Carmen’s face hardens with determination. “Does he know?”
“No,” I shake my head. “And he’s not going to. Not yet. Maybe not ever.”
“Francine—” Carmen starts, but I cut her off.
“He rejected me, Carmen. He looked at me like I was tainted. Like I was responsible for what Mom did. Why would I tell him about the baby? So he can reject it too?”
“Because it’s his child,” Carmen argues. “He has a right to know.”
“And I have a right to protect myself and my baby from being hurt again,” I counter as anger rises inside of me. “I’m not ready to face him. Not now.”
Carmen sighs, running a hand through her dark hair. “Fine. But we’re talking about this more later. I’m here for you, Franny. Whatever you need. We both are.”
Lena nods vigorously against my shoulder. “Always.”
For the first time in days, I feel a tiny spark of hope. Maybe I can do this. Maybe with my sisters by my side, I can get through this nightmare. Raise this baby. Build a life for us.
“I still can’t believe Mom did this,” Lena says after a moment, pulling back to wipe her eyes. “All these years, we thought it was an accident.”
“She was sick,” I say, not to excuse her but to explain. “Not just the cancer. Something was wrong with her for a long time before that. We just didn’t see it.”
Carmen takes my hand, squeezing it tightly. “I’ll never forgive her.”
I nod, understanding her anger all too well. “I thought the same thing. I still do, most days. But sometimes I wonder if holding onto that hatred is hurting me more instead.”
“Maybe one day,” Lena says softly, always the optimist. “Not today, but someday, we might find a way to forgive what happened for our sake.”
I think of Kieran, of the pain and rage in his eyes when he told me to leave. Of how that same inability to forgive destroyed whatever was growing between us. I don’t want to be like that. I don’t want to let hatred shape my life the way it’s shaped his.
“Maybe.”
While driving home, I’m stressed. The more I think about Kieran rejecting me out of the blue, the angrier I get. I can’t stop the tears from rolling down my face every time I remember Kieran’sangry face and his last words telling me that I was no longer Nora’s nanny.
I rub my tears away angrily with the back of my hand.
The pregnancy test sits heavily in my mind, its positive result both a miracle and a curse. I’m carrying the pack’s baby. The pack bond I felt forming during my heat was just an illusion, shattered by the sins of my mother.
A car honks behind me, and I realize I’ve been sitting at a green light too long. I press the gas, wiping furiously at my eyes with one hand.
I need to pull myself together. For the baby, if nothing else.
The sudden vibration of my phone makes me jump. It’s sitting in the cup holder, the screen lighting up with an incoming call. Kieran’s name flashes across the display, and my heart lurches painfully in my chest.
Why is he calling? To twist the knife deeper? To fire me again? To remind me that I’m no longer his omega?
I stare at the screen, torn between the desperate hope that he’s calling to apologize and the fear that he’ll only hurt me more. My hand hovers over the phone, trembling with indecision.
My fingers reach for the phone, brushing against the smooth surface just as my car drifts over the center line.
I glance up, startled by a flash of headlights.
Everything happens so fast after that.
The blare of a horn. Bright lights flood my vision. The violent jerk of the steering wheel as I desperately try to correct my path—the sickening crunch of metal colliding with metal. The world spins, glass shatters, and pain erupts everywhere at once.
My body slams against the restraint of the seatbelt, then whips forward as the airbag deploys, punching the air from my lungs. Something hot and wet trickles down my face. Themetallic taste of blood fills my mouth as my teeth sink into my tongue.
“No!” I scream, feeling myself fading as darkness suddenly claims me.
