Help! I have fallen in love with my doctor (2)

We continue Juliet’’s story. She was dating Tony, a married man. They parted ways because Tony’’s wife had got wind of their affair. But Juliet didn’’t know she was already pregnant for him. With no other man to cater for her, she eventually fell in love with her doctor.

“I didn’t want to tell Tony about my pregnancy because I knew that wouldn’t make him happy. He didn’t want anything that would jeopardize his marriage. The first thing I did was to pack out of my apartment. I felt unsafe there since Tony told me one of my neighbours told his wife about us. The person may also tell the woman about my pregnancy. I later registered with a hospital close to my new place of abode for antenatal care. It was a private hospital and the doctor was indeed caring. He took my case to the heart and gave me adequate attention each time I came for antenatal,” Juliet said.

When Juliet was about to register in the hospital, she was told that before her date of delivery, she was supposed to bring her husband to donate a pint of blood for the hospital’s blood bank in case of some eventualities. “I was shocked to hear that because that was common with general/teaching hospitals and not private hospitals. I was also told that the consultant in charge of the hospital worked in a teaching hospital for years before he established his own and that he got that idea from where he worked before. After I was registered, I was always coming for my antenatal clinic every month according to my doctor’s instruction. Until one day, a nurse told me to hold on and see the consultant. That he needed to see me because I was one of those very few whose husbands were yet to donate blood. I was somehow worried and decided in my mind to opt out of the hospital for another private hospital if they insisted. Reason being that I had no husband to donate blood for me. I wasn’t even married in the first. And the man responsible for my pregnancy was not even aware because he would insist I terminate it. I had already told my mum I was pregnant, she advised me never to tamper with it. And that I should remain in Lagos, have my baby and bring the baby back home. She discussed on the phone with me one night that she had already told my father about it and if the baby happened to be a male child, my father wouldn’t mind taking him up not as his grandson but his own son. He needed an heir badly because he had no male child. I have five younger sisters. I agreed and was happy that my family was not angry with me for getting pregnant out of wedlock,” she said.

So, when Juliet sat facing Dr Eric as he was popularly called in the hospital, “I was at home with him. All my fears I had before stepping into his office gradually fizzled out. He was a nice and caring man. I learnt he was married and that his wife absconded back to the US where both of them met and married. That was all I heard about him. I got my scoop from one commercial motor bike rider who brought me to the hospital. When he stopped me he told me that the doctor who owned the hospital was a consultant, who studied abroad, that he was a good man, that patients hardly died in his hospital but that he never had a child of his own. And because of that, his wife left him and traveled back to America. I smiled and nodded. So, sitting before Dr Eric, I could perceive from him that he was humane. He gently asked me why I refused to bring my husband to donate blood. He told me why it was necessary to have blood in the blood bank and all that,” she enthused.

Juliet was short of words, she didn’t know how to tell the gentleman that she wasn’t married and that the man responsible for her pregnancy was not even aware of it. While he waited to hear her reasons, Juliet couldn’t say a word. But the consultant tried to make her open up. “Lady, say it, don’t hide anything from me. Whatever it is you want to say, feel free and say it. Or don’t you know I’m your doctor? You must not hide anything from me or am I not your doctor?”

“Yes, doctor, you are,”

“Then what are you hiding from me?”

“I’m finding it difficult to tell you that the man whose pregnancy I’m carrying doesn’t know I’m pregnant. I’m not even married to him. He is a married man but we were dating and when we decided to call it quits because his wife got wind of our affair, I was already pregnant for him. I couldn’t call him to tell him because he would insist I terminate the pregnancy. This is the truth doctor. I don’t have anyone to donate blood for me, I’m on my knees sir, help me,” she pleaded.

Dr Eric looked at her with pity, took her file and scribbled down her drugs for her and wrote something on her file. “Don’t worry about that then. I have written something on your file, no nurse or doctor in this hospital would ask for this once they see it. But be coming on Thursdays, that is every other week to see me. That is when I’m usually here for pregnant women, okay?”

“Okay sir, thank you,” she hugged him.

Juliet was coming every two weeks as the doctor told her. Gradually they started being close, Juliet loved telling stories while doctor was a good listener. That was what Tony never liked. “He used to complain that I talk a lot, that I should learn to keep mum at times but doctor Eric was entire opposite of Tony. He would want me to tell him everything, he loved women who talk. He said they were livelier. So, I talked, chatted and laughed while he would just be smiling and listening. He was enjoying my company so much that even when I wasn’t due for antenatal clinic, he would call me on the phone to come over to the hospital and be with him. I used to enjoy staying with him. That was what I continued doing, I answered all the questions he asked about me not concealing anything. Told him how I met Tony because he asked. Gradually I became fond of him and that fondness culminated to love.

By ADAEZE AMOS

*To be continued.