All Chapters of A SURROGATE FOR MY SISTER'S ALPHA HUSBAND: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

MicaI brought the paperwork to breakfast the next morning and set it down beside his coffee without a word.Nyric looked at it, then at me, then back at the date printed at the top."Where did you find this?""In your desk. I wasn't looking for it — I was looking for my own consent forms, and I found this instead." I sat down across from him, the seat I'd claimed the night before, and folded my hands to keep them from shaking. "You signed this three days before you told me you wanted to destroy the embryos. Explain that to me."He was quiet for a long moment, studying the page like it might explain itself if he looked at it long enough."That's not a consent form to destroy anything," he finally said. "It's a request to transfer storage location. I moved them to a private facility after the funeral, somewhere with tighter security, away from the hospital where—" He stopped. "Away from where she died. I didn't trust the original clinic to keep them safe from press attention once peopl

MicaAunt Lydia arrived without calling first, which should have told me everything about the visit before she even stepped through the door.I heard her voice in the entryway before I saw her — sharp, clipped, already mid-argument with the poor butler who'd tried to announce her properly."I don't need to be announced in my own niece's home. I raised her mother. I'll walk myself in, thank you."I came down the stairs to find her standing in the foyer, coat still on, purse clutched in both hands like a shield."Aunt Lydia. You should have called.""I did call. You didn't answer. Neither did anyone else in this enormous, echoing house." Her eyes swept the entryway, taking in the marble, the chandelier, the portrait of Ophelia that still hung near the staircase. "I had to hear from Selene that you'd moved in permanently. Permanently, Mica. Not from you.""I was going to tell you.""When? After the wedding no one's mentioned but everyone's clearly planning?""There's no wedding, Lydia. I

MicaNobody spoke for a long moment after Selene left.Nyric finally broke the silence, pushing back from the table. "I'll go after her.""Don't."He paused, halfway to standing. "Mica—""Let her go, Nyric. She said what she needed to say. Chasing her down won't make it less true.""It wasn't fair, what she said.""Maybe not. But it wasn't entirely wrong, either." I stared at the untouched food on my plate, my appetite long gone. "I'm not trying to be Ophelia. I know that. But I understand why it looks that way from where she's standing. From where a lot of people are standing, probably."He sat back down slowly, studying me with an expression I couldn't quite place."You didn't ask for any of this to look a certain way.""No. But I still have to live inside how it looks, don't I."Neither of us had an answer for that. We finished what little remained of dinner in silence, the photographs watching from every wall, and went to bed without resolving much of anything.---The morning of

Mica"Mica did wonderfully," Dr. Carter said, stepping into the waiting room ahead of the nurse wheeling me out. "Transfer went smoothly. No complications."I watched Nyric's shoulders drop, the tension leaving his body all at once, like a held breath finally released."And now?" he asked."Now we wait." Dr. Carter offered a small, careful smile. "Two weeks before we can run a blood test to confirm anything. I know that's not the answer either of you wants, but it's the honest one. Try to keep her stress levels down, if you can. Rest, gentle activity, nothing strenuous.""I can do that," Nyric said, already reaching for my hand as the nurse helped me into the wheelchair for the mandatory post-procedure ride to the car.The drive home was quieter than the drive there had been, but a different kind of quiet — less dread, more a held, cautious hope neither of us wanted to name out loud for fear of jinxing it.---The two weeks that followed were the longest of my life, longer even than t

Mica"I have your results," Dr. Carter said again, and the silence that followed felt long enough to hold an entire lifetime inside it.I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. Beside me, Nyric had gone completely still, the way I imagined he must have gone still in that first waiting room years ago, the way Ophelia used to tease him about.Dr. Carter glanced down at the folder one final time, then closed it gently, setting it on the small table beside her chair before finally looking up at us both directly."The test is positive."For a moment, the words didn't fully land. I heard them — I understood, on some basic level, what they meant — but my brain seemed to need a second longer than usual to translate sound into meaning, to let two simple words rearrange everything about the life I thought I understood."Positive," I repeated, my voice barely a whisper."Positive," Dr. Carter confirmed, and this time a real smile broke through her careful professional composure, warm and genuine. "Y