While I Was Pregnant, My Husband Pressured Me to Lose WeightChapter 1

I gained sixty pounds after I got pregnant.

Using the excuse of pushing me to lose weight, my husband stopped giving me any money to live on.

"Lose ten pounds, and I'll give you a thousand."

"From now on, all your expenses come from your weight loss, until you're back to a normal weight."

The next prenatal checkup would cost 968 dollars.

To scrape together the money, I starved myself for half a month.

But I only lost three pounds.

"Have you even been trying seriously?!"

"If it's not ten pounds, you don't get the thousand!"

Inside me, the hunger clawed at me until it was unbearable.

I forced myself through three days without eating, and finally lost ten pounds.

I sent him a screenshot of my weight, and at the hospital payment window I anxiously urged him to send the money.

But all he sent was a one-dollar transfer.

Not until three hours later.

Only then did he add one more line.

"That earlier text was from my assistant. I'll transfer the money to you now."

I didn't yell, I didn't make a scene. I calmly accepted the money.

I didn't go through with the checkup. I scheduled the surgery instead.

If I want to lose weight, isn't this the easier way?

1

It went more smoothly than I'd imagined.

In one hour, the child I'd spent three years of injections and painstaking effort to conceive was gone.

I sat alone on a cold chair in the hospital for two hours.

Elijah didn't call me once.

My phone rang.

His assistant, Beulah, had sent a photo of herself holding a designer handbag.

Thank you, Mr. Swanson, for your generosity. I finally got the bag I've been dreaming of!

That bag costs a hundred thousand.

My checkup fee wasn't even a thousand.

The hunger in my belly clawed at me, sharp and merciless.

I used to want to eat like crazy, but now I couldn't swallow a single bite.

I got up and jogged five kilometers back to the villa.

I opened the door, out of breath, only to find a new electronic scale inside.

"Ma'am, you're back?"

"Miss Bell bought this scale especially to push you to lose weight."

"She said if you haven't lost weight today, you can't come in…"

Nanette stood awkwardly in the doorway, blocking my way.

I looked up and inside.

Beulah stood beside Elijah, wearing the tight-fitting dress I used to wear before I got pregnant.

"Mr. Swanson, I'm so sorry, it's all my fault for staining my dress during my period."

"I've changed into your wife's dress—she won't be angry, will she?"

"Why would she be angry?"

"Could she even fit into this dress with her figure now?"

Elijah took off his rimless glasses, guilt in his eyes.

"Thank you for pretending to be my wife today. Otherwise, if I'd brought her to the investment conference, I'd have made a fool of myself and become a laughingstock."

When he finished, Elijah leaned back.

"Elijah Swanson's wife, a fat woman who weighs a hundred and sixty pounds?"

"I won't hand my rivals a chance to attack me."

Those two words, "fat woman," were like a knife driven into my heart.

It gouged out a chunk, leaving it dripping with blood.

I froze in the doorway, unable to move for a long time.

After I got pregnant, my reactions were always severe.

I vomited until I bled, and my whole body broke out in dark blotches.

The worst time, I ran a high fever that wouldn't break, for no reason at all.

I had thought about aborting the child.

It was Elijah who begged me with pleading eyes, asking me to give him a complete family.

To keep the child, I took the medicine and the injections.

My weight climbed out of control.

He had once promised.

No matter what I turned into, he would love me.

Now, "fat woman" was always on his lips.

"Mr. Swanson, your wife is back!"

"Oh no! What happened to her?!"

"It smells awful…"

Beulah covered her mouth, her face embarrassed as she swallowed the rest of her words.

Elijah frowned and walked step by step to the door.

When he saw the state of me, a flash of disgust crossed his eyes, then vanished just as quickly.

"Dawn, are you doing this on purpose to get back at me?"

"Just because Beulah accidentally heard 'one dollar' instead of 'one thousand'?"

"Just because I transferred the money late?"

His voice was hoarse, and Elijah covered his mouth and gagged a few times.

"Mr. Swanson, are you all right?"

"Ma'am, Mr. Swanson closed a big deal at a business dinner tonight and they made him drink a lot."

"Don't be angry—it's all my fault!"

Beulah hurried to hold Elijah up, her hands expertly loosening his tie and shirt buttons.

I watched quietly, and my heart gave a sudden, sharp ache.

Without thinking, I stepped inside.

Beulah suddenly stopped me, her voice sharp.

"Ma'am, step on the scale before you come in!"