The Struggle of Women
Episodes 10

The happy news, Brian ran in the hospital hallway at full speed, trying to avoid the people around him, he did not want to be injured and instead turned to be treated at this hospital for it. No, Brian's goal was there definitely not for that.

“Brian, this way!” call a familiar voice.

Approaching with a gasp of breath, the man tried to speak even though he was not sure the words coming out of his mouth could be understood by his interlocutor. “Ba-gai-where? El-ma's? His baby?” In Brian's heart of gratitude, the sentence he composed didn't sound so bad.

“You just wait here, I'm just going in. It wasn't perfect yet, and I just got word that it's time.”

“Tante Arini? Where's Aunt Arini?”

“Inside, with Elma. However the child must be there to accompany and strengthen.” Jenny smiled sincerely, without the usual arrogance or resistance. “Help prayers yes, so that everything is smooth.”

“That's for sure, if not for what I'm here.”

Just trying to be nice to her arguing friend, Jenny has been made resentful again to rotate her eyes lazy. “Be like the father of that child alone, laughable!” jenny's burlesque then passed, entering the delivery room.

“Because that's what I did for nine months, right? Acting like I'm the child's father who should be responsible, while the real father is either doing what once I tell him that his son will be born,” grunts Brian pulled his tie so that it would no longer be tied so suffocating, a little annoyed at Liam who just kept quiet without giving him a response when he called earlier.

No—not that Liam did not care about the news he received from Brian a few tens of minutes ago, the man was actually confused with his current mind. Worried, worried, unexpected, and all the other feelings that suddenly ambushed him at one time.

It felt like it was really only yesterday that Grandpa told him to do this, asking a grandson at all costs to carry on the Tanubrata lineage. It feels like just yesterday Liam talked about it with Jenny, asking Brian to replace her to look after the baby and her mother.

And now—him will really be a father? Will it really have its own flesh and blood? What did his extended family reveal as impossible in this century?

The man was already pacing back and forth in his room, moving restlessly while occasionally muttering to calm himself down, then several times glanced at his phone to wait for the latest news from Brian or Jenny. Liam even ordered Rudi not to bother him with any affairs until an unspecified time, which is essentially Liam himself who will contact Rudi if the time can be disrupted with various kinds of work again.

“After all anyway? Why is there no further news? It's been almost an hour!” Liam grumbled in his quiet room. The man did not manage to calm himself down, the fact that Liam's recent years of figuring out a lot about things related to childbirth made him even more anxious, moreover, most of what he watched or read was not an article in a positive sense, but rather on ‘what problems might occur during the process of giving birth’. Liam and his own stupidity indeed.

The phone rang on his desk, Liam's back to the object immediately turned around in haste and picked up the square object quickly. Honey, his enthusiasm loosened as soon as he saw the name on his phone screen. Not disappointed because it turned out that the mother called, no, but more because this was not the call she had been waiting for.

“Halo, Mom,” greet Liam trying to sound as normal as possible.

“Hai, hotshot. Hows it? Have you got any latest news?” Larissa—the woman who had given birth to a handsome son with all her advantages greeted with an enthusiastic voice.

Liam smiled even though the figure across the connection could not see him. “Not yet, neither Brian nor Jenny, they haven't contacted me at all.”

“When did you last receive word that the mother of your child was in the delivery room?”

Liam's eyes glared, glancing at the wall clock displayed in one corner of his study. “Hmm, about an hour ago?”

Liam waited for his mother to respond from across the street, but it seemed that she was having another conversation there, so Liam could only remain silent while waiting for her business to be over.

“Ah, sorry my son. Where was our conversation? Oh yes, one hour ... Yeah, they went into the delivery room an hour ago? Don't worry, they'll be fine, so will your son, trust in Mother.”

The two fell silent, though not for the reason that anyone interrupted their conversation like before. Liam who nodded after the mother's words was praying in his heart, may what his mother said be true, that there is nothing to worry about.

“You sure you do not want to meet the mother figure of your child, Liam?”—Larissa first voiced, before his son issued what was lodged in his head earlier. His tone sounded even more silent, not as cheerful as before.

Liam, who had been standing upright near his desk, took steps to lean back on the table, propping up a little of his body weight on the dead object behind him in silence and taking time to think. “Bu ... You know this is best for us, right? We can't risk the future if it's careless just because of this problem.”

“But shouldn't we thank him? She gave birth to your son, Liam. The woman who gave you offspring without the need to establish a relationship that you hated so far.”

“Mother ... We thank you properly. All the facilities and needs of the woman and her family are finished we bear, as well as the rewards—”

“Birth of the child is different from when we use the services of someone Liam! It is not enough just to be material, even a thank you is not enough to pay for what he has done for us. The boy's flesh and blood, too, not just your blood flowing there. Especially after this we will separate them. At least, at least let us say thank you in a decent way.”

Liam was silent, long enough that he could hear the roar of his own breathing in his ears. It's not that Liam doesn't think the same thing, it's precisely because of the thought that Liam keeps himself locked in his room like this instead of running like Brian to accompany the labor process. Because for him in this way he can reduce his guilt, because in this way he can avoid the guilt of a lifetime because it has separated the mother and child directly in plain sight. Because in this way, he does not have to look at the shadow and record it in the best part of the brain to then remember it continuously. Because this is the only way to avoid all that.

“Well if you do not want to, but why do you also forbid Mom to visit the woman?”

“Bu ... I beg you,” whispered Liam with regret.

No one is allowed, no one from the Tanubrata family can recognize the figure of the woman. Not a single one. In addition, written on their contract, it was also a request that Liam heard from Brian about additional conditions submitted by the mother of his child. Making sure that absolutely none of his family knew the figure of the surrogate mother.

“Alright, Honey, I understand. Forgive Mom. Let me know that your son is really born? Mom waits for the good news, want to quickly know granddaughter Mother's daughter or boy.”

Liam nodded again, probably forgetting that his mother could not see it.

“Mother loves you.”

“I also.”

And the call closed, Liam put his phone back on the table. He was as curious as his mother, as to the sex of the child who was either female or male. Again, this is part of the requirements put forward by the surrogate mother, if no one should know about the sex of the child until he is born, this was filed because the mother did not want to risk Liam giving up the responsibility because the sex of the baby he contained was not in accordance with the wishes of the Tanubrata family.

Actually Liam— through Brian, has explained that they do not blame it. Liam's family is quite open, does not discriminate the gender that will affect the hands of whom the inheritance will go down, no, Liam's grandfather did not give that condition. The old man only wanted Liam to have offspring with his own blood, the rest he did not demand anything more.

But Liam could understand if the mother of his son proposed such a thing, however there was no harm in keeping watch, right? And Liam has no problem with that. As long as the baby's ultrasound results are healthy and normal, it's okay for him not to know the baby's gender until birth.

Long Liam stuck in his own daydream, Liam's phone rang again in a fairly short tone. Indicates that the new message went in there.

“Congrats, Liam! Your healthy handsome boy.” That's the content of the sentence that Brian wrote through a short message, not using the phone connection that Liam originally thought. But that strange feeling Liam tepis quickly, when he saw the photo attachment that Brian sent with a tiny baby who slept there. It was then that Liam's smile rose, a smile that never rose that wide on his lips after such a long time.

“Welcome, The champ..” whispered Liam on the screen on his phone.

Meanwhile in the hospital after Brian sent a portrait of the baby boy on Liam—his throat was made choked. Because, Brian has not entered and saw the baby Elma was born with his eyes, the picture he received was also a picture of Jenny taking pictures using her phone until Jenny told him the news when they were just two.

“Kem—” Brian swallows his saliva to hold something that feels turbulent in both his heart and head, the man has a hard time accepting what Jenny just said. “Two words?” brian repeated, sitting restlessly on the sofa that was in the woman's study.

📽To be continue🎞