AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"What’s wrong, Harper? Something's been off for days."
She stiffens, her breath catching. But she doesn't pull away, and I take that as a good sign.
"You promised we'd always be honest with each other," I remind her gently. "No secrets, no holding back. I'm not great at this relationship stuff. But I'm trying. I want to be here for you, in whatever way you need. Just tell me what's going on in that beautiful head of yours."
Harper is silent for a long moment, and with each passing second, the fear in my chest grows claws and fangs. Threatening to eat me alive.
Finally, she takes a deep, shuddery breath. "I'm pregnant."
The world stops spinning. I freeze, my mind going utterly, completely blank. Pregnant. Harper is pregnant. With my child.
"I'm so sorry," she whispers, her voice thick with tears. "The birth control failed. I didn't...I didn't do this on purpose, Gabriel. I would never try to trap you like that."
Her words snap me out of my daze, and I realize with a sickening lurch that she's shaking.
"I know this isn't what you wanted," she continues, the words spilling out of her like a dam breaking. "I know you never intended to have kids. But I can't give up on these babies, Gabriel. On the lives we created together. Even if it means doing it alone. Even if it means finding another way to pay for Oscar's treatment."
She takes a deep breath, as if steeling herself. "I love you," she whispers, so softly I almost don't hear it. "I tried not to because it goes against everything we agreed to. But I couldn't help it. You mean...you mean everything to me, Gabriel."
Shock rockets through me, followed by a surge of joy. She loves me. Harper Elaine Hamilton, the woman who's become the center of my entire universe, loves me.
"You love me?" I manage, my voice hoarse and raw with emotion. "Truly?"
A tiny hiccupping sob escapes her. "I'm so sorry," she says again. "I'm sorry I ruined everything."
I'm moving before I can think, turning her in my arms until she's facing me. Until I can see the truth of her words shining in her tear-filled eyes.
"Harper!" I cup her face in my hands. "It takes two people to get pregnant. And this is a miracle!"
She blinks up at me, confusion and cautious hope warring on her face.
"But you don't want children. You were so adamant about that clause in the contract."
I take a deep breath, steeling myself to bare a truth I've never spoken aloud. "Five years ago, I had a vasectomy. I was so sure I'd never be able to be the kind of father a child deserves. So I took steps to make sure it didn’t happen."
Harper blanches, her eyes going wide with shock.
"You were only thirty! God, Gabriel, that's..."
"Extreme?" I finish for her, a wry smile tugging at my lips. "Yeah. I was terrified of passing on my messed-up genes. I thought I was doing the responsible thing."
I brush my thumbs over her cheekbones, marveling at the softness of her skin. At the miracle of her, here in my arms. "I never imagined I'd meet someone like you, Harper. Someone who would make me want to reconsider everything I thought I knew about myself. About love and family and the future."
Her breath hitches, fresh tears spilling down her cheeks. "What are you saying, Gabriel?"
"I'm saying that I love you. I'm saying that I don’t want to imagine my life without you. You've brought so much light and joy into my world and shown me what it means to be part of a family. If that's not love, then I don't know what is."
Her hands come up to cover mine where they cradle her face. "What about the baby? Babies, Gabriel. It's triplets."
Triplets. The word echoes in my head like a gong, resonant and earth-shattering. Three little lives, growing even now in the woman I adore. Three tiny pieces of me and her, knit together by some inexplicable twist of fate.
Terror and wonder war in my chest, taking my breath away. I'm going to be a father. Me, the unwanted bastard who never thought he'd have a family of his own.
"We made three babies?" I choke out, awe and disbelief coloring my voice. "Harper, that's incredible."
But even as joy fills me, a lifetime of fear and self-doubt rises to meet it. I imagine all the ways I could fail them, these precious beings that are already worming their way into my heart.
“What if they inherit my messed-up leg? I wasn’t exactly nurtured right. I might damage them emotionally, you know? Maybe my father was the kind of person who beat up my mother, I don’t know.” My hands fist in frustration. “I can't bear the thought of watching our kids suffer, Harper.”
