Chapter 5
“Your child,” I said, “is bound to look more like you.”
I smiled and leaned my head against his shoulder.
He slipped a small pillow beneath my back. “Get some rest,” he murmured. “You’ll wake up and we’ll already be there.”
Maybe I was just exhausted. Or maybe it was the last few days finally catching up with me
-the packing, the decisions, the emotional cuts I hadn’t noticed until they began to sting.
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But resting against him like this, I drifted off before I could even think of a reason not to.
Meanwhile, across the ocean in a hospital room, Scott was living what some might call a
good life. At least on the surface.
Since I left, no one had asked when he was coming home. No one followed him around like
a shadow, trailing behind him with questions or concern. No one nagged or waited.
He said he still worried about me, but his body had other commitments. He stayed by Chloe’s side with the loyalty of a man who’d forgotten how to hesitate.
It wasn’t until a call from the office broke the trance that he realized how long he’d been
there.
“Mr. Kenta,” his assistant said urgently, “have you completed the resource transfer with
Alyssa? Many of our big clients are demanding her. Some are threatening to walk.”
Scott paused mid–motion, a spoonful of porridge hovering halfway to Chloe’s mouth.
He blinked. “What are you talking about? Isn’t Alyssa still with the company? Let her
handle it.”
Truth was, when I’d told him I wanted to break up, he didn’t believe me. Ten years, after all, doesn’t dissolve so easily. He assumed I’d come back–like I always did.
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Chapter 5
But then again…
Even when I was angry, I’d never vanished this long before.
+25 Bonus
The assistant sighed on the other end of the line. “Alyssa submitted her resignation ages ago. You signed off on it yourself. Don’t you remember?”
His smile froze. His voice rose. “She resigned? No one told me!”
“Mr. Kenta…” The assistant sounded confused now. “You were the one who approved it. We wouldn’t have processed it otherwise.”
The words hit him like a migraine–sharp and sudden. His mind turned to slush.
I had left. Completely.
Gone.
And I had meant it.
But how could that be? Hadn’t I just told him not long ago that I was pregnant? Would I really choose to bring a child into the world without a father?
Fumbling, his fingers reached for his phone, but the screen flashed coldly–he’d been
blocked.
He tried every app, every channel he could think of. All the same. Blocked.
He stared blankly, as if the ground had quietly dropped out beneath him.
Next to him, Chloe noticed his face turning pale. She tilted her head.
“What’s wrong? You feeling sick?”
He didn’t answer at first. His mind had emptied. Words were sluggish to form.
Finally, he muttered, “Alyssa left me… She really left.”
He thought she might comfort him.
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Chapter 5
Instead, she stifled a laugh, then let it out anyway.
+25 Bonus
“Isn’t that great news?” she said brightly. “If she hadn’t gotten in the way back then, we wouldn’t have had to break up. Now that she’s gone, we can finally be together, openly and honestly.”
She was smiling too much to notice how quiet he’d gone.
Then he asked, slowly, as if confirming something he’d hoped wasn’t true, “That’s what you think?”
She beamed.
“Isn’t it what you think, too? We don’t have to hide anymore! I should book a place to celebrate. What do you think–something fancy?”
She leapt off the hospital bed in a burst of excitement, even bouncing on her feet like a
child. And that was when his expression shifted.
Cold. Colder than the snow outside the window.
“Chloe,” he said, voice low. “Your leg… wasn’t it injured?”
The words hit her like ice water down her spine.
She froze. Visibly.
Her eyes flicked to her legs, her lips fumbling. “No, that’s not–it’s not what you think. I
can explain-”
But Scott didn’t wait for her explanation.
He turned and left, the door slamming shut behind him.
