"I didn't!" Devon drops to his knees in front of me, his hands reaching for mine.
I jerk away, not wanting him to touch me.
"Jade, I swear to God, I never slept with her. The kiss was all thathappened. She even said so herself—that morning, she told me it was just a drunken kiss. Those were her exact words."
"Then how can she?—"
"She'slying." His eyes are desperately searching mine. "Shehasto be lying. She keeps telling me I blacked out, that I don't remember, but I know my body, Jade. I know what we did and didn't do."
I stare at him—at this man I've loved since I was eighteen years old—and I feel something inside me break completely into shards too small to count.
“But she’s saying she’s pregnant.” My voice doesn't sound like mine. “Withyourbaby.”
The sob rips through me before I can stop it.
Mila Harris—Mila who mocked my body in locker rooms, who made me feel like shit every time she saw me—she’stelling everyone she’s carryingmyhusband's child?
"Jade." Devon's voice breaks on my name. "Baby, please—she's lying." He says it again, like it will make it true. "I never touched her."
I stare at him, almostthroughhim, my mind drowning in scenarios I can’t even bring to the surface. I thought I knew pain, but this?
No, this is agony. Pain on steroids.
"The kiss was all that happened," he insists, staring into my eyes. "I stopped it. I told her it was wrong, and then I passed out in that chair. She even said it herself the next morning. I’m telling you right now, Jade, I did nothing more than that stupid fucking kiss.”
I want to scream at him, but a different thought rises through the rage.
Mila said it was a drunken kiss. That's all.
I remember Devon telling me this during one of our awful fights. Mila dismissed it herself.
So why would she suddenly claim pregnancy?
The answer arrives with sickening certainty: because she knows exactly what would hurt me most.
"She's doing this on purpose." I hear my voice change into something monstrous.
Devon blinks. "What?"
"She knows." I stand up, and Devon scrambles backward to give me room. "She knows we don’t have children, and she's using it to?—"
The violence that sweeps through me is unlike anything I've felt before. It's not hot; it's cold. Ice fucking cold.
"She bullied me for years, Devon. She made my life hell whenever you weren't looking. Called me names, made comments about my body, took pictures of me changing and threatened to share them." I watch his face go white. "And now she's doing it again. Different tactics, same goal. She wants to break me."
"Jade—"
"She's not going to."
I don't recognize myself at this moment. Mila has finally pushed me too far. She's using motherhood—my deepest craving—against me, and something in me refuses to take it.
"I'm going to confront the bitch.”
"What?" Devon's eyes go wide. "No. Absolutely not."
"I'm not asking for your permission." I glare at him.
"Jade, she's unstable. There was something off. Something ugly and crazy.”
