Flash fiction: Family secrets

It was one summer morning; beautiful and lovely. Everyone was happy sitting at the breakfast table. Sharon was however not happy, and she suddenly burst out, “Mum am pregnant!”  Everyone was startled. You see, Sharon was one of the best behaved girls and she did not even have a boyfriend. At least that is what they all thought. The news of her being pregnant was received well by her parents.

Her mother was horrified and decided that they should get rid of it. As usual, Sharon did not want to go against her mother and so, she went ahead and terminated the pregnancy. She continued with her studies and that incident was kept as a deep family secret. She later forgot about it and even got married to a successful businessman. Everything was going on well for her. She had a beautiful family, business was doing great and her two children, Janice and James were adorable.

Years later, at the breakfast table one summer morning, Janice announced to the awe of everyone, “Am pregnant!”

“What did you just say?” her mother asked. She was so confused. She could not imagine her lovely seventeen year old daughter was pregnant.  How could she be? Without giving it much thought, she quickly told her that they would get rid of it. That did not go well with Janice. As much as she was expectant out of wedlock which was unaccepted in their society, she was going to keep her pregnancy. Sharon’s husband, David, was shocked when her wife suggested terminating the pregnancy. They got into a fight about it and the long well-kept secret left the bag when Janice shouted, “Why do you want to ruin her future with this? She can still get other children when she is ready and besides, that is what I did when I discovered I was pregnant while I was in college!”

David could not believe what he had just heard. He was so mortified, he divorced his wife. Sharon was left all alone. All she had worked for was gone just because of a family secret that was kept for twenty five years. The children opted to go with their dad. That one secret shuttered her life.