Zahra pushed herself up slower and called out to Saint, “Come help me make some leftover plates before we head home.”
Saint turned toward her right away. “A’ight.”
And just like that, they left too.
Then it was just me and Reek. For the first time since he got back, I realized he didn’t even know I was still in the room. Hesat at the bar with his drink in his hand looking like his mind was somewhere else.
I took a breath, forced my legs to move, and walked over there.
“I need to tell you something.”
He looked up then, like I had pulled him out of a thought he didn’t want interrupted. He let out a dry laugh. “You too?”
That caught me off guard, but I let it go over my head.
I gripped the back of the stool across from him and said it before I could chicken out. “I’m pregnant.”
Everything in him went still.
I kept talking because the silence was making me feel smaller by the second. “You got me pregnant the first time we had sex. I found out in Thailand.” My throat suddenly felt so dry. “And I didn’t lie about being on the pill. The doctor explained that birth control could still fail for a few reasons. Missing pills, taking them too late, or getting sick and throwing up before the medicine had a chance to absorb could all make it less effective. Certain antibiotics and herbal supplements could interfere with it too. And even when a woman does everything right, nothing is guaranteed. Some women still ovulate, despite being on the pill. Some bodies just don’t react to the medication the way they are supposed to.”
He still didn’t say one word. I was standing there explaining myself to a wall and feeling more exposed than I ever had in my life.
“I know I should have told you, but I knew you didn’t want it. But I want my child.”
When he finally spoke, it was so calm that it made it worse. “You waited this long to tell me?”
I swallowed. “I was trying to—”
“Trying to what? Wait until it was too late to do something about it?”
I flinched.
“But you know it’s never too late, right?”
My eyes bucked and I took a step back, shielding my stomach with my arms wrapped around it.
The anger in his expression made my stomach drop. “You hid this from me for months, Ava.”
“I was scared.”
“Of what? Me making you scrape it out?” He laughed again, and it almost sounded psychotic. “Or me walking away because I ain't tying myself to your sneaky ass and some unwanted brat?”
That hurt. I felt tears, but I refused to let them fall.
“I didn’t know how to tell you.”
“So, you’re trapping me.”
“Trapping you would mean that I want anything to do with you, and after this conversation, you don’t have to worry about that.”
His eyes stayed hard. “How the fuck did you expect me to react? You know damn well I don’t want this. You disappear to Thailand, come back, let me find out when it’s already too late to abort that mistake.”
“It’s not a mistake,’” I snapped. “It’s ababy.”
He leaned closer, voice dropping even lower so nobody else would hear. “A baby that I don’t want shit to do with.”
As I stared at him, every ugly fear I had been sitting with became real, every rejection, every accusation, and every bit of anger I knew was coming.
