AllFreeNovel
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I had a hunch, but I didn’t want to cause Lane any more pressure. He has been working at the shop tirelessly. I need to get to the nearest pharmacy and take a pregnancy test to make sure.
I return with Exie hot on my heels like a mother bear. “Come on. Pee on the stick. I want to know,” she demands.
I enter the bathroom and follow the instructions and I wait.
After the required time, I pick it up and I slide down the free-standing tub in the master bathroom with the feeling of my stomach hiding the floor. I’m pregnant with Lane’s baby.
The bathroom door opens with Exie appearing in the doorway with a hanger.
“Really? This isn’t funny.” I snap.
She tilts her head from side to side. “So, yay or nay.”
My head lifts and I hand her the stick. She retrieves it, and she lets out a loud squeal.
“Yes. I knew it!” she shouts.
“Knew what?” Lane deadpans.
I didn’t hear him enter or the sound of his car rumbling down the driveway.
Exie quickly hides the stick behind her back to keep Lane from seeing it. “Nothing,” she croaks.
He glances at me sitting on the bathroom floor and crouches down. “Is your stomach still bothering you, Aura? Do you need to see a doctor, baby?” he asks, his voice laced with concern.
The back of his fingers slides down my face, and I turn my cheek into his palm. “Yeah, but not for what you think.”
He pinches his brows, and his head snaps up to look at Exie. I nod when her eyes find mine and she hands him the pregnancy stick.
“I’m pregnant,” I say softly.
He holds it in his hand and stares at it for a while silently. He doesn’t look happy or sad. He just sits there crouching down with the pregnancy stick in his hand, lost in his thoughts.
I should have waited to tell him, but I couldn’t keep anything this important from him. I love him and he says he loves me, but this is a huge step and I had a feeling he wasn’t ready to take the leap into having a family.
Exie’s mouth forms a grim line, and I stand up quietly and silently exit the bathroom.
“Do you want me to kick his ass?” Exie asks. “Maybe it will get him to talk.”
“He isn’t ready, and it’s a big responsibility. I should have been more careful. This changes everything because he knows I would never terminate a pregnancy,” I whisper yell.
“I’m going to head out with some friends and I’ll call you. It will give him time to think. Lane’s a thinker and a planner. It will you guys time to talk it out.” She gives me a hug. “He loves you. You know that, right?” I nod. “He would never let you go, Aura. He will take care of you and the baby. No matter what happens.”
“Thank you, Exie. Call me later.”
I walk to the bedroom where I create my jewelry and sit on the bed to finish the one I was working on. I hear the front door open and close and I know he left without a word.
He didn’t call or come home.
It was the first time I cried because of Lane. He never made me cry before and it hurt. It hurt that he didn’t say a word to tell me what he thought or how he felt. My heart told me to give him time and don’t pressure him, that he would eventually speak to me.
A week has come and gone. No sign of Lane. I went to the urgent care clinic, and it was confirmed I was three months pregnant. I saw the little embryo on the ultrasound and when I came home, I cried for hours because I felt all alone wishing we could share the joy of creating the most beautiful thing a couple can create.
The following week, I gave up thinking he would come back. I tried calling him, but it always went straight to voice mail. Exie has been calling me but I ignored her calls. In need of some fresh air, I called an Uber to take me to a local spot to eat an old-fashioned burger refusing to take one of his cars he always leaves in case I needed to go somewhere. I have been craving a burger lately and now I have the perfect excuse to go get one.
When I make it inside, I end up sitting at a table outside and people watch, thinking about how I’m going to raise a child on my own. I tried to calculate in my head if I could keep selling jewelry to support myself and a baby but quickly realized that it would be impossible. That leaves me getting a job and finding an apartment. The last thing I had ever thought was to fall pregnant and the worst, that Lane would leave me alone without a word.
I’m lost in my thoughts and I see a digital billboard with a huge picture of Kalum, and it reads. ‘Youngest CEO takes over company.’My eyes take in his features remembering the nice things he said to me that first night and the way he held me.
