Page 163 of What Goes Around

“And,” Payton added, “they did a NIPP test.”

My eyes lifted.

“A non-invasive prenatal paternity test,” she clarified. “Blood draw. It came back that Nick is the father.”

The words landed heavier than I expected.

I had told myself Apple wasn’t pregnant. Or if she was, it wasn’t Nick’s. I had believed that story because it made things cleaner.

But now…

Silence settled between us.

Then Payton sighed.

“Nick came to see me last week. He stayed for hours,” she said. “He cried. Like… actually cried. He said every chance he ever had with you is gone. That you rejected him at the wedding. That he thinks he was drugged. That his life feels wrecked. And that the only good thing in all of this is the baby.”

I looked down at my hands.

“He said the baby is innocent,” she continued. “That it’s the only thing keeping him standing. That he already loves the child.”

Payton studied my face carefully.

“He asked me if there was any chance. Any chance at all. With you.”

I already knew the answer inside me.

“There isn’t,” I said quietly.

She nodded, not surprised. Just… sad.

“I always thought you two would end up together,” she admitted. “I really did. I thought it was inevitable. And when it didn’t happen, I kept thinking… maybe it just needs time. And now there’s this.”

I looked toward the window, at the city lights beginning to glow.

“There’s no future there,” I said. “He has a child with my sister,” I continued. “Even if the circumstances were different, even if he was drugged, even if he regrets everything. That connection exists now. I won’t step into it. I won’t compete with it. And I won’t build anything on that kind of foundation.”

She reached for my hand. “I just wanted to ask.”

“I know.”

She squeezed my fingers gently. We sat in silence for a moment.

After Payton left, the apartment felt quieter, but not in a lonely way. Just still.

I stood by the door for a moment after it closed, listening to her footsteps fade down the hallway. Then I went back into the kitchen, poured myself a glass of water, and leaned against the counter. My body finally relaxed, as if it had been holding tension I hadn’t noticed.

The visit had been good. Comforting. Familiar in the way only long friendships could be. But it had also stirred something I had worked hard to put away.

Nick.

Not with pain anymore. Not with rage. Just with that dull, distant ache that belonged to something already finished.

Payton’s words replayed in my mind. How he had cried. How he had said all his chances with me were gone. How the baby was the only good thing left in his life.

I closed my eyes.

In another life, he had been my love. It could have been our child.