Why Does My Best Friend Carry Every Child of Mine"

01

I wanted nothing more than to be a mother. After marrying Marcell, I poured all my energy into getting pregnant, only for my single best friend, Rina, to conceive first. The paternity test confirmed the child was his.

Explain this! I screamed, shoving the report in his face. Marcell turned deathly pale. "I swear I never touched her!" Rina sobbed, kneeling before me. "We are innocent! I don't know how this happened, but the baby is just there." Heartbroken, I filed for divorce.

A year later, I started dating Oliver. This time, I kept it quiet, determined to get pregnant before marriage. If he cheated, I would raise the child alone. But a few months in, Rina showed up at my door with a prominent baby bump. Once again, the test named my partner as the father.

Oliver tore at his hair in disbelief. "You're insane! I don't even know who you are!" Rina collapsed, drenched in tears. "I'm terrified too, I swear I don't know how!" I broke down completely, broke up with Oliver, and fled abroad for a year to clear my head.

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn't make sense of it: Why did every child I tried to have end up in her womb? To uncover the truth, I fabricated a new relationship. I found a photo of an elite businessman online and posted staged, intimate photos on social media. Three months later, Rina texted: [Are you seeing someone again? I... I'm pregnant.]

[Let's meet up and talk. I'll pick the place.]

[Sure.] Rina replied instantly.

I put my phone down and went back to watching the surveillance feed.

In her cramped, rented apartment, Rina was breastfeeding. She cradled her one-year-old daughter in her arms, while her two-year-old son sat in a high chair next to her. Her hair was greasy and unwashed, and she wore a pilled, oversized hoodie.

When the baby girl pulled at her shirt, Rina snapped, "Shut up!"

Her son started crying from the sudden shout. She slapped his bottom hard, making him wail even louder.

I clenched my fists.

She didn't deserve to be a mother.

Why was it that I wanted a child so desperately but couldn't have one, while she treated the miracle of life like trash?

Three months ago, I returned to the country, determined to find out how she kept getting pregnant.

I rented the apartment right next door to Rina's.

I still remembered the passcode to her door. It was her birthday, a detail she had shared with me back when we were inseparable.

Under the cover of night, I slipped inside and placed tiny pinhole cameras in every corner of her home.

At first, I thought she was doing this out of jealousy.

She was jealous of my wealthy family, my looks, and the fact that my boyfriends were always successful men. I assumed she was seducing my partners to spite me.

So, I invented the fake boyfriend.

I grabbed a photo of an executive online, had my assistant edit us together, and announced my new "romance."

I wanted to see how she would manage to get pregnant this time.

But over the past three months of constant surveillance, neither Marcell nor Oliver had ever visited her. I even asked mutual friends; both of my exes swore they didn't know Rina, and their families wanted nothing to do with her.

Could they... really be innocent?

Even more bizarrely, Rina hadn't brought a single man home in three months. Her only outings were to buy diapers and formula, and I had personally shadowed her every time.

So where did this third baby come from?

A wild, terrifying thought crossed my mind.

Was she faking it?

Was she doing all of this just to torment me?

I sent her a follow-up text:

[Tomorrow morning at ten, meet me at the central hospital. I'm taking you for a check-up.]

The next morning, she arrived with her daughter in her arms and her son strapped to her back.

Her face was sallow, with dark circles under her eyes. She looked ten years older than me.

In the ultrasound room, the transducer glided over her abdomen. A tiny, faint shadow flickered on the monitor.

The doctor confirmed she was six weeks pregnant.

I stood frozen in the room.

"This is impossible..."

I dragged her straight to the office of the chief of obstetrics.

The doctor was a female professor in her fifties.

"Doctor, is it medically possible for a woman to become pregnant without any physical contact with a man?" I asked point-blank.

The doctor frowned. "Medically speaking, it is impossible. Unless under two very specific circumstances."

"First, artificial insemination. You only need the male's specimen."

"Second, the woman was assaulted while unconscious."

Artificial insemination?

My new boyfriend was just a random picture from the internet. Where would she have gotten his specimen?

And no man had entered her apartment in three months.

"That's impossible!" I blurred out. "No man has been anywhere near her these past few months!"

The moment the words escaped my lips, I realized my mistake.

Rina spun around to face me, her eyes wide.

"How do you know no man has been near me? Have you been watching me?!"

Clutching her children, she took a step back, her eyes turning red instantly.

"It's you! You're jealous of my fertility! You've been desperate for a child but can't have one, while I get pregnant so easily! You couldn't handle it, could you?"

"So you sent your man to assault me! I'm calling the police!"

My father was the CEO of a listed company. A police report of this nature would devastate our stock price.

I rushed to grab her. "Calm down!"

She ignored me, pulling out her phone.

In a panic, I grabbed her wrist.

"Don't call the police!" I screamed. "My new boyfriend is fake! He's just a picture from the internet! There is no such person, so who could have possibly touched you?"

Rina went dead silent.

She slowly raised her head. There was no shock in her bloodshot eyes. Instead, a chilling smile spread across her face.

"You're lying."

She stared into my eyes, her voice dripping with venom.

"You think I haven't done my research? That man from your photos... he doesn't just exist. I've already found him."

02

"Look for yourself!" Rina shoved her phone in my face.

On the screen was a search result.

Xavier Ward, founder and CEO of Xenon Tech.

The man in the photo was the exact same person I had posted on my profile.

My brain went entirely numb.

I had just grabbed a random picture online because he looked like a handsome businessman. Who would have thought he was a real, prominent tech CEO?

Why couldn't I have this kind of luck with the lottery?

"You planned this with him!" Rina glared at me. "You had him assault me, and now you're pretending you don't know him!"

"Are you out of your mind?" I pushed her phone away. "I don't even know his name!"

"Don't know him? Then where did those cozy photos on your profile come from?"

I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Even if I told her they were photoshopped, she would never believe me.

"Fine!" I grit my teeth. "We're going to his office right now to confront him! You don't believe me? We'll get a DNA sample right in front of him and see if he denies it!"

Rina hesitated for a fraction of a second, then sneered. "Let's go."

At the headquarters of Xenon Tech, on the top floor.

The receptionist's face paled when we stated our business.

"Ladies, I am terribly sorry, but Mr. Ward is not taking any visitors."

"Not taking visitors?" I slammed the ultrasound report onto the desk. "This woman claims your CEO assaulted her, and this baby is the proof."

The receptionist's lips trembled. "Mr. Ward is really..."

"Get him out here, or I'm calling the press right now. Let's see how your stock price holds up when a sexual assault scandal hits the news."

The receptionist's eyes widened. She looked around nervously, then lowered her voice.

"Follow me."

The corridor was dead silent, save for the click of our heels.

She pushed open the door to the CEO's office, locked it behind us, and turned around.

"How far along is the pregnancy?" she asked, her eyes sharp and defensive.

"Six weeks," Rina said, looking around the empty office. "Where is he?"

The secretary remained silent for three agonizing seconds, her eyes welling with tears.

"Don't bother looking."

"What do you mean?"

"Mr. Ward... passed away six months ago."

The words hit me like a physical blow.

"What?"

"A sudden heart attack. Resuscitation failed," the secretary said, her voice cracking. "The company hasn't finalized the transition of ownership yet. To keep the stock price stable, the news hasn't been made public."

She looked up, staring intently at Rina's stomach. "How could a man who has been dead for six months get you pregnant?"

"Impossible!" Rina shrieked.

I, on the other hand, was dead calm.

I had been watching her night and day. Even if Xavier Ward were alive, he wouldn't have been able to get near her.

Without a word, the secretary opened a drawer and placed a document on the desk.

A death certificate.

Then she showed us a video on her phone, a private funeral service, displaying the casket and the portrait of Xavier clearly.

Rina's knees buckled. Carrying one child and holding another, she collapsed toward the floor.

I caught her just in time.

"I need a strand of his hair," I told the secretary. "For a DNA test."

The secretary frowned. "He's dead. Why are you still..."

"Hair, a comb, a glass, anything. If you don't give it to me, I'm calling the press."

Grimacing, the secretary pointed to the private dressing room in the corner.

Rina and I rushed in, searching like maniacs.

At the bottom of the wardrobe, an old photograph slid out.

It showed a young woman holding the hands of two young boys, about five or six years old.

They were twins, smiling brightly.

The woman's face looked incredibly familiar.

But in that moment, my mind went blank, and I couldn't place her.

"Found it!" Rina called out, holding a stray hair she had retrieved from a suit jacket. "Let's go."

I quickly stuffed the photo back and pulled her out, heading straight for the lab.

When the expedited DNA report was handed to us, my hands were shaking.

The words on the paper were clear:

Biological father of the fetus: Xavier Ward.

Probability of paternity: 99.99%.

My mind shattered.

How could a man who had been dead for six months get Rina pregnant?