The Seed She Chose

After my hundredth disastrous blind date, my best friend and I made a bold decision: we would have children without husbands.

She chose sperm from a brilliant PhD donor.

I chose a donor with an eight-nation mixed heritage.

Later, the PhD donor from Kingsford University was diagnosed with low sperm motility and decided he wanted to marry my friend, Melissa Shaw. She agreed.

Whenever she saw me going to my prenatal checkups alone, Melissa would wrap her arm around her husband and mock me.

"You're destined to be alone," she sneered. "You can't even find a man to marry you. My husband just launched a major national research project. His future is limitless."

What she did not know was that the father of my child was the Prince of Dubaria. He took me back to his country and made me his princess. The jewels I wore were so heavy they practically weighed me down.

However, after she saw the yacht I posted on social media, Melissa suddenly called me in tears.

"I don't know what happened," she sobbed. "My husband's project was suddenly suspended. We can barely afford baby formula for our child."

She said she wanted to make up and even asked if I would be her child’s godmother.

However, the moment I stepped through her door, she raised a chainsaw and hacked me to death.

"Why do you get to live a better life than me?" she screamed. "Just because you chose better sperm?!"

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day my best friend and I first decided to have children without husbands.

"Laura, who needs marriage! Let's head to the sperm bank and be the heroines of our own stories!"

My best friend Melissa Shaw was shaking me with excitement.

As I looked around the familiar lab, I suddenly realized that I had been reborn.

After a string of weird blind dates, Melissa and I had decided to pick some top-notch sperm at a private clinic for IVF.

Melissa's voice buzzed in my ear like a bee as she urged me, "Laura, look. There's a PhD holder from Kingsford University here. If you choose his sperm, the kid will definitely be super smart. Go for that one!"

Then, without waiting, she pointed to another profile showing the mixed-race sperm options: "I prefer this sperm from the man of eight national lineages. Laura, you better not go after the same one as me!"

Right then, I knew that she must have been reborn too. She was in a hurry to grab the prince's genes for herself.

Melissa pretended to be looking out for me: "This PhD holder has amazing genes. If you pass him up, you'll regret it."

Her pitch was totally different from our previous life. I looked at her and gave a slow nod.

The second I nodded, Melissa's eyes sparkled, and she got all worked up.

"Just don't come crying to me later!"

What would I regret? I wondered.

She