Page 92 of What He Always Knew

Cameron pulled back, brows bending together. “What about Reese?”

My throat constricted at the thought of him, at the memory of his heart breaking in front of me just hours before.

“He will always be a part of my life,” I said. “And he’s broken. I hurt him, just as we have hurt each other.”

“You told him already?”

I nodded. “And he understands. As much as he can, anyway.”

Cameron let out a breath. “I just… I can’t believe this. You’re really here,” he mused, tracing my jaw with his thumb. “You’re really mine.”

My stomach twisted as he leaned in to kiss me, and I pressed my hands to his chest to stop him.

“There’s something else you should know,” I whispered. “Before we go any further.”

Cameron tensed, his chest tightening under my hands.

There was no easy way to say it, no tender way to drop such a heavy bomb.

“I’m pregnant.”

Those two words sucked all the air out of the room, and neither Cameron nor I even struggled for a breath as he let me go. I felt ice water seep into my veins when his warmth was gone, when he took a step back, and it flooded my system altogether when his wide eyes disappeared from view as he turned his back on me.

“I just found out,” I said, voice shaking as much as my hands. “And I… I don’t know who…”

Bile rose in my throat as Cameron pressed his hands against our bedroom window, the same one I’d let Jane free from.

“It could be yours. Or it could be…”

“His,” Cameron finished for me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, so softly I wasn’t sure he’d even heard me.

I sat back down on the bed, my hands finding my stomach, as if the child that grew inside it could somehow give me the strength I needed in that moment.

“I don’t know how long yet,” I continued. “I don’t know when I… when it happened. But I’ll go to the doctor soon, and when I do, I can ask about getting a test.”

Cameron still stared out the window, his slow, steady breaths the only sound in the room.

“Please, say something,” I begged him. “Anything.”

I smoothed a hand over my stomach, comforting the little one growing inside. No matter what Cameron said, no matter what he chose next, I would be a mother to that baby. I would love him or her unconditionally, and give them the life they deserve. I would teach them, help them grow, love them on the good days and the hard days, too.

Even if I had to do it alone, I would raise that child.

Cameron was so still, I wondered if he’d gone into shock. I wondered if he was debating flinging our window open and jumping out of it, just as Jane had — only he wouldn’t fly.

“Cameron?”

“I don’t want it.”

His words were a fist to my chest, my next breath stolen. They were loud and final, as sure and steady as a rushing rapid, and the waves of it took me under faster than I could blink.

He didn’t want it.

If I wasn’t already sitting down, I would have fallen to my knees.

I stared at his back, at the way it rose and fell with each easy breath he took, and the glimpse of hope and joy we’d lived in just moments before was stolen.