SATURDAY 33

Since it was not my body, how could the baby possibly be Mr. Taeseon’s child? It felt more natural to think that… Inha had coincidentally become pregnant at the same time and that Inha had miscarried.

Just then, someone knocked on the door and slowly opened it. It was the obstetrics professor.

“Everything is ready. Shall we go down together?”

“Ah, yes….”

“Should I prepare a wheelchair for you?”

I shook my head. I wasn’t a critically ill patient to that extent. The bleeding had stopped, and although there was pain, it wasn’t so bad that I couldn’t walk. Once we got into the elevator, the professor spoke up abruptly.

“It is difficult to tell you this, but… it is highly likely that this miscarriage was due to pheromone interaction from the father of the baby.”

“Pheromone interaction?”

“In short, it means the miscarriage may have occurred because of the stress provided by the baby’s father.”

I stared at her blankly for a moment before speaking.

“…That, that can’t be. The father is, probably, now that I think about it, he’s likely not my husband.”

I felt ashamed even as I spoke. Referring to Mr. Taeseon as my husband repeatedly was also strangely embarrassing. The professor’s eyes wavered for a moment.

“Ah, the father of the child is someone else. I will try to contact him.”

“If you say, well, that he is someone else….”

“I mean… it’s a relationship where we met during each cycle before the marriage….”

Right on cue, the elevator doors opened with a cheerful sound. The professor cleared her throat and said, “I, I see.”

I knew Inha had such a partner. Inha is an adult, and truthfully, both Alphas and Omegas need a partner like that. It was to the point of being absurd that I had momentarily thought it was a child between Mr. Taeseon and me.

“Then…. Shall we start with the ultrasound first?”

“Yes.”

I dragged the IV stand and followed the professor into the ultrasound room.

∞ ∞ ∞

After finishing the examination and returning to the hospital room, I sat there as if I had lost my soul, holding my phone.

Truthfully, even while looking at the ultrasound, I didn’t have any particular thoughts. Inha’s child. Surprisingly, I didn’t feel any emotion at all. Humans are truly fickle creatures.

Once in the room, I contacted Inha’s partner. Searching through the phone book and messenger, he was easy to find. A male Alpha, named Jeong Chang-il.

I revealed the fact of the pregnancy while trying to maintain Inha’s way of speaking as much as possible. I also mentioned the miscarriage. When I said I was contacting him because I felt he should know, he replied as if he were in a difficult position.

― No, but…. There’s no way a pregnancy could happen. Is it true that I’m the father of the child that was miscarried?

‘What does that mean….’

I wanted to press for details, but I stopped myself hurriedly, fearing I would arouse suspicion. Fortunately, Jeong Chang-il rattled off the facts one after another on his own.

When Jeong Chang-il started the relationship with Inha, he had already undergone a procedure to prevent pregnancy in exchange for a large sum of money. On top of that, both of them took contraceptive pills, and they also supposedly never did any knotting.

If he had the procedure and took medicine, the possibility of pregnancy converged to 0%. Furthermore, even before the procedure, Jeong Chang-il himself originally had a constitution that made it difficult to get an Omega pregnant.

Then… whose child was it that was miscarried?

Inha was meticulous about these matters. He was so cautious that he was careful even with a single person like Jeong Chang-il. Because he would have thought that if a child were born by any chance, the partner Alpha would surely become a nuisance. There was no way he would have met anyone else with the possibility of pregnancy.

Even if there had been an unexpected situation, he would have checked periodically and handled it in advance.

“Patient, are you alright for a moment?”

“Ah, yes?”

“I knocked, but there was no answer.”

I snapped back to my senses. The obstetrics professor was standing by the open door of the hospital room. She had a somewhat complicated look on her face.

“Yes…. I’m fine, please come in.”

“Have you tried contacting the baby’s father?”

It was only a moment ago that I had said Mr. Taeseon was not the father and that I had someone else to contact. And after making that contact, I fell into even greater confusion. About who exactly it was that got Inha pregnant.

“I tried, contacting him, but… it seems it’s not him either. I don’t really know what’s going on either….”

I wanted to call Inha out and ask him. If he had made a mistake somewhere. However, the professor silently held out a sheet of paper.

Taking the paper wonderingly, my mind went blank again. It was a pheromone test result.

It is slightly less accurate than a DNA test but follows a similar concept; it is mainly used prenatally by Omegas who have difficulty finding the father.

The reason it can be done without the father’s consent is that the method involves testing by combining the pheromones remaining in the Omega’s body with the pheromones of the fetus inside the body.

I never imagined the day would come when I would be taking that test. Furthermore, the result in front of my eyes pointed to an impossible fact.

[Pheromone Combination Test Results]

[Extracted Pheromones: 1]

[Pheromone Type Analysis]

I read through the numbers and English terms listed in a complex manner, just like a blood test result sheet. But even looking at it, I couldn’t really understand what it meant.

The final part finally caught my eye.

[As a result of the pheromone combination test, the pheromones extracted from inside and outside the tester’s body and the fetus’s pheromones match by 68.88%]

[Among the (1) extracted pheromones, (1) pheromone matches the fetus by more than 60%, proving a biological relationship]

I read and re-read that result with a dazed face. If it was a pheromone extracted from this body, it belonged to someone with whom there had been a deep relationship, including sharing a bed.

I didn’t know about deep relationships, but there was only one Alpha I had been close to for a while—enough for pheromones to be extracted from outside the body. Moreover, since only one person’s pheromones were extracted, this was certainly Mr. Taeseon’s.

It meant the father of the miscarried baby… was truly Mr. Taeseon.

‘Could it be that Mr. Taeseon spent a night with Inha?’

That was the first thought that occurred to me. However, that was the one thing I was certain could never be. Mr. Taeseon is not the kind of person to do such a thing. Had I not experienced it directly with my own body? How much he despises and finds Inha loathsome.

Also, Mr. Taeseon is an upright person. He wouldn’t do such a thing while with me. In fact, whether the partner was Inha or anyone else, with someone who wasn’t me…? It was an impossible thing.

“Professor, is this result really accurate?”

“I am confident it is the most accurate among the tests available now. Here, the one person you had contact with. That person is the biological father of the child. Do you happen to know who it is?”

“…My husband.”

The furrow in the professor’s brow deepened further.

“And there is no one else you’ve had contact with?”

“Yes, I’ve been staying only at home because wedding preparations were busy, and, um, I haven’t had any sexual contact for several months.”

“Internal pheromones can be extracted even after several months have passed.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. No matter how I thought about it, it meant that Inha and Mr. Taeseon had shared a bed. I didn’t know what kind of scheme Inha had used. In order to get his hands on Mr. Taeseon. If he became pregnant because of that, it would make sense.

“We still can’t get in touch with your husband. I’d like him to come to the hospital immediately; is there no way to reach him?”

“…I will give you the Chief Secretary’s phone number.”

The professor nodded. After handing over Chief Shin’s number, I suddenly remembered and asked the professor.

“By any chance, is Professor Jang Se-hyeon….”

“Professor Jang Se-hyeon? Do you mean Professor Jang Se-hyeon from Family Medicine?”

“Yes.”

“He is currently away for an academic conference. Ah, come to think of it, Professor Jang Se-hyeon was your primary physician. Should I try to leave a message for now?”

I quickly shook my head.

“It’s alright. I’ll see him when he returns.”

I didn’t want to worry someone who had gone all the way to a conference for no reason. Of course, I thought that if it was Professor Jang, he might know what had happened between Inha and Mr. Taeseon… but part of me wanted to know, and part of me didn’t.

“Alright then. Please get some rest. It’s best if you stay lying down and rest as much as possible. Your body will feel very heavy. There will also be continuous pain.”

“Yes….”

The professor nodded and left the hospital room. I stared blankly at the pheromone test result lying beside me again. The child of Mr. Taeseon and Inha. Inha….

Incongruity.

The sense of incongruity I had often felt reared its head again. I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It was just too awkward, and something was strange.

Maybe it’s that I don’t want to admit that Mr. Taeseon and Inha had that kind of relationship.

I picked up the pad from beside the bed to look for any information. It was something the staff working at the house had brought along at my request while they were packing my things.

First… I thought I should search about miscarriages. I couldn’t believe it, but since I had a miscarriage with this body, I wanted to know how to take care of myself moving forward, and if there would be a possibility of pregnancy again later. It was almost an act of escapism.

As I let out a sigh and placed my finger on the top button to unlock it.

“….”

I froze… staring at the brightly lit screen where the apps were neatly organized. I felt that massive sense of incongruity again. And I finally found the true nature of that incongruity.

Why?

Why… is this opening?