Adeline Campos POV:

The pain in my chest was so sharp, so sudden, it felt like my heart had physically cracked open. It was a searing agony that quickly gave way to a frightening, spreading numbness.

Before I could even process the photo, my phone buzzed again. A new message. From Brittny.

It was a video.

My thumb trembled as I pressed play. The camera was shaky, clearly filmed in secret. It showed Dorian sitting on a sofa, my sofa, in my house. Brittny' s son, Cael, was snuggled up next to him.

"Dorian?" Cael' s small voice piped up. "Can I call you Daddy?"

My breath hitched.

"I really like you," the little boy continued, his voice cloyingly sweet. "You' re so nice and you buy me toys and you protect my mommy. I wish you were my real daddy."

He looked up at Dorian with wide, pleading eyes. "Please? Can you be my daddy?"

Brittny' s voice came from off-camera, a fake, chiding tone. "Cael, don' t bother Dorian."

Dorian, my Dorian, just smiled. He reached out and ruffled the boy' s hair. "Don' t say that, Brittny. He' s not bothering me."

He looked down at Cael, his expression melting into one of tenderness, a look I hadn' t seen directed at me in months.

"You really want me to be your dad?" he asked softly.

The boy nodded enthusiastically.

Dorian' s smile widened. "Okay then," he said, his voice clear and firm. "From now on, I' m your daddy."

The video ended with Cael' s squeal of delight. A second later, a voice message from Brittny popped up.

"He' s mine now, Adeline. A man wants a family. He wants a child. Something you could never give him. You lose."

I played the voice message again. And again. The triumphant malice in her tone was a physical thing, coiling in my stomach.

"Addie, turn it off," Jaclyn said gently, her hand on my arm. She had come over the second I called her, my voice a strangled sob. "Don' t torture yourself."

She took a deep breath. "Addie… you have to tell him. Tell him you' re pregnant. This is his child. He' ll come back. I know he will."

I instinctively placed a hand on my still-flat stomach. The secret I had been holding for six weeks, a tiny flicker of hope I had planned to share with him as a surprise, a bridge to fix our broken marriage.

But now… the thought of using my baby, our baby, as a bargaining chip to win back a man who had so thoroughly betrayed me felt like sacrilege.

I thought of my own childhood, of being an unwanted burden, a pawn in a system that didn't care. I would not bring a child into a world of conflict and brokenness. I would not subject them to a father whose heart was divided.

"He doesn' t deserve to be a father to my child, Jacs," I whispered, the words tasting like ash. "He' s not worthy."

The confrontation I had been dreading happened two days later, at the hospital. I was there for my first prenatal appointment, my heart a confusing mix of terror and a fierce, protective love for the life inside me.

As I walked out of the obstetrician' s office, clutching the grainy ultrasound photo that was my entire world, I saw him.

Dorian. He was standing by the nurses' station, and holding his hand was Cael.

Dorian' s head snapped up as I approached. He saw me, and his eyes widened. He instinctively dropped Cael' s hand, taking a step toward me.

"Addie," he said, his voice hesitant. "What are you doing here? Are you sick?"

He saw the folded paper in my hand, the logo of the obstetrics department visible. His brow furrowed in confusion, and he started to move closer.

"Daddy, my tummy hurts!" Cael suddenly cried out, clutching his stomach and doubling over in a display of dramatic agony.

Dorian stopped, torn. He looked from my pale face to the wailing child.

"Addie, just… just wait a second," he said, his voice strained. He bent down to Cael. "What' s wrong, buddy?"

I just stood there, watching the man I loved choose, once again, to comfort another woman' s child over me. The scene was so grotesquely familiar, I almost felt a hysterical laugh bubble up in my throat.

"Dorian Warner, you goddamn bastard!" Jaclyn' s voice boomed through the hallway. She had been waiting for me by the elevators and had seen the whole thing.

She stormed toward us, her face a mask of fury. "You have no idea, do you? You have no idea what she' s going through!"

She pointed a shaking finger at me. "She' s pregnant, you idiot! That' s your baby she' s carrying!"

Before the words could even register on Dorian' s shocked face, Cael reacted. The little boy, coached by his mother to see me as the enemy, launched himself forward.

"You' re a liar!" he screamed, his face twisted in a snarl that was terrifying on a child so young. "You' re a monster! You' re trying to take my daddy away!"

Jaclyn tried to step in front of me, but I pushed her aside. It happened so fast. Cael, with all the force his small body could muster, rammed his head directly into my stomach.

A universe of pain exploded inside me. It was white-hot and absolute. My legs gave out, and I crumpled to the floor, the ultrasound photo fluttering from my grasp.

The pain was a living thing, a vicious claw tearing at my insides.

"You evil witch!" Cael shrieked, kicking at my side. "I hate you! I hate you!"

People were starting to stare, murmuring amongst themselves. "Look at that woman, fighting with a little boy." "What kind of person yells at a child like that?"

I looked up, my vision swimming. I saw Dorian, standing a few feet away, his face a mixture of shock and indecision. He was just… watching. Waiting for me to yield, to admit I was wrong, to be the monster they all thought I was.

"Dorian," I choked out, a wave of dizziness washing over me. "Help me."

I could feel something warm and wet spreading beneath me.

"Please," I gasped, my voice barely a whisper. "Get a doctor."

But Cael started wailing again, louder this time. "Daddy, it hurts! My tummy really, really hurts!"

Dorian' s face twisted in agony. He looked at me, lying bleeding on the floor. He looked at the hysterical child.

And he made his choice.

"Adeline," he said, his voice cold and distant. "You need to get a grip. Look what you' ve done. You' re scaring him."

He scooped Cael into his arms, turning his back on me.

"You need to seriously think about your behavior," he said over his shoulder, and then he walked away, leaving me there on the cold, hard floor, in a spreading pool of my own blood.

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Dorian Warner POV:

Even after the doctor had checked Cael over and declared it was just a stomachache from too much candy, a gnawing unease coiled in my gut. I couldn't shake the image of Adeline' s face, pale as death, her eyes wide with a pain I didn' t understand.

I left Brittny and Cael in the pediatric waiting room and walked out into the main hospital corridor, needing air, needing space.

That' s when I heard them. Two nurses talking by the water cooler.

"Did you hear about that woman in OB?" one said, her voice low. "The one who got into a fight in the hallway? Some kid apparently ran into her."

My blood went cold.

"It was awful," the other nurse chimed in. "She miscarried, right there on the floor. Lost the baby. There was so much blood…"

The words slammed into me with the force of a physical blow. Blood. Adeline. The OB department. No. It couldn' t be.

My heart started hammering against my ribs, a frantic, wild drumbeat of pure terror. I pushed past the nurses, my breath coming in ragged gasps, and sprinted down the hallway to where I had left her.

The floor was clean. Too clean. But on the white wall, just above the baseboard, was a dark, reddish-brown smear.

Blood.

The stain transfixed me. It was a testament to a horror I had refused to see. My legs felt like lead. I stumbled forward, my hand reaching out as if I could wipe it away, erase what had happened.

A janitor was mopping the floor nearby. I grabbed his arm, my voice a strangled croak. "The blood. The woman who was here. Who was it?"

He looked at me, startled by my wild-eyed panic. "Some lady, I don' t know her name. Had an accident."

"Was her name Adeline?" I asked, my voice shaking. "Adeline Campos?"

I was chanting it in my head. Please say no, please say no.

"She wasn' t pregnant," I muttered to myself, a desperate, insane denial. "We couldn' t… not after the first time. The doctor said it would be difficult."

My mind flashed back years ago, to another hospital, another loss. It had been my fault then, too. I' d been working too much, stressed and exhausted, and I' d gotten into a stupid argument with her while she was driving. She' d been so upset she ran a red light. We lost that baby at ten weeks. The guilt had been a cancer in my soul ever since.

The janitor stared at me like I was crazy. "Look, man, I don' t know. I just clean the floors." He shook my hand off his arm and pushed his cart away. "You' ve got issues."

"Dorian!"

Brittny' s voice cut through the fog of my panic. She ran toward me, Cael trailing behind her.

"There you are! I was so worried," she cried, throwing her arms around me. Her body was trembling. "When you ran off like that, I thought something terrible had happened."

Cael latched onto my leg, his face buried in my pants. "Daddy, don' t leave us," he sobbed.

Their tears, their fear, their need-it was an anchor, pulling me back from the abyss of my own terror. The janitor, who had paused down the hall, gave me a look of disgust, shook his head, and walked away. He saw what I wanted to see: a man with his family.

I didn't say Adeline's name. I let them lead me away from the bloodstain on the wall.

Adeline Campos POV:

I woke up to the steady, rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor. The first thing I saw was Jaclyn' s face, her eyes red and swollen, tear tracks staining her cheeks.

She was holding my hand, her grip a lifeline in the sterile white emptiness of the hospital room.

"Oh, Addie," she sobbed, fresh tears spilling over. "I' m so sorry. This is all my fault. I shouldn' t have said anything. I shouldn' t have made him angry."

I squeezed her hand, a weak flicker of pressure. I tried to smile, but my lips felt like cracked porcelain.

"It' s not your fault, Jacs," I whispered, my throat raw.

I looked down at my stomach, hidden beneath the thin hospital blanket. It felt hollow. Empty.

"It' s okay," I said, the words a lie I needed to believe. "We weren' t going to keep it anyway. Not like this."

The memory of Dorian' s back as he walked away, leaving me to bleed, was burned into my mind. It was a brand on my soul.

I turned my head to look at Jaclyn, my eyes clear and cold. The grief was still there, a vast, black ocean inside me. But now, floating on its surface, was something else. Something hard and sharp.

Resolution.

"Jacs," I said, my voice gaining strength. "Did you bring what I asked for?"

She nodded, her expression grim. She reached into her purse and pulled out a manila envelope.

I took it from her, my fingers steady.

He wanted to be a hero. He wanted to be responsible for Brittny and her son. Fine.

I was going to give him something to be responsible for, too. I was going to send him a gift. A parting gift from me, and from the child he had abandoned.

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