By the weight of what had just happened.
By the reality of it.
Fourteen eggs.
Fourteen pieces of me that weren’t mine anymore.
That would become something I’d carry for nine months and then hand over to a man I barely knew.
I wiped my face with the back of my hand.
Took a shaky breath.
Told myself to get it together.
This was what I’d signed up for.
This was the deal.
But the tears kept coming anyway.
I don’t know how long I lay there.
Maybe five minutes.
Maybe ten.
But eventually, I heard the door open again.
I turned my head, expecting the nurse.
But it wasn’t the nurse.
It was Amai.
He stood in the doorway. His tie was loosened slightly. His hands were in his pockets.
And his eyes?—
His eyes were on me.
Not cold.
Not detached.
Just…there.
Seeing me.
I tried to sit up.
“Don’t,” he said quietly. “Stay down.”
I stayed down.
He stepped into the room and closed the door behind him.
The smell of his cologne—something expensive and woodsy—cut through the sterile hospital air.
