The meeting

Kyra’s pov-

The clinic felt different this time.

Too quiet.

Too still.

The air conditioning was the same, that faint lemon-cleaner smell was the same, but it all sat wrong on my skin. Like walking into your own apartment and finding one picture frame tilted. Nothing you can prove, but your body knows.

I walked in at 2:59 p.m. sharp, her hair pulled into a high bun, lips glossed but nerves unmasked.

My hands were steady. I’d made sure of it. Checked them twice at the red light. But my pulse was doing something stupid in my throat, and no amount of Fenty gloss was going to cover the way my eyes kept darting around like I was about to get jumped.

I’d tried to calm myself on the drive over

windows down, music up but that feeling in her chest refused to go away.

Jhené Aiko wasn’t working. Neither was the 80-degree breeze. It just whipped my edges around and made me feel more exposed. Like the universe had peeled me open before I even parked.

Something wasn’t right.

I knew it the second I pulled into the lot and saw Dr. Quinn’s BMW in his reserved spot. He never stayed past 2 on Wednesdays.

The receptionist gave a stiff smile and directed her to a private consultation room instead of the usual cozy side office. That was her second red flag.

My heels clicked too loud against the floor. I hated how loud I sounded. Like I was announcing myself to whatever was waiting behind that door.

She barely had time to sit before the door creaked open.

I didn’t even get my bag all the way off my shoulder. My thigh hadn’t met the chair yet. The creak cut through the quiet and my stomach did this awful little flip not butterflies. Something heavier. Dread, maybe.

Dr. Quinn entered first. Then came someone else.

A man.

And the air changed. It got denser. My brain stuttered for a second because nothing about this was in the brochure.

Tall. Dark-skinned. Hoodie half-zipped over a fitted black tee. Strong jawline. Watch gleaming on his wrist like it cost more than her rent. And eyes piercing, unreadable, like they could undress a lie before you even said it.

He filled the doorway. Then the room. He didn’t have to try. Shoulders wide, posture like he was used to people moving out of his way. The watch caught the light and threw it right into my eye, and I hated that I noticed. I hated that I noticed the way the black of his tee pulled across his chest when he crossed his arms. My first thought is *why is he here*.

He didn’t smile.

Neither did I.

I couldn’t. My lips wouldn’t do it. My face was frozen in that polite, confused.

"Kyra," Dr. Quinn said, voice cautious, "thank you for coming in."

Cautious. That was the word. Like I was a dog he wasn’t sure would bite.

Her eyes flicked between him and the stranger. "Sure. What’s going on?"

My voice came out normal. I was proud of that. Inside, my heart was doing something messy against my ribs, but outside I sounded like a woman asking about test results, not a woman about to have her life split open.

The doctor sat down slowly. Zaire didn’t. He stayed standing. Arms crossed. Eyes on her.

Dr. Quinn sank into the chair like he was lowering himself into a cold bath. Zaire didn’t sit. Didn’t lean. Didn’t blink much. He just stood there, arms crossed, and looked at me like he was trying to memorize my face.

And I couldn’t stop looking back. Not because I wanted to. Because my body wouldn’t let me look anywhere else.

"This is Zaire Cruz," Dr. Quinn began, "and... this meeting is to inform you of a serious error that occurred during your insemination procedure."

Error.

The word dropped into the room and sucked all the air out. My ears started ringing.

Kyra’s stomach dropped. "What kind of error?"

It wasn’t a metaphor. I felt it that hollow, falling feeling, like I’d missed a step. My hands went cold. I pressed them flat against my thighs to keep them from shaking.

Dr. Quinn glanced at Zaire, then back to her. "The sample used... was not from donor #42183."

Donor #42183. I picked him because he had a master’s in engineering and liked hiking. Because his baby picture had dimples. Because he felt *safe.*

Kyra blinked.

"I—I don’t understand."

I really didn’t. My brain was buffering. The words were English but they weren’t making sense in that order.

Zaire stepped forward, voice low but direct. "It was mine."

My head snapped toward him.

"What?"

The word came out as a punch. Not a question. A denial.

Zaire inhaled slowly. "The sperm. You were inseminated with my sample. Not the donor you picked."

No.

No, no, no.

That wasn’t possible. That wasn’t —

Kyra stared at him like he’d just said the world was ending in five minutes.

Because he had. Because that’s what it felt like. Like he’d just walked in and said, *Hey, the planet you built? It’s gone. And I’m the meteor.*

Dr. Quinn cleared his throat. "It was a labeling mix-up. His sample was in cryo-storage for personal use, not donation. It was never supposed to be used in any procedure."

Personal use.

*Personal use.*

Like I was a procedure. Like I was a mistake someone made on a Tuesday before lunch.

Kyra’s throat tightened. "So you’re saying... if I get pregnant, I’m pregnant with his baby?"

The words echoed.

They bounced off the white walls and hit me again. *His baby. His baby.* I could taste the words. Metallic. Wrong.

Zaire finally sat, jaw tense. "I didn’t sign up for this either. I came in for a checkup and they dropped this on me."

He looked tired. Angry. Not at me, I don’t think. At the whole thing. At the room. At Dr. Quinn. At the air.

And somehow that made it worse. Because if he was yelling, I could yell back. But he was just... there. Solid. Real.

She turned to Dr. Quinn. "So what? Is this even legal?"

My voice got sharp. I needed it to. If I didn’t go sharp, I was going to go shattered.

"We’re investigating the full breakdown," he said quickly. "You’re under no obligation to include him in anything, Kyra. But ethically—"

"Ethically?" she snapped, rising to her feet. "Ethically, you let a stranger inside me without my consent!"

I was standing before I knew I’d decided to. My chair scraped back. My bag hit my hip. The word *consent* tore out of me and I meant for it to cut.

I wanted Dr. Quinn to flinch. I wanted the walls to flinch.

Zaire’s face didn’t move, but something in his eyes flickered guilt? Frustration? Something deeper?

It was fast. There and gone. But I saw it. And it made my stomach twist again, because it wasn’t nothing. He *felt* something.

"Look," he said, voice steady. "I’m not here to force anything. I just wanted to be in the room. I deserved to look you in the eye."

Steady. God, he was steady. And I hated that I needed that. Hated that my breathing slowed down a fraction just because his didn’t speed up.

Kyra turned to him slowly.

Her voice dropped. "Do I even want to know why your sperm was here in the first place?"

I didn’t actually want to know. I wanted to un-know all of this. But I asked anyway, because not knowing felt worse.

"I froze it," he said, calmly. "For the future. I wasn’t ready for kids now, but when I was... I didn’t want to leave it up to chance."

For the future.

*His* future.

And now it was maybe in me. Without either of us deciding.

Kyra stared at him for a long moment. The tension between them was thick, hot, complicated.

It was too much. The room was too small. He was too close and too far at the same time. I could smell his cologne something clean, expensive, cedar and it was messing with my head because nothing about this should smell good.

He didn’t look like the type of man she’d ever imagined fathering her child.

The thought hit me before I could kill it. And it pissed me off. Because he *did.* He looked like every bad decision wrapped in good DNA. Like the kind of man you cross the street to avoid because you know you’d probably bump into him being clumsy.

Which made it worse.

So much worse. Because if he’d been ugly, if he’d been mean, if he’d been anything but *this,* I could hate him clean.

"I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel right now," she admitted, softer now, her eyes glassing. "This wasn’t how I planned it. I picked someone because I thought it was safe. Controlled."

My voice cracked on *controlled.* Because that was the point. I did everything right. I made a spreadsheet. I researched. I controlled what I could because my life had been out of control for too long.

And now there was a stranger in it. In me. Maybe.

"I get it," Zaire said, his tone gentler now. "This ain’t how I planned it either."

Gentler. The bass in his voice dropped. And for one stupid second, I believed him. That he got it. That he was just as gutted, just as blindsided.

They sat in silence for a moment, eyes locked confused, raw, breathing the same tense air.

Nobody spoke. Dr. Quinn didn’t even breathe loud. It was just me and him and this thing between us that didn’t have a name yet.

I counted his blinks. He just looked. Not through me. *At* me. Like he was trying to see if I was going to break.

Then Kyra looked away.

"I need time."

I had to. If I stayed in that eye contact any longer I was going to do something cry, scream, ask him what his middle name was. Something irreversible.

Dr. Quinn nodded. "Of course."

I stood slowly, adjusting her bag on her shoulder, and with one last glance at Zaire, left the room

heart pounding harder than it had the day she walked in to become a mother.

I didn’t look at Dr. Quinn. I couldn’t.

I looked at Zaire. One last time.

And his eyes said something I wasn’t ready to hear.

The hallway was colder going out than it was coming in. Or maybe that was me.

My heels didn’t click this time. They were quiet. Like I was sneaking out of my own life.

And my hand was on my stomach before I even realized it.

Not because I felt anything.

But because I was terrified that I might.