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“There’s baby.” She smiles, adjusting the probe to get different angles.
Blinking back tears, I look at that small life in my belly—the one who is half-me, half-Liam. The feeling, the connection, the pure joy, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever known.
The heartbeat begins to whoosh across the screen, and the sound that fills my ears feels like tangible hope renewed. Everything I’ve known before this moment vanishes; all the worries, fear, insecurity, feelings of never belonging to anyone or any place.
This. This is who I belong to. I was waiting my whole life to create this tiny one, and it’s like I finally have a purpose when I could never find one before.
“You’re about ten weeks from what I can gather from the measurements. Do you remember when your last period was?” Nicole interrupts my emotional moment.
She’s staring at me like I’m not the idiot who hasn’t been tracking her cycle. The thing is, I was rarely regular. After I turned thirty, my body began to malfunction on me, and I know my mother had gone through very early menopause at forty-five.
But wait, had she said ten weeks? Holy crap. I pretty much got pregnant the first time Liam and I had sex.
In the back of my head, something very close to fate is mocking me.
What the hell am I doing? What the hell am I doing picking fights with a man I’ve been destined to be with since the first moment we saw each other? What am I doing in this ultrasound alone when I have a man who so desperately wants to be with me, he’d risk everything he has and his own reputation just to love me? What am I doing keeping this from him when he’s seen the future we could have back when I thought it would never exist?
All at once, I want to launch myself from this table and run to wherever Liam is. If this conception date isn’t proof of how hard the universe has been working to bring us together, I don’t know what is.
From the moment he sought me out, pushed the envelope, and then did so again years later, I’ve been trying to run from this. And now, we have this thing that will tie us together forever. The thing is, even if this never happened, I know I can’t avoid it any longer.
The “it” being this soul-colliding chemistry. This spark we’ve both felt since the first moment. This intangible connection that I’ve never felt with anyone but him.
As Nicole continues to make sure everything looks good with the baby and my placenta and then calls the doctor in for a rundown of first-trimester expectations, I can’t help but count down the seconds.
Because as soon as this ends, I’m going to tell Liam that he’s about to be a father.
27
LIAM
I’m elbows deep in the dirt, tiny drops of rain dotting the earth beside me as I dig for another fence post hole.
I’ve been out here for hours by myself after the farmhands, and even Patrick, put in some work to help me install the second layer of security. They went home a while ago as the thunderclouds rolled in, but I was in a groove, and this manual work is the only thing that has been able to shut my brain off in a week.
The rhythmic physical pain of the work as it strains my muscles, makes sweat roll down my back, and has my breath heaving through my lungs is a welcome discomfort.
“Liam.”
I swear I’m dreaming that her voice is behind me, my name coming from her lips. It’s why I don’t turn, why I keep slinging dirt over my shoulder, why my hands ache with the force of holding the shovel.
“Liam, I’m sorry. Please look at me.”
The desperation in that voice, the way the apology rings through it … it hits me square in the chest. She’s here. Gabrielle is actually here. It’s not just a figment of my imagination.
Dropping the shovel immediately, I whirl around.
She’s standing a few feet away in the grass, her blond hair long and swaying in the wind that picks up as the clouds overhead intensify.
“What are you doing here?” I’m confused by her appearing here as if out of thin air.
Part of me assumed I’d never see her again, like this was history repeating itself.
Her skin seems to glow; she looks like an ethereal angel in the midst of the storm brewing overhead.
“I … I’m … I have to tell you …” She can’t seem to get her words out, shaking her head with a smile on her face as her gaze dips to the dirt.
“If you’re here to say you’re leaving, I don’t want to hear it.” My heart is a heavy stone, sinking into an unreachable pit.
