He didn’t reply. Just watched me with those blue eyes that always knew me too well.
I swallowed hard against the lump forming in my throat. “What happened?”
“Do you have something you want to tell me?”
My heart stuttered because I had never heard that tone from him before. It was careful and controlled, like he was holding back.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my voice shaky.
“Tell me, Paige.”
It wasn’t a question, but a command.
Does he know? My mind raced. But I had hidden the pregnancy test. Buried it at the bottom of the bathroom cabinet under the tampons and pads. How could he possibly?—
What if he found it?
“Paige.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He sighed and stood up. He walked over to me as I watched him tower over me with my pulse pounding in my ears.
“When was your last period?”
He knows.
“What? What do you mean?”
He took a step closer, and I saw it. The pregnancy test clutched in his hand, the two pink lines visible.
“You’re pregnant, Paige!” He said, his voice cracking at my name. “And it’s my baby. Our baby!”
I tried to stay calm, tried to breathe through the panic clawing up my throat, but I couldn’t. Not when he was looking at me like that. As if I had betrayed him, like I stole something precious and hidden it away.
“You found out,” I said weakly.
He laughed, and the sound was humorless, breaking my heart. “Yes, I found out. When—” He gestured with the test, his hand shaking. “How long, Paige? Tell me. How long have you known?”
Tears burned behind my eyes, and I blinked them back. “I found out this evening. After we came back from court.”
“So Jennifer knows? You told Jennifer before you told me?—”
“She didn’t know!” I blurted out. “She found me puking my guts out in the courthouse bathroom and thought… well, she bought me the test to find out. That’s all. She doesn’t know the results. Nobody knows except—” My voice broke. “Except you, Derek.”
His jaw clenched as I watched him process that information.
“But you knew,” he said quietly, and the gentleness in his voice was somehow worse than the anger. “You’ve been nauseated for days. The cheese thing and the way you’ve been acting. Were you ever going to tell me?”
“I don’t know!” I said. “I don’t know, Derek.”
I turned away from him because I couldn’t bear to see his face. “I don’t know,” I repeated, tears streaming down my face. “I’m not even sure if I should keep?—”
His hands were on my shoulders, turning me around carefully.
“Why not?”
My bottom lip quivered as I tried to speak but couldn’t.
