5
Once in the car, I wiped away my tears and tossed the bill at Ryan. “You caused this
trouble yourself. I’m not splitting this one.”
Ryan was especially sensitive about money, so the things he broke were fairly cheap. It all added up to less than $1000.
But Ryan just sat in the passenger seat like he’d lost his soul.
He ignored me, so I didn’t say anything either. When we got home and were about to get out of the car, Ryan begged me: “Samantha, take me to get an abortion. How can a man
have babies?”
“I can have them, so why can’t you?”
I took out the contract from my bag and pointed at the words in black and white. “You
signed this yourself.”
“That’s because I had no idea you could do this. Even if you won’t take me, I’ll take abortion pills myself to get rid of these babies.”
I snorted coldly. “Do whatever you want. But let me be clear – I’m only having babies because you agreed to carry half. If you abort yours, I’ll abort mine too.”
Clearly, me aborting the babies wasn’t much of a threat to Ryan.
“Then you abort them too. I’m a man, there’s no way I’m having babies. Worst case, we’ll
get divorced.”
I could see the disgust for me in his eyes. He’d probably been thinking about divorce for a
while.
I sighed.
“You should know, once you make a contract with us seahorses, you can only marry seahorses for life. Even if you divorce me, your next partner will be a seahorse too. But other seahorses won’t be as fair as me.””
20:34 Wed, 18 Jun
87%
I still cared for Ryan. After all, natural pregnancy carriers like him are hard to find.
Our clan prioritizes having offspring – the more children, the better.
Finding someone else and convincing them to have babies would be difficult.
Hearing my words, Ryan’s expression became even more troubled.
“I still want an abortion. Worst case, I just won’t get married again.” Ryan was determined to terminate the pregnancy.
I didn’t try to stop him, just told him to go to my dad for the abortion. Other hospitals
weren’t familiar with the pregnancy sac structure, so abortions could be dangerous.
Early the next morning, Ryan left. He came back soon after and lay motionless in bed.
I contacted my dad and found out Ryan had changed his mind at the operating room
door.
Once someone gets pregnant, hormones are automatically secreted. Under the influence
of these hormones, the carrier becomes extremely attached to the baby.
Ryan was an orphan, so he craved family even more than most people.
Even though the babies were only two months along, with no visible faces or movements
yet, Ryan had inevitably developed strong feelings for them.
He couldn’t bring himself to abort them.
After lying in bed for a week, Ryan accepted the reality that he would be pregnant and give birth.
But he proposed canceling our 50/50 arrangement.
“Now that I’m pregnant, I won’t be able to work with a big belly. I can’t split costs anymore.”
I laughed. “You’re not the only one pregnant. I’m carrying babies too. We’ll each be responsible for our own prenatal costs and baby expenses. I can’t work either, so I’ll have to
20:34 Wed, 18 Jun
<
rely on my parents.”
Ryan frowned. “Your family is so rich. What’s wrong with supporting two pregnant people?TM
874
“No problem. My parents will support you now, and you’ll take care of them in the future.
You’ve only seen how rich my parents are, but did you notice I have 38 older brothers? As
long as you agree to take care of the postpartum recovery for all 38 of my brothers, I
guarantee my parents will cover all our pregnancy expenses.”
No matter how Ryan tried to negotiate, I insisted he put everything in writing.
Including that he’d take on our family’s debts if we went bankrupt.
After getting burned by signing documents with me last time, Ryan had developed a psychological aversion to putting things in writing.
Weighing the pros and cons, Ryan gave up on the idea of having my parents support him.
6
