Page 119 of Merry Fake Bride

Three hours later, I sit on a frozen park bench and gaze out at the frost-covered ground, my mind racing like a hamster on a wheel.

I last saw Kairo yesterday after he dropped me off at the clinic to get some painkillers and find out why I was feeling off kilter.

My doctor was lovely and agreed that stress was a strong factor, so I gave her my urine so she could run some tests.

I was only coming back today for a blood test.

Pregnant?

The pregnancy test came back properly, but part of me still doesn’t believe it so I’m waiting on the blood test results to confirm it.

I can’t be pregnant.

The pill has never failed me. It gave me excess weight so it better not have failed me.

But Kairo… so much happened when we were together. How is it going to look if I suddenly tell him I’m pregnant?

If that doesn’t scare him away, it definitely looks like some twisted form of entrapment.

My leg bounces against the cold, and I clap my gloved hands together, studying the ice that’s swept up the nearby light pole.

Kairo saw my scars and didn’t care.

I saw his and didn’t care.

Something about them changed him in my mind and taking that step, following my feelings right into his arms, felt like the scariest and best thing I ever could have done.

I’m not ready for more.

Not a baby.

Not like this.

Closing my eyes, I replay the options the nurse presented and then dig in my pocket for my phone.

I’m scrolling through my contacts looking for my mom when a call suddenly lights up the screen from an unknown number.

It must be the clinic.

“Hello?”

“Devon. Long time.”

Time stops around me.

The world grows quiet and I sit frozen to the bench, unable to move.

That voice.

It cuts through me sharper than any blade.

It settles in the back of my mind and wraps hands around my throat until I can barely breathe.

My heart gives one single powerful beat that feels like a punch, and when I speak, my voice sounds alien to my own ears.

“Axel?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten me already?”