Page 125 of What Comes Around

I blinked.

Because he wasn’t wrong.

The last week replayed in fragments. The exhaustion. The mood swings. The cravings I couldn’t explain. The missed period I had dismissed as stress.

My hand moved on its own, settling against my stomach, fingers pressing lightly as if I could feel something there already.

A knock broke the moment.

The door opened and a woman stepped inside, a middle‑aged woman with a clipboard tucked under her arm. “I’m Dr. Wilde.”

She listened as Knox repeated everything, then nodded and handed me a small plastic cup. “We’ll start with a urine test.”

Knox steadied me as I slid off the table and walked to the bathroom. When I came back, Dr. Wilde took the sample and dipped a test strip into it, setting it on a tray between us.

We all watched.

It changed quickly.

Two lines.

I stared at it, my mind refusing to catch up. Then I looked at Knox. He had gone completely still.

Dr. Wilde glanced at it, then back at me. “This is a positive test. We’ll confirm with an ultrasound.”

She also asked for the date of my last period. I answered automatically, my voice distant. She nodded, doing the math. “That would place you around seven weeks.”

Seven.

My hand drifted back to my stomach.

“We can confirm and check viability with an ultrasound,” she said.

“Yes,” Knox answered immediately.

I nodded.

“Because it’s early, we’ll need to do a transvaginal ultrasound. It provides a clearer image at this stage.”

The doctor handed me a gown and stepped out to give me privacy. A few minutes later, I was lying back on the exam table, the paper crinkling beneath me, a sheet draped over my lower half. Knox stood beside me, close enough that I could feel the heat of him. His hand found mine, fingers threading through mine.

I stared at the ceiling as the doctor worked, trying to keep my breathing steady.

Then she paused.

“There.”

She turned the monitor slightly toward us.

A small shape appeared on the screen. Tiny. Fragile.

“That’s the gestational sac,” she said, adjusting the angle. “And here…”

A sound filled the room.

Fast. Steady.

Alive.