The Caged Canary Ran Away

"We don't need a kid. Be good, baby." Elias said it while he was still gently stroking my hair. What he didn't know was that I was already pregnant.

And I knew he loathed illegitimate children more than anything. If I dared use a baby to push him into marriage, I might not make it out alive. I didn't dare gamble.

I left behind a single line, "I don't want to be a caged canary anymore," and fled overnight to a small Southern town.

Two weeks later, I had just finished asking a pregnant woman by the roadside for pregnancy tips when I fell into a familiar embrace.

The man behind me spoke in a hoarse voice, heavy with exhaustion. "Baby, who came up with this canary thing?

Aren't I your boyfriend?" Chapter 1 "This kid is so cute." Fresh out of the shower, I sat on the edge of the bed scrolling through videos.

Elias's long fingers combed through my hair, gently massaging my scalp. It felt good.

Over the roar of the hair dryer, he gave a careless "Mm." I could hear he was just humoring me, and I pressed him stubbornly. "You don't think she's cute?

Come on, she's so cute." He glanced at my phone, his hands never pausing as he dried my hair. "Baby, that's the fifth time tonight you've asked me that.

Are you pregnant?" My heart stopped. I had never brought up kids before. Bringing them up over and over tonight—anyone would sense something was off.

I pretended to complain the way I always did. "No way. We're so careful, how would I even get pregnant? It's the algorithm's fault.

I liked one video of a kid and now it keeps showing me tons of kids, and every single one is adorable. Don't you think?" Click— The hair dryer stopped.

The room was suddenly so quiet. Elias leaned down and ruffled my hair. "Baby, you don't have to feel me out so carefully. You can just ask me. "I don't like kids.

We're not having any. Be good." So that's how it is. I fought back the urge to touch my stomach, hurriedly rolled myself up in the covers, and lay down to sleep.

Elias turned off the light, and the other side of the bed dipped. I was pulled into his arms.

His voice was gentle. "Are you mad?" "No." "And you say you're not mad." "I'm really not." He kissed my earlobe, and a sigh followed. "Baby, I really don't like kids.

Can you let me have this one, please?" But… In the moonlight coming through the window, I could see my bag. It hung on the coat rack, swaying slightly in a gust of wind.

A corner of white paper peeked out through the gap. It was the pregnancy test report I'd gotten today. Pregnancy: Positive. I was pregnant.

I had no idea how I'd even gotten pregnant! Every single time with Elias, we'd used protection. Every single time! It wasn't like I'd been with any other man.

And even if I had, I would never have gone without protection. And I'd always had irregular periods.

The day before yesterday, Elias had asked, concerned, "It still hasn't come this month?" I'd been lying on my stomach on the bed, flipping through a book. "Same old problem.

It's fine." He'd caught my ankle and played with it. "It's been years and it hasn't gotten any better.

Baby, take your health a little more seriously." I'd brushed him off. "Yeah, yeah.

I'll go see a doctor in a couple of days." Chapter 2 I'd thought it would just be a routine checkup—get some medication and keep treating it the same lukewarm way.

Who knew this trip to the hospital would get me sent from endocrinology to OBGYN? In the end, out of nowhere, I walked away with a pregnancy test report. I couldn't believe it.

I searched online, and from all kinds of posts I reached a conclusion. —We hadn't checked afterward. The condom had broken.

I stood outside the hospital clutching the report, staring blankly at the people coming and going.

What was in my belly was nothing more than a fertilized egg the size of a sesame seed, not even an embryo yet.

And yet I seemed to hear a second heartbeat, beating in time with mine. Thump, thump. That was my child—bound to me by blood. Mine.

Something came up with Elias's overseas business, and he had to go on a business trip.

Before he left, he fussed at me endlessly. "No cold stuff, cut back on snacks, remember to eat properly while I'm gone, and don't go running around." I pushed him out the door. "I know, I know.

Just go already." Elias scooped me up and took me down in the elevator with him.

I was stunned for a second. "What are you doing?" He pinched my cheek. "Since you're so eager to get rid of me, I've decided to bring you along." I panicked. "I'm not going!" Elias didn't budge.

He carried me into the car. I tried to reason with him. "I really don't want to go. You're going for work, why would you drag me along?

I don't even understand your work." Whenever Elias and I got in the car together, the driver always knew to raise the privacy partition and leave us alone.

With no third person around, Elias would say anything. He brushed the pads of his fingers along my cheek and said lightly, "To take care of my physical needs." I was speechless.

What a perfectly reasonable answer. The trips I'd gone on with him before had never been about anything else. I lowered my head. "Oh. Okay." Wait. No. I was pregnant.

I said pitifully, "Can't you take care of it yourself?" "No." My voice got smaller. "On a business trip, all you'd have to do is say the word and there'd be plenty of people willing to help you out.

Why don't you just find someone who—" Before I could finish, Elias narrowed his eyes and gripped my chin.

He spoke very slowly, in a deliberately gentle tone that made my blood run cold. "What did Cami just say?

I didn't quite catch that." Thank God it had turned cold and I was wearing long sleeves. He couldn't see the goosebumps rising on my arms. I shook my head. "I didn't say anything.

I didn't say anything at all." I stopped talking and turned to look out the window at the streets streaming past. I was so fed up. Without meaning to, I clenched my fists.

My hard, manicured nails dug into my palms and left crescentshaped marks. It hurt a little. I didn't want to go anywhere. I wanted to stay somewhere familiar.

I didn't want to go to a strange country and listen to strangers say things I couldn't understand.

I didn't want to stay in a hotel where the only thing to do after I opened my eyes was wait for Elias to come back. The familiar city fell away behind the moving car.

It was overcast today, and the sky was nothing special. The window reflected my image. Twentyfiveyearold Camille Delaney hung on the branch like a withered leaf.

All it would take was one light gust of wind, and she would fall. Elias broke the silence. He wrapped his arms around me from the side. "I was joking.

If you don't want to go, you don't have to." I blinked slowly. He rested his chin on my shoulder and buried his face in my hair. "Your documents are all at home.

I just wanted you to see me off at the airport." Belatedly, I remembered I hadn't brought my passport.

If Elias had really wanted to take me, he would have grabbed my bag on the way out. Chapter 3 His voice was muffled. "I don't like it when you try to get rid of me.

And I don't like what you said just now. "Cami, be good. Do as you're told." He held my face and kissed me for nearly ten minutes before he finally let me go.

He boarded his flight, and I headed back. I pressed my fingers to my reddened lips. The woman in the mirror was flushed with desire. I touched my stomach again. It was so flat.

It was too early; there was no sign of a pregnancy at all. I didn't really know how to be around Elias, or what to do about this child.

Its parents weren't married, its father didn't like it, and its arrival was pure accident. From every angle, it shouldn't be kept.

Its fate was to be shredded on an operating table, turned into a pile of garbage, and tossed in the trash. But… It was my child. I was looking forward to its birth.

I worked up my courage, hesitated for a long time, and sent Elias a message. [When you get back, I'll tell you something.] His trip was supposed to last a week.

I had a week to prepare. If Elias acknowledged this child, we could get married and raise it together. If he didn't want it, I would leave and never let him see me again.

No matter what, I was keeping it. On the third day of Elias's trip, my head was still a mess. So I just went shopping. I was in a fitting room trying on the new fall collection.

Back when I was a teenager, I'd loved coming to this luxury boutique.

I didn't have much money back then, so I would look at this and that, and in the end pick my favorite and buy it.

Later, when Elias found out I liked the place, he had things sent to our home in a steady stream, but I lost interest.

He realized I liked buying things myself, so he stopped having them sent and instead spent more time shopping with me, browsing and picking things out.

I was thinking about him as I zipped up the dress and studied myself in the fulllength mirror, when I suddenly heard voices right outside the fitting room.

Of all things, they were talking about Elias too. …And me. "Speaking of the Delaneys, Camille Delaney's been with Elias Sinclair for five years now, right?

And she still hasn't locked him down?" "Marrying into money isn't that easy.

Back before the Delaneys went bankrupt she might've had a shot, but now Camille's an orphan, living entirely off Elias. He's just having some fun—marry into the family?

Please." My fingertips stilled, and my reflection in the mirror blurred. The voices outside the fitting room went on. "Not necessarily.

If you ask me, all she has to do is get pregnant and Elias would have to marry her, right? It's not like the Sinclairs don't have a precedent." Pregnant?

My gaze swept to the bag in the corner. I'd been really into this bag lately and took the same one every time I went out.

And inside it was the pregnancy test report from last time. "Pfft—you're killing me. Trapping him with a baby, leave it to you to think of that.

It's exactly because the Sinclairs have a precedent that Elias hates illegitimate kids more than anything. "The man's notoriously ruthless, and he's done a whole pile of crazy things.

If Camille tried that, wouldn't she be scared of ending up dead, her and the baby both?" There was a round of sharp inhales outside.

Expressionless, I took off the dress and changed back into my own clothes.

The three of them switched topics fast, and in the space of two sentences they had moved on to some other family. I pushed open the fitting room door and walked out.

Their gossip cut off abruptly. "Ca—Camille?

How long have you been here?" I smiled a little. "Since before you got here." With that, I didn't bother waiting for their reaction and went straight home.

I had a couple of bites of lunch, then sat on the swing on the terrace, staring into space.

Fall had come, and the wind had stripped the trees in the yard, leaving the ground covered in fallen leaves. Chapter 4 Elias videocalled me.

Across a sixteenhour time difference, the sky on his end was blazing red with the rising sun.

He asked, "You went out today?" I was curious. "How could you tell?" Elias's eyes were smiling. "You weren't wearing these pajamas yesterday.

You only change into pajamas when you get home from going out. Where'd you go? Did you have fun?" "It was all right." "If it wasn't fun, don't go out. Stay home and rest.

Baby, I'll be back in four days. Whatever it is you want to tell me, can't you tell me now?" I lowered my eyes. "No.

I'll tell you when you're back." We chatted on and off, until he had something to take care of and hung up. I stared at the blank screen, not knowing what to do next.

When people have nothing to do, they think about all kinds of things. Like how I found myself thinking again about the gossip outside the fitting room. Elias and I weren't married.

I was pregnant. He didn't like kids. He was ruthless. …I'd end up dead, and the baby with me. I shot to my feet. The sky had gone dark with night. The sun had set.

I found the sticky notes by the bed and left him a note. [I don't want to be a caged canary anymore. I want to live a normal life.

Thank you for everything you've given me these years