Chapter 89 — The Rift

Alexandre

I stand there, frozen.

The world continues to turn around me, but I am no longer part of it. The sounds are muffled, the voices distant, the walls are closing in. There is only this sentence left, this poison, this vertigo:

She is pregnant, three months along.

And she says it's me.

I am breathless. My heart pounds against my ribs like a panicked beast. Nausea rises, acidic. I want to tear my skin off, to flee this body, this memory, this guilt that seeps in where I thought I was still innocent.

Because it doesn't add up!

Because it's impossible!

Because if it were true...

Then I have become exactly what I have always sworn never to be.

I collapse into the chair, or I fall, I no longer know. My legs gave way without warning. My hands tremble. The dried blood on my knuckles still clings to my skin, like a reminder of another fault. I try to regain the thread.

That night.

I remember.

Or rather, I thought I did.

I see the hotel suite. The lights too cold. The whisky burning my t