Chapter 9

The apartment felt smaller the moment the message left my phone. Like the walls had inhaled and forgotten how to breathe out again.

Serena didn’t move.

She just stared at the glowing screen in my hand as if it might still reverse itself, as if the words address now could be unsent by sheer force of will.

“Essie.” Serena’s voice was low, careful, the way people speak when they’re trying not to startle someone.

“You don’t have to open the door. You don’t owe him anything. Not the address. Not the baby. Not one more second of your life.”

I pressed the heel of my hand against my stomach. Sincerely, the hope was still there, fluttering like something with broken wings that refused to die.

I hated it how i felt but also needed it.

Both feelings lived in the same tight space under my ribs and they were tearing each other apart.

“I know,” I whispered.

But knowing and doing were different countries, and right now I am sitting here quietly not knowing what I should do.

My phone buzzed again in my hand. A new message from an unknown number.

It read, “Hi, how are you? You left the hospital already?”

My breath caught, this message has no name. Just those two quiet questions that somehow felt heavier than Leo’s demand.

I quickly locked the screen before Serena could see it and shoved the phone into my pocket like it had burned me.

Serena crossed the room in three strides and grabbed my shoulders.

Her fingers dug in hard enough to leave marks but I know she doesn’t mean to hurt me.

“Look at me,” she said, her eyes beaming with softness.

“He already had his chance and he chose the mistress,” she said. “He chose every version of himself that didn’t include you.”

She continued, “You sending that address doesn’t make him a father. It just makes you reachable.”

I wanted to argue.

I wanted to say the doctor’s call had changed something, that maybe fear could turn into care if you gave it enough room.

But the words stuck. All that came out was a thin, broken sound.

Then the intercom buzzed.

Serena’s eyes went wide. “Don’t.”

My feet moved anyway. I walked to the door. My finger hovered over the unlock button. I could still refuse. I could still pretend the message had been a mistake.

I pressed it.

The apartment door unlocked.

Serena shoved past me and stood between me and the door, fists clenched at her sides. “Essie, please…”

A knock.

I reached around her and turned the lock.

The door swung open.

Leo stood there in a black coat, his collar turned up. His hair neatly combed as always.

His eyes found mine first..always mine—and for one disorienting second I saw the man who used to make coffee too strong and leave notes on the bathroom mirror.

His expression shifted almost immediately and something colder settled in.

I watched the way he looked at Serena.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” Serena said, voice shaking with fury.

Leo ignored her. His attention stayed on me,watching me silently.

“She told me the address,” he said quietly. “That means she wants me here.”

I opened my mouth but nothing came out.

Behind him, soft footsteps paused on the door.

A woman’s voice, low and amused, drifted through the half open door, and I remember that voice. My heart thumped loudly in my chest. Leo wouldn’t bring her here.

“Darling… you forgot the papers.”