Jemma’s hair was dark, but not like that.
“Is that...?”he started, but the words caught in his throat.He already knew.The truth slammed into him so hard it stole his breath.
“Is Jayla your daughter?”Jemma finished for him, holding the baby close.“Yes.Of course.”
Saif stared at her, a storm of betrayal and confusion tightening around his chest.
She’d had his child.
And hadn’t told him.
“How could you...?”His voice came out hoarse, the pain strangling it.“You didn’t tell me.”
“Ididtell you,” she said softly, patting Jayla’s back.“That first day, Saif.”
He shook his head.“You didn’t,” he hissed.
Jasper cut in, glancing between them.“Jemma?”he asked, voice low.Seeking clarification.Or maybe just the truth neither of them wanted to say out loud.
Jemma glanced at her brother, but Saif didn’t take his eyes off the sleeping infant.
“Why don’t you head to the library for a couple of hours?”she suggested softly.
Jasper might’ve argued, but Saif didn’t hear the response—just the apartment door closing, then silence.
He opened his mouth.
No words came.
Everything inside him was too twisted, too stunned, too furious to speak.
Then Jemma’s voice cut through.“Saif, you told me you didn’t want children.You said it.Multiple times.”
His gaze snapped up to hers.“I saidwhat?”he growled.
“You told me over and over again that you didn’t want kids.I remember it vividly.”
He searched his memory, frantically.Any talk about children.About a future.Anything.
Nothing.
“Never,” he bit out, shaking his head.“Ineversaid that.”
She rolled her eyes and walked over to a small crib, gently lowering the baby into it.Then, straightening, she looked at him.
“One time, we were at a restaurant.Someone brought a toddler.You scowled and muttered that children were a distraction.”
“At arestaurant,Jemma,” he snapped.
“And another time—granted, we were in bed—you said you were glad there weren’t any kids to wake us up.You’d just gotten back from visiting your cousin and said you didn’t know how he and his wife survived with a newborn.”
He finally tore his eyes away from the crib.“And you took that to mean I didn’t want children?”
She folded her arms across her chest.“You literally said you wererelievedwe didn’t have kids.So yeah.I took the hint.”
“But—”
“No.”Her hand sliced through the air.“That wasn’t the only time.Every time you came back from your family’s house, yougroanedabout all the kids.You mocked your sister for having two.You joked that all your cousins were ‘encumbered’ by children.”
