She hoodwinked him into accepting a pregnancy

She hoodwinked him into accepting a pregnancy. COURTESY PHOTO

“She was a schemer, and good at play-acting. What she had always wanted was a guy to give her a secure livelihood.”

He had to come face to face with the facts. She was pregnant, and he knew he could never walk away from her. She had set him up, and he was terribly sorry that she was going to be the mother of his child.

How he could have gotten himself into such a mess with his eyes wide open, he did not know. But the truth was, he was not even aware until the very last minute that she was not who she had led him to believe.

Jeremy met Cathy two years after graduating from university. He had been lucky to get a job immediately after school. He considered himself very lucky, and worked hard. To anyone watching, he looked well on his way to a great career and a secure future.

Exactly the kind of person Cathy was looking for, just that she was perhaps not as good a person as he was.
She was a cashier in a bank. She was doing her last year of university and she stayed in a hostel near the university. He was impressed by her mature attitude, and independent nature. Talking to her, he felt a connection with her.

The fact that she worked, and went to school at the same time pointed to her hard working and developmental nature.
She was good company too since she was knowledgeable, and he found her quite different from other girls within her age group. Soon after they met at a graduation party of one of his friends, they started dating. She never asked him for anything, and it was him who once in a while bought her a present.

She accepted all this with a modesty he found touching. She was down to earth and Jeremy was happy that he had found a woman he could share his future with.

Eight months into the relationship, and the trap was well set. She had him exactly where she wanted him. One day, out of the blue, she announced that she was pregnant. That had not been in his short term plans, but he was not the kind to run. In his calm way, he told her it was okay. He informed his parents, and they too were okay with it even though his father did not like the fact that he knew so little about the girl his son was dating. That taken care of, she knew she had a solid hook in him. She tired of playing pretend games, and her true nature started emerging.

She became demanding, possessive, obsessive and insanely jealous. He could not understand this new behaviour, so for a while he brushed it off to pregnancy hormones. Then she started drinking. Or rather, she started drinking openly. She quit her job, and moved into his flat.

Her attendance at school became spotty. She nolonger discussed anything openly with him. When it became too much to bare, he called upon the girl he knew was friends with Cathy. Martha was put in a tricky spot. She wanted to be loyal to her friend, but Jeramy did not deserve that kind of treatment.

So she told him everything. And what he found out left him reeling. His pregnant sweetheart was not a student. She had dropped out of school sometime back because she found it “too demanding and time wasting”.

She had been fired from her cashier’s job after a messy office affair with her supervisor. She was a schemer, and good at play-acting. What she had always wanted was a man to give her a secure livelihood, and gentleman enough not to leave her. And he was exactly that kind of guy.