I stared at my cracked phone on the floor. Her last message still glowed through the fractures.
I’m not leaving.
I laughed, hollow, wrecked.
Liar.
I didn’t answer.
I just sat there in the dark, pills dissolving on my tongue, waiting for the numbness to take me under.
Chapter 33
Hadley
The doorbell rang at dusk, sharp and unexpected, like a gunshot in the quiet house.
I was on the couch, one hand on my belly where the baby had been unusually still all day, the other clutching my phone like it might suddenly light up with Cal’s name. Zariah was in the kitchen making tea she swore would calm my nerves. Eli was upstairs with headphones on, lost in some Lego build tutorial. When the bell rang again, insistent, I pushed myself up slowly, hips protesting, and waddled to the foyer.
Through the peephole: Cal.
My heart slammed against my ribs so hard I gasped.
I opened the door before I could second-guess it.
He stood there in the same hoodie from two days ago, hair messy, eyes shadowed and bloodshot. He smelled faintly of smoke and something sharper, chemical, synthetic. No roses this time. No apology flowers. Just him, hollowed out.
“Cal…” My voice cracked. “You’re home.”
He didn’t step inside. Just looked at me like I was a stranger who’d stolen something from him.
“I’m here,” he said flatly. “What do you want?”
Relief crashed through me so violently my knees almost buckled. He came back. He came back. Maybe we could fix this.
“To talk,” I said quickly. “Please. Just… five minutes. Listen to me.”
His jaw worked. Arms crossed tight across his chest. “Fine.”
Zariah appeared in the hallway behind me, took one look at his face, and immediately pivoted. “I’m gonna check on Eli,” she said, voice neutral but eyes screaming be careful. She disappeared upstairs.
I stepped back so he could come in. He did, slowly, like the house might bite him.
We ended up in the living room. He didn’t sit. Neither did I. The silence stretched until it hurt.
“I didn’t kiss him,” I started, words tumbling out. “Kei....he kissed me. I shoved him away the second it happened. I swear on the baby, Cal. I swear.”
His laugh was short, bitter. “You swear on the baby. Cute.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“You kept him around for months.” His voice was low, dangerous. “Late-night talks. Inside jokes. The way you lit up when he texted. You think I didn’t see it?”
“I talked to him because you shut down every time I tried to reach you!” My own voice rose despite myself. “You’d disappear into the studio, into bottles, into silence. Kei was the only one who actually answered when I asked how you were.”
“So that makes it okay?” He stepped closer. “That makes it okay for him to put his fucking mouth on you in our kitchen?”
“No!” Tears burned my eyes. “It doesn’t. It was wrong. He crossed a line. But I didn’t cross it with him. I love you, Cal. I’ve never lied about that. I want us. I want this family.”
