The two women are gone. The newlyweds too. Even the bartender’s AWOL.
It’s just us.
And the ocean.
And… crickets.
‘Axel?’ I whisper. ‘Say something… please.’
He turns. Face set in stone.
‘You have no idea what you’re asking for.’
His gravel-like voice scrapes along every exposed nerve I’ve got, but he’s wrong.
‘I do.’
Because now I’ve put Axel into the equation, I can’t imagine swapping him out.
‘No, Taylor.’ Hard eyes pierce mine. ‘You don’t.’
And then he walks.
Silent. Final.
And I stay frozen, watching him go, wondering how something that was never mine can hurt this much to lose.
4
AXEL
I don’t stop until I’m in my room. Door slammed. Locked tight. Only then do I let myself breathe.
Because the urge to give her what she wants, sayyes– roars through my veins.
I still can’t wrap my head around it. She askedme. Of all people.
No strings. No co-parenting. Just your DNA.
Like that makes it okay. Like she ain’t asking for the one thing I should never give.
My DNA is poison.
My father was a monster. My mother, just as bad. They’d sooner raise a fist than a kid. I never met my grandparents, but I doubt they broke the mould.
And now Taylor wants to passthaton?
But when she asked, the image slammed into me: Taylor. Pregnant. Round with my child. Primal. Bone-deep.
And saying no? I couldn’t.
So I walked.
Told myself space would clear my head.
Rid me of the urge.
Like hell it has…
