Her palms were sweating, her breath coming out short, pulse beating in her ears, blocking out all other sounds. Her legs followed the doctor towards the ultrasound room but her mind was far away from her body. The voices around her echoed in her head.

They entered the room and the nurse instructed her to lay down on the gatch bed. Mindlessly, she did as she was told. She laid down and pulled her shirt up from her stomach. They put a cold gel on her stomach.

Excessive sweat fell from her eyebrows as she was getting hot. “Wait,” she said. Under pressure her voice shook, becoming almost inaudible.

The doctor's hand stopped midway as she stared at Chloe in a questioning manner. Chloe looked between the doctor and the transducer in her hand.

"Do you need anything?" The doctor asked

"What---" she took a deep breath and swallowed uneasily. "What if it's a tumor? Does it mean I'm going to die?"

"Well, I hope it's not a tumor but we'll find out soon" the doctor gave her a warm smile and Chloe nodded.

As the transducer touched Chloe's stomach, she held her breath and squeezed her eyes shut.

"I could tell..." The doctor mumbled to herself, moving the transducer around slowly. Her attention was on the monitor before her.

"What?" Chloe asked, lowly.

"You're pregnant, congratulations. It seems you're more than twelve weeks along"

Chloe's eyes widened "What?"

The doctor pointed towards the screen. "You see this... It's the head, here are the arms and legs"

Chloe looked in the monitor and she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Her chin trembled miserably, her whimpers resonated in the room and tears rolled down her cheeks. It has arms?" Chloe asked, crying and smiling at the same time.

"Yes, do you want to hear the heartbeat?"

"H--Heartbeat?" Chloe stuttered and then nodded. "Yes!"

"Okay, let me find your baby's heart," the doctor said moving the transducer around. A few seconds later, a gentle heartbeat fell on Chloe's ears.

A gasp left her lips. It looked like she just saw a ghost. She froze in place. Her eyes brimmed with tears of mirth and the smile tugged her lips broke into a grin.

The first thought that came to her mind was, she wasn't alone. She had someone now. She wasn't alone...

"Can I ask you something?" Chloe said

"Yes, this is why I am here"

"I... I had an abortion..." She uttered lowly.

"Before this?"

Chloe shook her head. "No, when I was four weeks along... I bled and everything"

"Did you abort it surgically?"

The nurse handed her some tissues as Chloe wiped her stomach. "No, I took a pill"

"You know abortion pills don't always work..."

Chloe frowned. "But I bled so much and--- and I went to the hospital... They couldn't detect the heartbeat..."

"Chloe, as you can see your child is very small in size. It's smaller than it should be at this point. It is highly possible that the embryo was less than 5mm CRL at four weeks, it would have been impossible to detect a heartbeat anyway. You can detect the heartbeat of the embryo at five to six weeks."

"So, it never died?" Tears prickled Chloe's eyes.

"Which drug did you use and how?"

"I don't know... It didn't say on the bottle" Chloe wiped her tears. "And I took two pills together..."

The doctor frowned. "It doesn't work like that, you have to take another dose after forty-eight hours and then there's this whole procedure. You have to visit the doctor and get daily check-ups to see if the pill worked"

"Oh" was all Chloe said

"You can still consider many options if you don't want this child..."

The doctor's voice faded away as Chloe thought about her child. It was there, it was always there...

Chloe came out of the clinic with a grin holding her ultrasound reports. She looked at the picture again and again. It wasn't much but it was everything for Chloe.

But soon that smile fell when she looked around and realized she had nowhere to go. Tears brimmed her eyes, she sat outside the clinic and took out the urn from her bag. "Hi, dad. I'm pregnant. My baby didn't die. My baby is a fighter. You're gonna be a grandfather. I wish you could meet him or her... I don't know the gender yet but I will soon." She gently placed the urn back inside and smiled sadly.

She placed a hand on her stomach. "Hi, baby. Just so you know, I love you so much and I'll try to be someone who deserves you... I--- I won't---" her voice cracked. "I won't let you s-sleep under a dumpster... I'll do anything to give a b-better life" by now she was a sobbing mess. "I still have six months and I promise you in these six months, I'll buy a house for us and I'll buy a beautiful crib for you. You'll have your own bedroom. You'll go to a good school and then I'll make sure you'll go to college and be a lawyer for me, okay, baby" she wiped her tears. "And I will never let you feel unloved and alone. You'll always have me... Always"

Days went on, Chloe didn't even know the date anymore. All she could focus on was earning a better life for her child. Her eyes were puffy from crying for the last five days. She was dehydrated, and her entire body was sore. Even when her dad died, even when Axel left her, she didn’t cry that long.

Now, it was a need to become something, to earn something. She hated when people threw money her way. She hated when she had to beg for food but just for the sake of her child, she begged people.

She applied to be a housemaid or a babysitter but when they'd meet her in person, they'd get disgusted or horrified by her anorexic, dirty appearance. She didn't remember the last time she had a shower. She'd use public toilets but that was just it.

She could sell the chain but she wanted to hold onto it for her child. She didn't want to spend the money before her child was born.

In the last few days, she only had one meal a day and it wasn't enough. Her stomach grumbled loudly and she clutched it hard to make it stop. She looked around and her eyes fell on the man sitting on a bench. He had a bag of a fast-food meal beside him but he was busy doing something on his cellphone.

He suddenly got up as he got a call. He turned the other way and talked on the phone while leaving his meal unattended. Chloe trotted towards it and without looking here and there, she picked it up and ran. She ran as fast as her legs could take her.

She stopped in the street she slept in and looked around to see no one following her. She opened the bag and her eyes teared up to see a proper meal. She fell to the floor and a great sob escaped her, and she covered her face with shaking hands. She was crying because she stole for the first time. She was crying because it felt like it had been a decade since she last had a proper meal. She cried because she promised her child a better life. She cried because of what had become of her. She turned into a liar, a beggar, and now a thief.

Her stomach grumbled again and she pulled out a burger. She unwrapped it and took a bite. Warm food melted in the back of her throat. She found a bottle of orange juice and unscrew it hurriedly. She plopped the fries in her mouth like a madwoman.

Shiny black shoes came into her view and she got stuck in her place. She slowly put the burger down and didn't dare to look up. She chewed the bite that was in her mouth with difficulty. She was not frightened nor was she was afraid. What she felt was beyond such mere nouns.

"I'm sorry" came her broken voice. "I was so hungry... I didn't mean to steal it... But I was s-so h-hungry" she cried miserably. "I'm so s-sorry..."

"You can eat your burger." He laughed. "I'm not here for that" he crouched down and tried to get a better look at her face. "I'm here for you"

Chloe tried to hide her face. "I have nothing to give you"

"No, that's where you're wrong." He tilted his head to the side. "I see you're pregnant" he mumbled

Her head shot up, her eyes wide. Fear crippled her, freezing every muscle of her body. "I'm not giving you my baby!" She snapped

She looked at the man before her. He was strongly built with a chiseled handsome face. He had a cocky smirk on his face. He looked between twenty-five to thirty years old. Behind him was an army of bodyguards consisting of giant men and beside him stood a guy. His face was set in stone. His entire neck was covered with tattoos.

The man before Chloe looked at him. "She'll be really good looking if we clean her up"

"How old are you?" The tattoo-covered guy asked

"Seventeen..."

He sighed deeply. "She's underage, Andrew,"

The guy who was crouched down before her, laughed. "When are you turning eighteen?"

Chloe looked between all his bodyguards and him. All these men were capable of hurting her, killing her. She sniffled. "In two months"

"Two months?" The man named Andrew said. "We could work with that. It'll take two months for her to gain some healthy weight and we also need to train her."

"We should take her. We don't have a redhead" The tattooed guy said and Chloe's heartbeat quickened.

"I'm not going anywhere with you!" She snapped

Andrew tucked her hair behind her ear and Chloe flinched away from him.

He sighed. "Look, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm gonna give you a place to live, bathe you, get you some fresh clothes, and we'll feed you" he explained to her softly.

"And what do I have to do in return?" She asked venomously.

"Any other girl in your place would jump at this opportunity without asking questions" the tattooed guy snapped.

Andrew raised a hand gesturing him to shut up. "You'll work for me. I'm a club owner. It's a fantasy club where we make people's dreams come true---"

"I won't sleep with anyone!" She shrieked

"You won't have to sleep with anyone. You have my word. Some men have weird fetishes, you know... Do you know how many men have pregnancy fetishes? All you have to do is perform before them, strip naked and show off your baby bump"

Chloe gulped. "I don't want to..."

"I'll give you and your child a better life. All you have to do is come with us" saying that, he stood up and put his hands in his pocket. "You have five minutes to think about it"

Chloe thought for a while but the only thing she could think about was a better life for her child. "No one will touch me?" She asked in a low voice.

"No one, you have my word"

"Okay..." She nodded and looked down at her stomach. "I'll go with you"