Chapter 3

My high fever wouldn't break after I got home, so I ended up in the hospital.

After three days on an IV, Aaron came to see me. He lifted a spoonful of soup and gently blew on it to cool it.

"Here, Mia. Open up."

I took a sip and stopped there.

Aaron frowned. "You don't like it?"

I shook my head.

"Aaron, there's something I need to tell you. I can hear what people who love me are thinking."

His grip shifted, tipping the spoon sideways.

"Mia, you've got to be joking."

He pressed his palm to my forehead. "Has the fever gone to your head?"

Hot soup spilled onto the back of my hand, stinging my skin. I swallowed hard against the bitterness in my throat.

"I'm serious."

"Mia, stop this."

Aaron gripped my hand and fixed me with a serious look. "All I want right now is for you to get better. Then we can get married."

"Aaron."

I took a deep breath.

"When you first told me you loved me at 18, I heard you thinking that you'd love me in this life and the next. When we went long-distance at 20, I heard you thinking that you'd marry me once we could finally be together again."

Aaron's face grew paler with every word.

"But now I can't make out your thoughts at all."

I looked at him, and my sadness must have shown. He said nothing for several minutes.

"Mia, you're the only one."

He handed me his phone. "Check for yourself."

Out of habit, I entered my birthday as the passcode, but it didn't work. After the third failed attempt, I entered Olivia's birthday instead. The phone unlocked.

I opened their message thread. The screen was filled with updates about their everyday lives.

They shared every little detail of their day, from what they ate and drank to a kitten they spotted by the road. Olivia even asked Aaron which body wash she should use before showering.

My hands wouldn't stop shaking. Aaron had never shared these ordinary moments with me.

He brushed it off. "Mia, Olivia and I barely talked."

I held up his phone. "Then what do you call all this?"

He barely glanced at the screen. "It's just everyday stuff."

"But you never tell me about your day."

"Mia, we've been together for years. Do we really need to share every little thing?"

I sat there, numb. I had so much I wanted to say, but none of it would come out.

"If that's what you want, I'll start sharing the little things with you every day."

Aaron reached over and gently pinched my cheek.

I lowered my gaze so he wouldn't see my reaction. "Don't bother."

My answer caught him off guard. He rubbed wearily between his brows, then got up and paced the room.

Neither of us said another word.

I was done looking through his phone.

Just as I was about to turn off the screen, it lit up with a promotional message from an online store. "Get closer than ever, Mr. Searle. It's been 60 days since your last order of Air Ultra-Thin condoms…"

But it had been three months since Aaron and I last slept together at a hotel.

I bit down on my lip until the metallic taste of blood filled my mouth. My fingers tensed as I opened his order history.

Then his phone rang. I recognized the ringtone he had assigned to Olivia.

Aaron snatched the phone from me and answered without putting the call on speaker.

He hung up five minutes later, looking uneasy. "Mia, Olivia isn't feeling well. I need to go with her to get checked out."

He hurried away before I could respond.

I got out of bed and followed him.

Olivia went into the room for a transvaginal ultrasound, one hand resting on her stomach.

Aaron waited outside, visibly anxious. A nurse handed him several boxes of medication, but I was too far away to tell what they were.

I stopped a nurse as she passed and pointed toward Aaron. "Excuse me, can I get that medication too?"

"Sure. Have you signed up for prenatal care yet? Once you're in the system, you can get free folic acid."

I went cold all over.

I walked back to my hospital room in a daze, numb with shock and barely holding myself together.