am a complete man."

"Please, stop fighting me. Just carry it to term, and I will do whatever you want!"

But she simply turned her head away, her silence a freezing shield. Her health began to deteriorate rapidly.

The turning point came a month later.

I unpinned her to take her to the clinic for a mandatory prenatal checkup. The moment we stepped out of the apartment, she bit my arm hard, tearing herself from my grip and running down the corridor.

By the time I caught up to her, she had slipped on the stairwell, tumbling down the steps. A dark, crimson stain began to spread across her sweatpants.

I screamed for help, carrying her into the emergency room.

The doctor ran the ultrasound probe over her abdomen, his face tight with concern.

"The fetal heart rate is dropping. Prepare the operating room immediately!"

As the nurse reached for the phone, the doctor froze, staring at the monitor.

"Wait... what is that?"

My eyes went wide, and I pushed closer to the screen. "Is something wrong?"

"There's a second embryo here. But according to the size, this one is only five days old."

My breath hitched. "How is that possible? The ultrasound last month only showed one fetus."

"This isn't a twin from the same conception. This is a second, separate fertilization. It's an incredibly rare medical phenomenon called superfetation, where a pregnant woman conceives again."

The doctor's words sent a chill down my spine.

"So... she conceived again? Within the last five days?"

But she had been locked in the room with only me for the past month! And I hadn't touched her!

"We don't have time to discuss the details," the doctor said urgently, gesturing to the orderly. "We need to get her to surgery immediately, or we will lose both."

Overwhelmed by a sudden, creeping terror, I grabbed the doctor's arm. "No! Get rid of them! We don't want them! They're monsters!"

"Tessa, tell them! We don't want them!"

But Tessa didn't look at me. She stared at the monitor, her eyes wide with a sudden, wild realization.

She grabbed the doctor's hand, her voice cracking with desperation.

"Doctor, please! Save my babies! Do whatever it takes to save them!"

"Tessa, are you insane?" I yelled. "Your brain is being eaten by whatever is inside you!"

Tessa turned her head, looking at me with a gaze filled with deep, sorrowful pity.

"Logan... I know how the babies got there."