Sleep never came. I lay awake in the dark, staring at the cracks in the ceiling as if they could answer the questions tearing me apart. My hand rested against my stomach, trembling with every breath.
The doctor's words from yesterday echoed endlessly: You're about six weeks pregnant.
I turned the words over again and again, as if they might change if I thought hard enough. Pregnant. His child. A piece of him lived inside me, no matter how much he tried to pretend I didn't exist.
By the time dawn bled across the sky, I had made my decision.
I had to tell him.
No matter what came after.
---
Campus was alive with morning chatter—students rushing between classes, coffee in hand, laughter spilling into the chilly air. It all felt distant, muffled, as though I were moving through water.
I clutched my notebook to my chest, whispering the words I had rehearsed a hundred times.
Professor—no, Alexander. I need to tell you something. I'm pregnant. It's yours.
Each rehearsal felt wrong, but I kept trying, my steps dragging as I crossed the courtyard toward the faculty building.
Fear gnawed at me. What if he was angry? What if he denied it? What if he thought I was trying to trap him?
But then I thought of the tiny heartbeat growing inside me, and I knew silence was no longer an option.
He deserved the truth.
---
The hallway outside his office stretched endlessly before me, each step heavier than the last. I could hear voices beyond the door, muffled but clear enough to know he wasn't alone.
I swallowed hard, lifted my hand, and froze.
Through the glass panel in the door, I saw him.
Alexander.
He stood tall, his posture sharp as always, but his expression… softer, almost indulgent. And then my eyes shifted.
She was with him.
The woman I had seen before. Elegant. Perfect. Everything I was not.
Her hand curled possessively around his arm, her laughter lilting and bright as she leaned closer. She tilted her head toward him, whispering something that made her smile widen.
And he didn't move away.
My chest cracked open. The words I had clung to for courage dissolved on my tongue, leaving only silence and pain.
---
(POV: Amelia – Hallway Scene)
I pressed myself against the wall, out of sight, my breathing shallow. My heart pounded so loudly I was certain they could hear it inside.
I had come here to tell him everything. To lay my heart bare, no matter the risk. But how could I now?
He had already chosen.
Her.
My hand drifted to my stomach again, trembling as though my body itself resisted the truth. Tears burned my eyes as I bit down on my lip to keep from crying aloud.
I can't.
The words repeated like a mantra. I can't tell him. Not now. Not ever.
Because if I did, and he rejected me… I would break beyond repair.
---
(POV: Alexander Carter)
Her laughter grated on my nerves. The woman beside me was everything my family wanted—wealth, beauty, grace. She was the perfect match on paper.
But she wasn't Amelia.
I tried to focus, tried to nod at her words, but my gaze kept drifting toward the door. A strange, restless pull dragged at my chest.
For a fleeting moment, I thought I saw something—a shadow, a familiar figure. But when I turned my head, the hallway was empty.
Still, the sensation lingered. A certainty that Amelia had been near.
And with it, guilt that clawed at me. Because even as my fiancée leaned closer, I thought only of the woman I shouldn't want. The one I couldn't stop thinking about.
---
(POV: Amelia – Outside the Building)
The air outside was sharp and cold, carrying the faint smell of rain. I stumbled down the steps blindly, my vision blurred with tears.
Clara found me almost an hour later, sitting on a bench by the library. My notebook was crushed against my chest, my knuckles white from gripping it too tightly.
"Amelia," she whispered, kneeling beside me. "What happened?"
I shook my head, my voice breaking. "I… I was going to tell him."
Her eyes widened. "And?"
"I saw him." The words tore from my throat like shards of glass. "With her. His fiancée. And he—he didn't stop her. He let her cling to him like she belonged there."
Clara's expression softened with pity. "Amelia…"
Tears spilled freely now, hot against my chilled skin. "I can't tell him, Clara. Not now. Not ever. If I do, he'll push me away completely. He'll think I'm trying to ruin his life. And I—" My voice broke. "I couldn't survive that."
Clara pulled me into her arms, holding me as I sobbed against her shoulder. "You're not alone," she murmured. "You have me. You'll always have me."
But her comfort couldn't reach the storm inside me.
Because I wasn't just carrying my own heartbreak anymore.
I was carrying his child.
And the silence that came with it was already destroying me.
---
(POV: Amelia – Closing Reflection)
That night, I lay awake again, staring at the ceiling. My tears had dried, but the ache in my chest was endless.
I thought of Alexander's eyes, the fire I had once seen there when he looked at me. And I thought of how easily he had stood beside her today, as though that fire had never existed.
Maybe it hadn't. Maybe it had only ever been in me.
My hand pressed against my stomach. The only warmth I felt came from the tiny life growing inside me.
"I'll protect you," I whispered into the dark. "Even if it means he never knows. Even if it means I have to leave."
The words sealed my fate, even
if I wasn't ready to face it yet.
Because love wasn't enough.
And tomorrow, I would walk into class, sit in the third row, and pretend once again that my heart hadn't shattered beyond repair.