After returning home from her doctor's appointment Arlene sat down at her desk in her home office and powered up her computer. As she waited for the computer to power up, she looked down at the ultrasound pictures the doctor had taken of her womb and smiled.
She scanned the picture and saved it on her computer, preparing to send it to David, the father, her husband.
'This is stupid,' Arlene thought to herself. 'I don't have a husband. Not really. My husband would be here with me going to doctor visits with me, and I would be looking forward to telling him in person about my doctor visits instead of emailing him or over the phone.'
It had been a month since David's visit to Atlanta, and as he promised, he and Arlene stayed in touch through phone calls and emails. David was supportive as he could be given their situation, her being in Atlanta, and him being in L.A.
But the situation was beginning to wear on Arlene's nerves. She felt as if she was pretending to be married like things hadn't been settled between them, even though they both agreed not to have their marriage annulled.
Arlene was feeling alone. A feeling she shouldn't be feeling if she were actually married because her, husband would be there by her side.
'Things can't continue this way,' Arlene told herself.
She looked up at her computer screen at the image of the ultrasound and tried to imagine what David's reaction would be when he saw. A smile appeared on her face as she pictured one possible reaction.
'It shouldn't be this way,' she told herself deciding she and David needed to talk and make real decisions to see if this marriage was good for both before she gave birth.
Arlene composed the email she was going to send to David, added the three ultrasound images and sent it.
Then she turned off her computer and waited for David's phone call she was sure she would receive from David after he read her email and saw the ultrasound images.
((((((((((((((()))))))))))))))
Diana sat home at her computer doing what had become a daily habit for her a Google search for information on Arlene. She was trying to do the search herself because she didn't want anyone else to know what she was doing.
With the help of books detailing how to do a successful online search, she was making great progress, but she wasn't liking the information she was finding.
Arlene Patterson was born in a state run hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, abandoned there by her mother and put into the foster care system. But Arlene wasn't what one expected of a child raised a state run system. She had none of the problems associated with being in the system from birth to eighteen years.
She didn't have a juvenile nor an adult criminal record, she didn't do drugs, nor did she drink. The more Diana learned about her, the more she hated Arlene's guts.
'No, one is that clean,' Diana said to herself. 'There must be something. She was raised without a mother or a father and shipped from one foster home to another, which must have had a negative effect on her in some way. Hell, I was raised with both my parents, and I have problems. There must be something.'
Deciding to take a break, Diana left the Google site and made her way over to Yahoo to check and see if David had received any more emails from Arlene.
She'd started checking David's emails when he gave her his password after they became engaged. It was his way of showing Diana that he had nothing to hide from her. Diana checked it every day to make sure he wasn't cheating on her. Now since they were no longer a couple or getting married, she checked his email to keep track of what was going on between him and Arlene.
She usually waited until David had read the emails Arlene sent him to keep him from knowing that she was reading his emails, but the word "SURPRISE!" typed in the subject section of this latest email made her decide to open and read Arlene's current email before David did.
As she read it Diana's anger grew as tears filled her eyes. She wrestled with the desire to grab the monitor and send it crashing to the floor.
"This has to end," she said out loud. "This has to end, and this bitch has to go. I want her and her little spawn out of mine and David's lives."
A smile spread across Diana's face as a plan began to formulate in her mind.
'Why didn't I think of this before?' she asked herself as she hit the reply button and began composing a reply to Arlene's email. "This will solve all my problems," she said as confidence filled her. 'After she reads this we won't ever hear from that bitch again.' Diana finished the email, hit the send button, then sat back and relaxed her smile growing bigger because her dreams had once again become possible.
((((((((((((((())))))))))))))
Arlene came back to her computer later that evening, wondering why she hadn't heard from David. She looked down at the watch on her wrist and saw that it was almost eight o'clock in the evening. Arlene moved the wireless mouse, clearing her screen saver, and revealing her desktop.
She clicked on her web browser connecting her to the Internet. She clicked on her email account, and she saw that she had one new email. She smiled when she saw that it was a reply from David to the email, she'd sent him earlier. She still found it strange that he hadn't called her and why she hadn't heard the Yahoo yodel she had been listening so intently for letting her know that she had a new email message.
She was smiling as she clicked on the message and waited for it to open thinking of what David might've written.
The smile slipped from her face as she read his reply.
Arlene,
Thank you for the report on your doctor's visit. However, I have decided that having our marriage annulled is the right thing to do. So, all future communications between us will be conducted through my attorney, Robert Thompson. It is not my desire to cause you pain with this decision, it is just how I think things should be done between us. After you give birth, financial arrangements will be made, but I wish to have no further contact with whatsoever. I ask that you please respect my decisions and only communicate with me through my attorney if the need should arrive.
Sincerely with regret,
David Fitzgerald.
Arlene pulled out her cell phone and dialed David's cell phone number.
David answered the phone on the second ring.
"Hello?"
"Hi, David," Arlene replied, struggling to the tone of her voice neutral as she spoke to David.
"Hello, Arlene," David said, glad to hear Arlene's voice. "Is everything alright?" he asked when he remembered she had a doctor's appointment that day.
"Everything is fine," Arlene assured him, finding the tone of his voice and the concern she heard in it strange. "Did you get the email I sent you earlier today?"
"I haven't checked my email today," David said. "I've been kind of busy."
"Would you check it for me now?" Arlene asked a sense of relief flowing over her from David's answer.
"I can do that," David said logging on to his email account. "Want to tell me what the doctor said?"
"No," Arlene replied. "I put everything in the email."
"You can give me a hint," David teased.
