《I Got Pregnant For The Wrong Twin》全部章節：第 181 章 - 第 188 章

ADRIANThe penthouse was quiet.It was always quiet now, in a way it hadn't been before Maria left. Before the baby. Before everything fell apart and rearranged itself into something I still didn't recognize. I stood at the window and watched the city below, the lights of New York spreading out like a circuit board, and tried to remember the last time I had felt something other than this low, constant hum of emptiness.My daughter was asleep in the nursery down the hall. Ella. Two years old now, with her mother's dark hair and my stubbornness, already showing signs of the fierce independence that would probably drive me crazy in a few years. She was the reason I got out of bed in the morning. The reason I went to work, made the calls, attended the meetings. The reason I hadn't completely disappeared into the grief and guilt and regret that had been threatening to swallow me whole.Maria had taken a job in Chicago six months ago. We had agreed on shared custody, on alternating holidays

SERENAThe call came on a Tuesday morning, three weeks after Adrian left.I was at the bakery, up to my elbows in flour, trying to finish a wedding cake order that was already behind schedule. Lily was on the phone with a supplier, arguing about delivery dates. Arya was in the back, dealing with a temperamental oven that had decided today was the day to stop working. It was chaos, the kind of chaos that had become normal, the kind that meant the business was thriving even when everything felt like it was falling apart.My phone buzzed. I ignored it at first, too focused on the piping bag in my hand, the delicate flowers I was trying to create. But it buzzed again. And again. And again.I wiped my hands on my apron and picked it up.Unknown number. New York area code."Hello?""Serena Delaney?" The voice on the other end was professional, clipped, the voice of someone who made phone calls for a living."This is she.""My name is Rebecca Thornton. I'm an attorney with Thornton & Associa

SERENAThe box came home with us.I carried it through airport security, held it on my lap during the flight, kept it beside me in the car on the drive back to Miami. Aiden didn't ask why I wouldn't let it go. He didn't need to. He understood that some things were too precious to trust to baggage handlers and cargo holds.Hope was waiting on the porch with Carmen when we pulled into the driveway. She ran to me the way she always did, her small arms wrapping around my legs, her face pressed into my thighs. I set the box down carefully and scooped her up, held her close, breathed her in."Mama home," she said."Mama's home, baby. Mama's home."Carmen smiled and disappeared inside, giving us space. Aiden took the box and carried it into the living room, setting it on the coffee table where it would stay for the next several days, a centerpiece of memory and grief and hope.That night, after Hope was asleep, I sat on the floor in front of the box and opened it again. Not to search. Not to

ADRIANThe call came on a Sunday afternoon.I was in the park with Ella, pushing her on the swings, watching her face light up with each arc through the air. She was wearing a pink dress with strawberries on it, the one her grandmother had sent for her birthday, the one Maria had rolled her eyes at but put on her anyway because some battles weren't worth fighting. She looked so much like her mother sometimes that it stopped my heart. Other times she looked like me, and that stopped my heart too, but for different reasons.My phone buzzed in my pocket. I ignored it at first, because Ella was laughing and the sun was warm and I didn't want to break the spell. But it buzzed again. And again."Sorry, sweetheart," I said, pulling the phone out. "Daddy just needs to check something."She didn't care. She was already demanding to go higher, higher, higher, the way she always did when she was in the swing.I glanced at the screen. Unknown number. New York area code, but not one I recognized.