I freeze.
She keeps talking. “Must be recessive. I mean, he’s mostly human, right?”
I can’t breathe.
“Miss Jones?”
“Yes,” I say too quickly. “Recessive. Exactly.”
She smiles again and moves on to the next checkmark, blissfully unaware she just kicked the floor out from under me.
Back home,Ben’s coloring at the kitchen table, humming again. He looks so content, so normal. Like any other four-year-old who didn’t just make his mother question every choice she’s made in the last five years.
“Mom?” he asks, without looking up.
“Yeah, sweetheart?”
“Why don’t I have a daddy?”
My heart lurches.
I crouch beside him, forcing my voice to stay steady. “You do, honey. You just… haven’t met him.”
He frowns. “Is he bad?”
I swallow. “No. Not bad. Just… not here.”
He considers that, crayon tapping against the paper. “Will he come back?”
I don’t know how to answer.
“Maybe,” I say. “Someday.”
Ben nods like that’s enough.
It shouldn’t be.
I lockthe bathroom door behind me, press my back to the cold tile, and slide to the floor.
My breaths come too fast, too shallow. My vision blurs.
I try to ground myself—count the blue tiles, the cracks in the grout, the scent of citrus cleaner—but all I can see is Jav.
Smiling.
Lying.
Touching my belly that night, before everything exploded.
My heart screams that he’s Ben’s father.
My brain screams that he’s a danger.
And I’m caught in the middle, breaking apart one shallow breath at a time.
CHAPTER 10
JAV
