The one person who was supposed to believe me—
Didn’t.
And somehow—
That hurt more than everything else combined.
Violet—always Violet—fed him a lie, and he took it without question.
No hesitation.
No demand for proof.
No scrutiny—nothing like what he put me through.
Instead, he shattered his phone in a fit of rage, tearing apart the truth I had just handed him... like it was worthless.
Like I was.
He believed my words were those of a madwoman—like I was losing my mind.
God, it hurt.
I pressed my palms against my still-flat stomach, my fingers trembling against the warmth beneath my skin.
There was something fragile there. Something real.
Something that had already been dismissed... before it even had a chance to exist in his world.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
My voice cracked. “I’m so sorry.”
The apology was for the tiny life that had already been questioned.
Doubted. Rejected.
I squeezed my eyes shut as a fresh wave of emotion surged through me, sharp and overwhelming.
A part of me—quiet, desperate, almost childlike—wished this wasn’t real.
That I wasn’t pregnant at all.
That I had been smarter.
More careful.
That I had taken the morning-after pill that first night, before everything spiraled into this mess.
But it had been my first time.
I hadn’t known what to do.
Hadn’t thought beyond the moment.
And now—
Now there was no undoing it.
