My stomach drops. The room tilts.
“I’m pregnant, Colin,” she says. “With your baby.”
Chapter 07
This chapter contains mentions
of pregnancy and abortion.
At the top of my game
Colin
I’m fucked.Utterly, irreversibly fucked.
I stare at the sonogram Maya left on my desk, right after I told her to get the hell out of my office without even looking at her face. I look at the white dot in the image and feel...nothing.
The other two times I held one of these, my heart nearly burst out of my chest with happiness. Those images held a piece of me and Ceci, a fragment of our love, proof of the life we were building and dreaming into existence. Each time, it felt sacred, like I was holding the heartbeat of everything we were, everything we were always meant to be.
But this one, this single image lying on my desk, I can’t even bring myself to touch. The sight of it makes my stomach turn, guilt and regret crawling up my throat like acid.
I thought I was untouchable. At the top of my game. And now... I’ve run out of cards to play.
Cecily willneverforgive me for this. Any chance of rebuilding things with Ethan is gone. And Alicia... my little princess, I doubt she'll ever look at me the same again.
After that goddamn night in my hotel suite, Maya showed up with a lab report—a pregnancy test proving she hadn't been lying. At least, not about being pregnant. Ten weeks pregnant. Two months and fourteen days.
And just like that, my whole world collapsed.
“You're lying!” I fire back, my pulse hammering in my ears. “We used a condom every single time—except once. And even then, I watched you take the Plan B. So don't you dare try to pull this shit on me.”
She shakes her head hard. “No, Colin. I'm not lying. That day I was so nervous and messed up I threw up right after you left.” Her voice softens as her hand drifts instinctively to her flat stomach.
My skin crawls.
“I guess it’s a good thing I did,” she says, her voice trembling. “Because I didn’t know it then, but I was already pregnant that day. Who knows what that pill could’ve done to our baby.”
She was already pregnant that day.
“If you were already pregnant it’s not mine. We always used condoms and they never broke.”
She frowns, her eyes glistening with a mix of hurt and determination. “You know I’ve been with only you since the day I met you, Colin… no one else. A paternity test will prove it.Condoms aren't foolproof; sometimes they fail, and you don’t even realize it. And it only takes one for this precious little life, this blessing, to exist.”
She’s lying. She has to be.
“What happened to you being on the pill? You told me yourself.” I spit the words, scrounging for anything that will make this go away.
Maya averts her eyes, her voice shrinking to a whisper. “I don't know... It was around the time we were finalizing the biotech acquisition in Seattle. Things were crazy, and I might’ve missed a day or two. It just... happened.”
I start pacing.
It happened.
It wasn't supposed to fucking happen. I did everything right, took every damn precaution. And somehow, the universe found a way to screw me.
“Fuck—fuck!” I slam my palm on the bar. I turn to her, voice low and flat. “You’ll end it.Ifit's mine—if you're pregnant—you will not keep that child.”
A tear rolls down her cheek and she makes a small, helpless noise. I watch, unmoved.
