Chapter 72

One and a half months later.

“You’re thirty-three weeks pregnant,” Luna’s voice chimed through my earphones. (I was too tired to hold the phone to my ear.) “You shouldn’t be out by yourself. What if you have contractions?”

Thirty-four, I wanted to correct her, but decided against it; it would only scare her more. I chuckled, adding strawberries to my grocery cart. “I’m just at the supermarket, and I’m completely fine,” I reminded her. “If everything goes well, I’m not due for another few weeks.”

My doctor had told me that anytime after the thirty-sixth week was considered okay, but we preferred waiting until the fortieth.

I could almost hear Luna frowning. “If you were really craving strawberries and that stupid whipped cream so much, you could have told me. I would have picked some up for you after work.”

“You already do too much,” I replied. “Besides, I’m almost done here. I’ll check out and be home in about fifteen minutes.”

“Hm…” she hummed. “My shift is almost done. I’ll see you home?”

“See you.” I disconnected the call, put on some old Beyoncé music, and let it play through my earphones as I walked through the junk food aisle. The urge to grab a packet of Cheetos overcame me.

I couldn’t, though. It wasn’t a necessity, and it definitely wasn’t healthy for the babies. I was already over budget, but thankfully, the elderly couple who owned the lodge had offered me a small job—making calls to previous customers and gathering feedback. I think Sam had something to do with it, because I had mentioned my finances to him in passing the day he came shopping with me, and a week later, this couple offered me the job out of goodwill. It's something I can do from home and earn a little extra money.

I didn’t complain. I jumped at it. The money wasn’t a lot, but I desperately needed it. Who knew giving birth in America was so expensive? I certainly didn’t.

It was costing me tens of thousands of dollars, and that didn’t even include the anticipated NICU stay one of my babies would need because of the complications I’d been facing.

The gesture was kind. Too kind, even.

But I was still on thin ice with Sam. Things weren’t completely okay between us after what he said, but he had made an effort in the past few weeks to earn my forgiveness, and I had no choice but to let it go. I couldn’t forget it, though, so I kept as much distance between us as possible, making sure he never overstepped.

What he said still stung, mostly because of the fear that his words might be true. Was I really being selfish?

Lost in my thoughts, I accidentally bumped my cart into someone. I realized it was someone when I steadied myself.

The familiar stranger’s eyes widened when they landed on me. “Soph… Sophia?”

I stared at Alice. My surprise was nothing compared to her shock. Her mouth was open, her eyes flickering from my face to my belly before she sprang into my arms, bursting into tears.

Confused, I put my arms around her, holding her close. “Alice… I missed you.” I didn’t know why she was crying, but hearing her sob made tears well up in my eyes. I blinked them away when she pulled away. She sniffed, holding my face between both her palms as if I’d disappeared. “I’m so happy you’re okay.”

“Alice, you knew I was okay,” I reminded her softly. “Sam told you, remember? And you told him I had hurt you and didn’t want to talk to me for a while.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Sam… he… he said he told you I was here.”

She stared at me blankly before shaking her head. “Sam completely cut me off in the past month. I… I took a job in the city, remember? He stopped picking up my calls, he dodged my texts, and I thought he was taking your disappearance hard—we all were. I came here to meet him. Look.” She held up a Ben & Jerry’s, waving it in front of my eyes. “It’s his favorite. I was just going to his place… to check on him.”

“But… he told me that I shouldn’t call you because you asked for space.” I was rambling, and she just stared blankly before her expression shifted to one of sympathy I didn’t understand.

“No,” she winced, almost painfully. “Did he call Gabriel?”

“Gabriel?” I blinked, my heart beating so fast I could hear it pounding.

“Sophia, I’ll explain everything, but we need to call him. Now.”

“No, we don’t,” my voice was small. “I called him. I left him a voicemail telling him I’m pregnant. He never called… Alice. He didn’t reach out. He didn’t care.”

“No. No. No. Soph, Gabriel asked both me and Sam to call him if you ever contacted us.” She spoke so fast, I thought I was mishearing. “I think… I think Sam thought if he didn’t call Gabriel, maybe you two would have a chance again. I don’t know, okay? Maybe that’s why he cut me off, and asked you not to call him. I don’t know, I’m just guessing…”

I didn’t think I was understanding what she was saying; I didn’t want to believe she meant what she said. I felt a sharp pain, a pang that spiraled to my core. Ouch.

“Yeah… yeah. I know it hurts. We need to…”

“No,” I stopped her. I kept a hand on my belly, feeling the source of the pain. It happened again, stronger. “Ow,” I winced.

“Are you okay…?” Alice eyed me worriedly, holding my arms as if I would collapse. “Are you in labor?”

I shook my head, gripping my belly tighter. “I was prepared for this. It’s most probably Braxton Hicks contractions—a false labor. It’s usually painless, but of course, it’s painful for me.”

I stopped speaking when Alice’s eyes widened so much it felt like they would pop out, which was about the same time I felt something very wet trickling down my inner thighs.

“No,” I gasped.

“Fuck. You’re in labor. We need to get you to the hospital, now.”