46. Kate
Chapter Forty-Six
Kate
The house was dim and quiet now, lit only by the flicker of the television we weren’t watching and the glow of a streetlight bleeding through the gaps in the blinds.
I was curled in the corner of the sofa, a blanket over my knees, hands cradling a mug of peppermint tea I wasn’t drinking because I still wasn’t keeping much down.
Gwen was beside me, cross-legged and scrolling her phone. Occasionally checking something. Occasionally glancing at me to check I wasn’t about to break again.
I’d gone through everything with her by now.
The crying. The denial. The half-laughing disbelief.
I’d tried googling things, which was a bad idea.
I’d sat on the bathroom floor and told Gwen I couldn’t do it.
Then five minutes later, told her I could, that I’d do it alone if I had to. Then said I didn’t know again.
I was pregnant. With Jordan’s baby. The words sat heavy in my chest, impossible and undeniable all at once.
I’d seen what he did back in that hotel room a hundred times before, in the children I worked with.
The way they turned their frustration on the safest person in the room.
The one they trusted not to leave, even when they lashed out.
That was what weakness did; it went for the ones you loved most. And Jordan did love me. He’d said it. I’d felt it. And now…
Now, there was no denying what bound us. Now I was trying to figure out how to tell him.
Whether I should tell him. Whether it was selfish. Whether it was fair. Whether he’d hate me and think I’d done it on purpose. Whether…
Gwen’s voice cut clean through the tailspin.
“You might want to think fast.”
I turned. “Why?”
She didn’t look up. “Because he’s on his way back to London.”
My stomach dropped, and my eyes narrowed. “What?”
“Chris just texted. He pulled out of the US Open.”
I shot upright. “What?!”
Now she looked at me, voice serious. “He pulled out. Didn’t wait. Chris says he hasn’t slept since you left. Barely eaten. Said he couldn’t focus. That he just…left.”
I just stared at her. The mug sloshed in my hands.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
“Yeah.”
“He…he’s coming back? Just like that?”
Gwen nodded. “He loves you, Kate.”
My throat tightened. “I know.”
“And now he’s flying across the ocean to tell you again.”
I pressed my hand to my mouth.
Gwen’s voice softened. “You need to figure out what you want to say. Because I don’t think he’s coming back to fight with you.”
“Shit, Gwen,” I panicked, “what am I even going to say to him? Hey, sorry I stormed out and ruined your chance in New York…oh, by the way, I’m also pregnant with your baby after only two months of knowing you?”
She snorted. “Well, when you put it like that, yes. It sounds mental.”
“I mean it,” I groaned. “What if he…what if he thinks I did this on purpose? What if he doesn’t want this?”
Gwen shook her head, gentle but firm. “You need to tell him. And I think he’s going to take it better than you think.”
I took a deep exhale. I nodded slowly, my heart in my throat. I didn’t know how this was going to go, but Gwen was right. He deserved to know. It was his baby, and there was no question—I was keeping it.
I didn’t know what he’d say when he found out. But I knew one thing for sure: he was coming. And this time, I couldn’t run.