I’m Shiho, in my 20s. I started dating Hiroaki, a 30-something who works for a different company in my building. After pining for him in secret, we finally got together, and I was loving every minute of being in a relationship again. About six months in, I found out I was pregnant. While I was thrilled, a part of me was anxious, thinking, “It’s only been six months…” But when Hiroaki told me, “I think it was always our destiny to end up together, Shiho,” all my worries just melted away.
Life with Hiroaki was pure bliss. Then, we unexpectedly had a little one on the way, and everything moved so fast toward marriage. I wish I could go back and tell my past self—the one who spent last year whining, “I just want a boyfriend!”—how things would turn out. But the happiness didn’t last long. On my way to work, I was hit by a sudden, mysterious pain in my abdomen. This was just five days after we became husband and wife. It felt like I’d been knocked from the peak of happiness straight down into the depths of despair.