Mag-log inClaire's POVAfter the doctors left, the room suddenly felt much quieter. The cheerful chatter disappeared with them, leaving only the soft hum of the air conditioner and the distant sounds of hospital life drifting through the corridor.Olivia placed the sunflowers on the windowsill before turning back to me. "They're your favorite."I looked at the bright yellow petals catching the morning sunlight. "They are?"She smiled. "They've always made you happy."I walked over to them slowly. "They're beautiful."She beamed. "I knew you'd say that."I laughed softly. "I'm beginning to think I was a very predictable person.""Oh, no." Olivia grinned. "You were impossible to predict.""Except with flowers.""Apparently."We shared another small laugh before I looked toward Damien. He hadn't interrupted us once he simply stood near the door, quietly watching and not impatient and not uncomfortable just waiting almost as if he'd learned long ago that letting me finish a conversation mattered.I
Claire's POVThe following morning arrived far too quickly I barely remembered falling asleep because my mind had spent most of the night wandering through fragments of conversations that belonged to someone else's life.A contract marriage, a divorce, a baby and a husband who had realized he loved me only after it was too late but none of it felt like my story, and yet somehow it was.A gentle knock sounded against the hospital room door. "Good morning, Claire."I looked up as Dr. Reynolds walked in, followed by a nurse carrying a tablet and behind them came Dr. Carter, his usual warm smile already in place."Good morning," I replied."How are you feeling today?" Dr. Reynolds asked as she opened my chart.I thought about the question. "I think..." I smiled sheepishly. "...that's becoming the hardest question anyone can ask me."Both doctors laughed softly. "I'll take that as a good sign," Dr. Carter said. "It means you're thinking before you answer instead of simply saying 'fine.'""
Claire's POVI couldn't stop looking at him.Only a few minutes earlier, Damien had confessed that he'd realized he loved me when it was already too late to save our marriage. Now I found myself wanting to understand how two people who had signed divorce papers had somehow ended up expecting a baby together.Nothing about our story sounded ordinary."So..." I began, curling my fingers a little tighter around the blanket. "You promised you'd tell me about us."A faint smile touched his lips. "I did.""Then start at the beginning."He leaned back in his chair, letting out a slow breath as though he was travelling back through memories he'd visited a thousand times before. "Alright."For a moment his gaze drifted toward the window, but I could tell he wasn't really looking outside. He was somewhere else entirely."You already know Tiffany left me at the altar."I nodded. "You told me that yesterday.""What I didn't tell you..." His eyes found mine again. "...was that you were there."I s
Claire's POVThe room grew quiet again.It wasn't the uneasy silence that had hung between us earlier, when every answer seemed to create another impossible question. This silence settled more gently, carrying the weight of everything we'd already shared and everything neither of us quite knew how to say.Almost without thinking, my hand drifted back to my stomach. It was strange how naturally it happened.Only minutes ago I'd learned there was a baby growing inside me, and yet my body already seemed determined to protect a child my mind still struggled to understand. I rested my palm against the blanket and stared down at it, trying to make sense of a future that had changed before I'd even had the chance to remember my past.Pregnant.The word still felt unfamiliar and not because I doubted it, but because it belonged to a life I couldn't remember living.When I finally looked up, Damien was watching me.There was nothing unsettling about the way he looked at me. If anything, it rem
Claire's POVI searched Damien's face, trying to understand why his eyes looked as though he'd just walked through every emotion imaginable from fear, relief to hope but there was something else too something so overwhelming that it almost frightened me.He drew in a slow breath before speaking again. "Before I tell you," he said quietly, "I need you to promise me something."I tilted my head slightly. "What?""If you don't feel anything... if you don't remember anything..." He gave me a small, reassuring smile. "That's alright."I frowned. "I don't understand.""You don't have to." His voice remained impossibly gentle. "Just listen."I nodded. "Okay."For several long seconds, he simply looked at me. I had the strange feeling he was choosing every word with incredible care.Finally, he spoke. "Claire..." His voice trembled ever so slightly. "You're pregnant."Everything around me seemed to stop as I stared at him, convinced I'd misheard. "...I'm what?"His smile wavered, but it never
Claire's POVI woke before the sun had fully risen.For a few peaceful seconds, I simply lay there listening to the quiet hum of the hospital. Somewhere beyond my room, a cart rolled across polished floors, followed by the distant murmur of nurses beginning another shift. It was strangely comforting. Familiar, even.Then I remembered or rather I remembered that I couldn't remember and the comfort disappeared as quickly as it had come.I slowly turned my head toward the window. The sky outside was painted with soft shades of pink and gold as the first rays of sunlight stretched across the city. New York was waking up, and judging by the view from my room, it was a city that never seemed to slow down.I wondered if I'd loved living here and I wondered where I'd lived. What my apartment looked like. Whether I preferred coffee or tea in the mornings.The questions never stopped and every answer I searched for was swallowed by the same endless emptiness.A quiet sigh escaped my lips before
Claire's POVDamien wasn't home, of course he wasn't.I stepped inside anyway, but the apartment felt different. Larger somehow. Colder. The silence seemed to stretch endlessly through the empty rooms, and for the first time since discovering I was pregnant, fear settled heavily in my chest. It wasn
Claire's POVI barely slept again but the difference was that this time I wasn't staring at an empty side of the bed. Damien had eventually come upstairs sometime after midnight. I knew because I heard him moving quietly through the bedroom while he assumed I was asleep.Neither of us had spoken an
Claire's POVDamien stood in the foyer for a moment as though he wasn't entirely certain he wanted to be there and the sight alone told me more than I wanted to know.His suit jacket was gone. His white shirt was creased in places that suggested he had been wearing it far longer than intended. Dark
Claire's POVThe moment I saw the name on Damien's phone screen, something inside me went completely still.Tiffany Morgan.For a second, I wondered if I had imagined it. The restaurant seemed to fade around me, the soft glow of candlelight and the murmur of nearby conversations becoming distant an







