The next morning, the second Andin opened her eyes, her stomach lurched. That had been happening a little, lately, and she was worried that she was coming down with something due to all the stress. When she made it to the bathroom, the feeling was gone so she washed up her face and went downstairs to get some breakfast. Her mother had gone to the market, leaving a note on the fridge. After eating the pancakes left by her mother on the table, she took a sip of the tea that she had made, hoping that it would settle her stomach a little.

In the afternoon, however, it was out of her hands. Her stomach was roiling, and she made a mad dash to the bathroom, and she only just reached the toilet before she started throwing up. When she was done, she sat back and flushed the toilet, grimacing at the foul taste in her mouth. She pulled herself to her feet and caught sight of herself in the mirror. She looked pale and shaky and overheated. She was definitely sick.

She fumbled her way back to her bed and slide her aching body under the covers. Her phone on the nightstand rang and she grabbed it. It was a call from Damon.

"Andin Mia Bella," he greeted, sounding far more awake than her. "How are you?"

"Hello, Dee," she croaked through her sore throat.

"Andin?" he asked, sounding startled. "Is everything alright? You sound odd."

"Not really," she admitted. "I started vomiting this morning. I think I caught something in the office. I do not know. I am just not feeling well."

"Have you gone to the doctor?"

"No."

"You should, Andin Darling," he suggested, his voice sounding very worried. "You could catch stomach flu or something worse."

"Alright. I will this afternoon." She took a deep calming breath to stop herself from hurling. "How are you, Dee? How is Tanner?"

"I am okay. We are both fine, really. I know it has only been—like a day and you are probably busy planning for your mother's birthday tomorrow but I thought I should tell you about two things."

"Which are?"

"First, I miss you," he answered which caused her to chuckle. "It is true, you know. Last night I told Tanner to knock on your door to ask you to come over for a dinner then he broke my heart by reminding me that you are with your mother. Anyway, the second thing is your lover slash boss keeps on looking for you. He came here last night and then again early this morning. He left something on your door and since I know you are not going to come back for a while, do you want me to mail it to you?"

Hearing Damon talking about Sebastian brought him back to her mind. She had been trying to not think about him. Thus far with vomiting every now and then and being exhausted from hurling over the toilet, she had somehow managed to put him on the very back of her mind. Now she could not help but feel bad for him. Perhaps she should not have informed him that she would not be back on that post-it note. That way at least he would think she was merely taking a leave to visit her mother. Sure, he would look for her when she was not coming back to the office when she should be, but at least he would have a few days not worrying about her.

"Andin?"

"Ah, yes?" She blinked twice and pushed her train of thoughts away.

"Do you want me to mail it to you?"

What was Damon talking about? Then she recalled and quickly answered, "I do not want to trouble you. It is fine."

"I think I should mail it. I do not want to open it and perhaps it is something that could expire in a week or something. I do not know. I just have the feeling that I should simply mail it to you."

Andin laughed at Damon's panicky voice. "Okay then. Thank you, Dee."

"No worries and please go to the doctor for the life of everything good in the world, Darling."

"I will," she promised. They said goodbye and then hang up.

She dropped her phone onto the bed next to her with a sigh. She closed her eyes. She did not want to think about anything right now. She could not stress about Sebastian or Maria's threat at the moment, especially if she hoped to get better. Just when she finally found a moment of peace, her stomach lurched again and she rushed for the bathroom once more.

She was more worried when she continued throwing up throughout the day. She decided to call the nearest clinic and ask for an appointment. Luckily, there was a cancelation that afternoon. When the time ticked closer to two o'clock and her mother had not arrived yet, she dragged herself out of her bed, grabbed the water bottle she had been sipping all day since water seems to be the only thing she could keep down, and strumbled to the first floor of the house. Since she was in no condition to drive herself there, she called a cab.

When the taxi driver arrived, he looked startled to see her and that made her wonder just how bad she actually was. She gave him the address of the clinic and dozed off on the short drive. She started to wake up when the car slowed down until it came to a complete still, informing her that they had indeed arrived.

"I hope you feel better," the driver said to her when she handed him the money.

"Thank you," she replied, somehow managing a small smile.

She closed the door behind her and paused as the taxi took off, swaying slightly. Her stomach lurched again as bile rose in her throat. She took in a deep calming breath, trying to push it back down. Frankly, she had grown tired of throwing up, especially since there was very little left in her stomach.

When she felt like she could move, she walked into the clinic. There were a few people waiting, some of them flicking through magazines while others were staring at their phones. A handful of people glanced up as she walked in, and then, disinterested, they returned to what they had been doing.

The woman at the desk with a name tag reading 'Mia', smiled as Andin arrived.

"I've got an appointment at two-thirty," said Andin.

"Okay. Have you been here before? I just need to check some details."

Andin gripped the edge of the counter and answered her quick questions. Then Mia smiled at her again saying, "Dr. Rogers will be with you shortly. Please take a seat."

Gratefully, Andin pushed herself away and slumped into the nearest seat. She was not sure how long she could remain standing. She felt incredibly weak all of a sudden and she also felt overheated and drained. It was ridiculous how strongly this virus had hit her.

Her phone vibrated in her pocket and she quickly pulled it out thinking that it was her mother. She looked at the message and as soon as she read it, she went cold.

You are not engaged. You are a liar.

She stared at the messages. What on earth was going on and who was this person who texted her? It was from an anonymous sender. At first, she thought it was probably Leroy but then she could not figure out how would Leroy find out. Moreover, she had not heard from Leroy for the last two months. Although there was still a chance that the creepy text was coming from him, the chances were low.

"Andin Williams?"

Andin looked up, slightly startled. A young, male doctor was standing by the door, looking about the room. Pushing the thoughts of the odd text message from her mind for time being, she pulled herself unsteadily to her feet, unintentionally attracting the doctor's attention.

"Are you okay?" he asked as he rushed to her side.

"Yes, I'm sorry."

"No worries." He led her down the hallway, into a surprisingly cozy room.

She sat down on the chair he gestured to her, paling at the clinical, medicinal smell that permeated the room.

"Now, what can I do for you?" Doctor Agnos asks kindly.

"I feel really sick," she started then proceeded to explain her current state of condition, "I have been throwing up all morning. My whole body feels so weak and I am so tired. Which probably happened because I was not able to eat much."

The doctor frowned and scooted forward. "I am going to check your temperature and blood pressure," he said. He wrapped the material around her arm and flicked a switch that momentarily pumped air into it. He hummed under his breath as he looked at the numbers on the screen, and then quickly put a thermometer into her ear, humming again at the result.

"Your temperature and blood pressure are a little high," he said. "Just to rule it out, is there any chance that you could be pregnant?"

Andin almost laughed if only she was not drained out of energy. She had been using contraception, she took her pill every day so there was no way she could be pregnant. Abruptly, all humor faded. She blinked as realization hit her hard. It was true that she had been using contraception but there was that one time when they had had sex at the office, on Monday after they had returned from Sicily. She vaguely recalled what Sebastian had said and her dumb answer after they had had sex that day.

"We just had unprotected sex, Miss Williams."

"Oh! Do you mean could I get pregnant?"

"Yes, perhaps you could take those pills that girls always take. I am not sure what it was called but I remember back in uni, the drugstore by the campus sells one of those. The pills you take after you had unprotected sex."

"Ah, the morning-after pill? You don't have to worry, Sir."

She truly had taken that pill. Was it possible that it had not worked?

"I, um, I don't know."

Was she pregnant? In all honesty, she was not sure.

"When was the last time you got your period?" Doctor Rogers asked her nicely seemingly calm while her mind was in a wreck.

She tried to calm herself down and tried hard to remember. She knew she had her period a week before they had gone to Sicily now all she had to recall was the period after that. Except that she realized she had not had her period since then. Still, there was a part of her that did not believe she was actually pregnant. "I will do the pregnancy test and the blood test," she decided. Her voice sounded distant as if it did not belong to her.

"Do you have any referrals?" Doctor Rogers asked.

She shook her head. "No. Um, can I get the results back first? Just to make sure."

Doctor Rogers gave her a sympathetic smile. It was probably clear to see that this was not happy news. "Of course," he answered.

He ran off a referral for blood tests for her and slid it over to her. "There is a nurse named Bella waiting for you outside," he advised. "She will take some blood and send it away. You should have the results back in a few days."

"Thank you," she replied with a nervous smile. Suddenly, everything just became ten times harder.