Pregnancy Test
TWO WEEKS LATER
The Prescott house was unusually quiet that afternoon. Rebecca and Harper had gone shopping, the men were still at the office, and Ivy had left with her friends for the day.
Emery had spent the morning taking care of little Kitty, and now she was in Harper’s old bedroom, gently laying the sleepy six-month-old down on the bed with pillows tucked securely on either side.
Kitty’s eyes fluttered closed, her chubby little fists relaxing as she drifted off.
Emery sat beside her for a moment, brushing a soft strand of hair from the baby’s forehead. Then it hit her again, the same wave of nausea that had struck her that morning.
Her stomach churned violently. She bolted upright, legs trembling, and ran to the ensuite bathroom.
She barely made it to the toilet before she was puking hard, her whole body shaking with the effort. Tears glistened in her eyes as she coughed and heaved until there was nothing left.
When it finally stopped, she flushed the toilet with a shaky hand and dragged herself to the sink. She rinsed her mouth thoroughly, splashing cold water on her pale face, but the trembling in her legs refused to ease.
“What is this…?” she whispered to her reflection, voice hoarse and frightened.
She walked back into the bedroom on unsteady legs and sat down carefully beside the sleeping Kitty. Pulling out her phone with trembling fingers, she typed her symptoms into the search bar.
Her eyes widened.
Pregnant.
Could it be?
The timing felt perfect. Almost too perfect. She had slept with Alexander that drunken night almost eighteen days ago. Her mind raced. If she was pregnant, it would be his child. The child of the man she was now married to.
She had to confirm.
Heart pounding, Emery rushed out of the room and found Melania dusting in the hallway.
“Melania,” she said urgently, voice low, “I need you to do something for me. Please bring me a pregnancy test stick. Right now.”
Melania’s eyes lit up with sudden excitement. “Miss Emery… are you—?”
“Not now,” Emery cut in quickly, her stormy eyes pleading. “Be excited later. Right now, I just need the stick. Please.”
Melania nodded quickly, understanding the urgency. “I’ll tell the driver to get one immediately. Don’t worry.”
The maid hurried off down the corridor, leaving Emery standing alone in the hallway, one hand pressed protectively over her still-flat abdomen.
She leaned against the wall, breathing shallow and fast, tears threatening to spill again.
If she was pregnant… everything would change.
×××××××
Emery’s hands shook as she stared at the small plastic stick on the marble bathroom counter. Two pink lines stared back at her, clear and undeniable.
Positive.
She was pregnant.
For a long moment, she simply stood there, breathing shallowly, one hand pressed lightly over her lower abdomen. The reality settled over her like a heavy blanket... warm in one way, suffocating in another.
When she finally stepped out of the bathroom, Melania was in the bedroom, gently rocking a now-awake Kitty in her arms. The baby cooed happily, reaching for Melania’s necklace.
Emery’s voice came out soft and unsteady. “It’s positive.”
Melania’s eyes widened with pure joy. “Oh, Miss Emery…!”
Emery raised a hand quickly. “Please… don’t tell anyone yet. Not until I confirm it properly at the hospital. Promise me.”
Melania nodded immediately, her expression turning serious. “I promise. I won’t say a word to anyone. Not even a hint.”
Emery exhaled shakily. “Thank you.”
A small, hesitant smile broke across Melania’s face. “Can I… be excited now?”
Emery let out a soft, watery laugh despite everything. “Yes. You can be excited now.”
Melania’s face lit up with genuine happiness. “A baby in this house! Oh, congratulations, Miss Emery. This is wonderful news.”
Emery managed a small smile, but it didn’t reach her stormy eyes. She reached out and gently touched Kitty’s tiny hand, letting the baby wrap her fingers around one of hers.
She was going to be a mother.
Who wouldn’t be happy at that?
A quiet warmth bloomed in her chest at the thought... a new life growing inside her, something that was truly hers. But the happiness was tangled with deep sadness.
Because this child would bind her forever to Alexander Prescott.
She would have to raise this baby in this cold, luxurious house as his wife.
Emery swallowed the lump in her throat and forced another small smile for Melania.
“Thank you,” she whispered. “For now… let’s keep this between us.”
Melania nodded, still rocking Kitty gently, while Emery stood there, one hand resting protectively over her stomach, torn between the quiet joy of motherhood and the heavy weight of the future stretching out before her.
×××××××
Jesse sat behind his desk in his spacious corner office at Prescott Real Estate Enterprises, staring at his laptop screen without really seeing it. The afternoon sun filtered through the tinted glass windows, casting long shadows across the sleek black furniture.
The door opened without a knock. Alexander walked in, dressed in his usual impeccable charcoal suit, and placed a thick file on Jesse’s desk with a quiet thud.
“Jesse, review this. I need your insight on the quarterly projections before the board meeting tomorrow,” he said simply, his voice calm and businesslike.
Jesse took the file, nodded once without a word, and set it aside.
Instead of leaving, Alexander pulled out the chair across from him and sat down. He studied his younger brother for a long moment, his observant eyes narrowing slightly.
“What is it?” Alexander asked. “I’ve seen you’ve been unusually quiet and distracted lately.”
Jesse shook his head, forcing a neutral expression. “It’s nothing.”
He knew Alexander better than almost anyone. His older brother wouldn’t let it go until he got an answer. So Jesse decided to change the subject before the conversation turned too dangerous.
“More than two weeks now,” he said, keeping his tone casual. “How do you feel about it?”
Alexander frowned. “Two weeks of what?”
“Marriage.”
Alexander looked away toward the window and let out a long, heavy sigh. For the first time in days, the composed mask slipped just a little.
“Torture,” he admitted quietly. “To her and to me.”
He leaned back in the chair, rubbing his jaw.
“I see her in the room every night, small, broken, and so damn quiet. She doesn’t complain about anything, Jesse.
Not the way my mother and Harper treat her, not the housework they’re making her do, not even the fact that she’s trapped in a marriage she never wanted.
She’s too patient. Too strong for her own good. ”
Jesse nodded slowly, his jaw tight. “I’ve noticed that too.”
Alexander pursed his lips, his calm eyes clouded with guilt.
“I’ve tried to be close to her. I’ve tried to talk to her, to make things less awkward…
but Jesse, I’m not attracted to her that way.
I don’t have any romantic feelings toward her.
She’s too young for me. Too gentle. I really think she deserves better than this life, better than being stuck with a man who can’t give her what she needs. ”
Jesse listened in silence, his chest tightening painfully with every word. He forced himself to keep his expression neutral even as his heart twisted at the thought of Emery lying in Alexander’s bed every night.
“As time passes,” Jesse said carefully, testing the waters, “you might grow fond of her. Maybe… even fall in love with her.”
Alexander shook his head immediately, decisive and final.
“Never. I won’t be enough for her. She deserves someone who can actually love her the way she should be loved... not someone who’s still grieving another woman and treating her like an obligation.”
He stood up and buttoned his suit jacket with precise movements, the mask of the composed CEO sliding back into place.
“See you at lunch.”
Alexander gave his brother one last glance before turning and walking out of the office, the door clicking shut behind him.
Jesse remained seated, staring at the closed door. His hands clenched into fists on the desk as Alexander’s words echoed in his head.
“She deserves better.”
He knew that better than anyone.
Because the man who could have given her everything had already ruined her life.
×××××××
Emery paced back and forth across the plush carpet of Alexander’s bedroom, her bare feet silent on the dark wood edges.
The late afternoon light filtered weakly through the heavy curtains, casting long shadows that seemed to mirror the chaos inside her.
Her hand kept drifting to her lower abdomen, pressing lightly as if she could somehow feel the truth through her skin.
The pregnancy test Melania had brought her still lay hidden in the bathroom drawer... two pink lines that had already changed everything.
But now doubt and fear were twisting like knives in her chest.
She had always kept careful track of her cycle. The ovulation app on her phone was something she had used religiously for years. She opened it again with trembling fingers, staring at the dates.
Her ovulation window had started several days before the wedding night with Alexander.
That meant…
Emery stopped pacing, her breath catching sharply.
What if the child wasn’t Alexander’s at all?
What if it was Jesse’s?
The last time she had been with Jesse, that desperate, unprotected night right before their fight... had been only a week before the wedding. The timeline fit. The intense night they’d shared, when he had taken her without protection… it matched perfectly with when she had ovulated.
Her legs felt weak. She sank down onto the edge of the large platform bed, the gray comforter cool beneath her.
“Please God,” she whispered, voice breaking as fresh tears spilled down her fair cheeks. “My life is already too complicated. Please… please don’t do this to me.”
She curled forward, arms wrapping tightly around her middle as quiet sobs shook her frame.
“Please, baby… be Alexander’s,” she wept softly, the words barely audible. “Please let this child be his. I can’t… I can’t handle it if it’s Jesse’s. Not like this. Not when I’m already trapped here as his brother’s wife.”
The room remained silent around her, the luxurious space feeling more like a cage than ever. Outside, the world continued as normal, but inside Emery, everything was unraveling.
She was going to be a mother.
But the father could be the one man she was now forbidden to love.
And that truth terrified her more than anything else.
×××××××