Chapter That Night
That Night
The guest room Alexander insisted I take felt both too warm and too empty. A strange contrast to the chaos of the past forty-eight hours. Voices from the hallway—Aiden, the PI, a doctor—faded behind the door.
My voice cracked into the dark: “If this baby stays… I’ll tell him. I promise. But I need to know it’s real before I break him with hope.”
Silence thickened around me.
“And what if it stays,” I whispered, “but he doesn’t? What if I tell him and he runs? What if—” My breath shook. “Why is my life always a fucking mess?”
I pressed my hand gently over my stomach. Not certain. Not joyful. Not yet. But something was there. A spark. A possibility. A fragile, horrifying miracle.
Under all the fear and chaos and trauma—I let the tiniest ember of hope settle in my chest.