Semua Bab Divorced Before He Knew I was Pregnant: Bab 61 - Bab 70

Aira didn’t speak on the drive home.Not to Adrian.Not even to Zayn.She tried.She really did.She responded when Zayn spoke, nodded when Adrian asked simple questions, even forced a small smile when her son laughed at something trivial.But her mind wasn’t there.It refused to stay in the present.Every attempt to focus slipped through her fingers, dragged back to the same moment she couldn’t shake no matter how hard she tried.It was still in that room.Still standing in front of Selene.Still replaying the way her expression had remained so composed, so controlled, as if she had already figured something out and was only confirming it.Still hearing those words.If I can figure it out… Lucien will too.Aira’s fingers tightened slightly around the steering wheel, her grip firm enough now to make her knuckles pale.Because that wasn’t a threat.It hadn’t been delivered like one.There had been no raised voice. No tension. No attempt to intimidate.Just quiet certainty.And somehow—

  Lucien didn’t sleep.    Not because he couldn’t.    Because his mind refused to be still.    Every time he closed his eyes, he saw the same thing.    Aira.    Standing there like nothing had changed.    Like the years between them didn’t exist.    And the child.    His jaw tightened slightly as he stared up at the ceiling.    Because there was no confusion there.    No doubt.    No question left unanswered.    The child was his.    What unsettled him wasn’t the truth.    It was everything that came after it.    Three years.    ⸻

  Lucien didn’t go home immediately after leaving Aira’s apartment. Instead, he drove without direction, letting the city stretch endlessly before him while his mind remained fixed on a single moment he couldn’t shake.    Zayn.    Even thinking the name felt different now—heavier, more real. It wasn’t just a possibility anymore, not something distant or abstract. It had a face. A voice. A presence that had stood just a few feet away from him, looking up with innocent curiosity, completely unaware of how much that single moment had shifted everything.    Lucien tightened his grip on the steering wheel as the memory replayed again. The boy’s eyes. The quiet confidence in the way he stood. The unmistakable familiarity that didn’t need explanation.    There had been no doubt in that room. Not even for a second.  

  Lucien did not return to Aira’s apartment the next day.    He didn’t call either.    And somehow, that silence unsettled her more than his presence had.    Aira felt it the moment she woke up—the quiet, calculated stillness that always came before something shifted. Lucien Carter was not impulsive. If anything, he was deliberate to a fault. Showing up unannounced had been a reaction. What came after would be intention.    That was what made it dangerous.    She went through her morning slowly, more aware than usual. Zayn sat at the table, happily talking about something that had happened at daycare, his small hands moving animatedly as he spoke. Aira smiled, nodded, responded when she needed to, but her mind kept drifting.    There was a weight she couldn’t ignore.   

    Aira didn’t go home immediately.    She drove without direction, her mind too crowded to settle on anything clear. The city moved around her in a blur of lights and distant sounds, but she barely registered any of it.    Selene’s face lingered.    Not the smile.    Not the words.    The hand.    The way it had rested so naturally against her stomach, subtle but intentional.    Pregnant.    Aira tightened her grip on the steering wheel, her breath steady but shallow.    It shouldn’t have mattered.    Lucien had moved on. That was expected. Normal, even.    But standing there, in that office again, seeing them in the same space—it had felt like