Page 202 of Captive Omega

“You’re not a malfunctioning piece of equipment, Henry.” I sigh. “But I won’t lie. If you’d been around when I found out, I think I would have kicked you.”

We study each other for a couple of seconds and he looks away, guilt stamped all over his face. “I’m sorry, Resa.”

Henry hurt me, but he’s not a bad person. He just moved on with his life when he thought I wasn’t coming back.

“When did it happen?” I wrap my arms around myself as I brace for his answer.

“A year ago. We…” He pauses.

I briefly squeeze my eyes shut as I ask myself why I’m putting myself through the equivalent of a gut punch. But I need to know. For peace, clarity, and closure, I need to know.

“You what?” I prompt.

“At work, we had a coffee morning with cakes and stuff. I guess it was like a wake. We had one before, when you first went missing.”

“You really thought I was dead, huh?” I ask.

How weird is this conversation?

“The cops thought you were having an affair.”

I jerk my head to face him. “What!”

“They found your engagement ring in your car. Because you’d parked near a bar, they thought you must have?—”

“Been meeting a guy for sex?” I bite out. “And that I just decided to run out on everyone I loved without a single goodbye?”

Did the cops even try to look for me at all, or did they jump to their own conclusion and do the bare minimum when my parents reported me missing?

Henry sighs. “None of us believed them. At least, not at first. But when there were no sightings of you, I thought you were dead. We all did. Except your parents. They kept putting up posters and doing their own searches, but that never led anywhere. Eventually, the cops started saying you were probably dead.”

“And you and Emily got together at this coffee morning?” I refuse to call it my wake. It feels too weird.

He nods. “She was comforting me and well…”

“One thing led to another?”

“Then all this stuff was coming out about alphas abducting omegas from free heat clinics and I started to wonder.” He stops talking, and his chest rises as he takes in a big breath and releases it. “I saw that video of you in the trial. You’d been going through that for two years and I didn’t try to find you. I just moved on.”

And that is why he doesn’t deserve to be kicked in the shin.

“There was nothing you could have done, Henry.”

He looks at me. “You went to a different heat clinic than normal?”

“Yeah.” He’d been away on a work trip at the time. How different would things have been if he’d been there to drive me to a clinic instead?

His gaze dips to my belly. I’m in a baggy T-shirt and sweats, so he won’t see any hint of my belly, but I rest my hand over my bump, anyway.

“I heard you were pregnant.”

“I am.”

“And you’re going to keep it?”

And that is why, even if Henry hadn’t moved on with Emily, I don’t have a future with him. “This baby is mine.”

“Right.” He nods, but he’s looking at me like he can’t understand why I would.

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