Page 25 of Serpent King's Revenge

But being pregnant right now just put a target on my back and made him more vulnerable.

I could go for a termination, pretend I had a miscarriage. Those happened all the time. It would be devastating…I was already horribly attached to this idea of a little human inside of me. But they couldn’t deal with more grief. If they lost Nathan because of me…if I lost Nathan because I hadn’t been careful…

I would never be able to forgive myself.

"Jack's gonna figure out what to do about Alex, right?" Justin’s voice suddenly pierced through my thoughts.

"Jack's got it under control," I assured him, though my voice barely concealed the tremors of my doubt. As far as I understood, Jack was many things—cunning, resourceful, deadly—but even he couldn't predict every outcome in this precarious world.

"Sure," Derek scoffed, throwing a card onto the pile with exaggerated flair. "‘Under control’ until it turns out that Jack is Alex’s brother too or something.”

“How would that work?” Lily asked. “Jack’s the whitest person I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“Hey, I don’t know,” Derek replied. “Everything is insane right now. Like fucking crazy. I’m just leaning into it.”

Justin shot Derek a withering glance, and for a moment, I could see the weight of family loyalty straining against his affection for his boyfriend. "Derek…"

"Hey, how else am I supposed to deal with all this crap? Humor, babe. It's either that or cry," Derek shrugged, a wry smile tugging at his lips.

"Forgive him," Justin said, addressing Lily and me with a roll of his eyes. "He thinks he's funny."

Lily let out a laugh, the sound light and unburdened, while a ripple of amusement passed through the others. I forced a chuckle, though it felt like swallowing shards of glass. Derek’s joke had skirted too close to the edge of my deepest fears—they all knew the stakes, but humor was their shield against the darkness closing in. Of course he was just being absurd but…he was sort of hinting at what scared me about all this.

It was only going to get more intense. It was only going to get crazier.

Lily shook her head. “Anyway, draw two,” she said to Justin.

I sat there, my fingers absently fidgeting with the corner of an Uno card, my mind far from the game. The laughter and banter around me felt distant, like I was separated by an invisible barrier. My gaze lingered on the chair opposite mine–what would have been Nathan's chair. Empty now. His absence was like a void, sucking the warmth out of the room.

The thought that he might never come back, that his seat at this table would remain vacant, sent a chill through me despite the stuffiness of the room. I swallowed hard, pushing down the knot of fear rising in my throat.

"Abby, your turn," Lily said..

"Right," I murmured, barely glancing at my cards before playing one at random.

"Wild card. Green," I announced, my voice flat.

Justin raised an eyebrow but didn't comment on my lack of strategy. They all knew something was off with me, but under the circumstances, who could blame anyone for being distracted?

I shifted uncomfortably, the reality of my situation pressing down on me with an urgency I couldn't ignore. Here I was, sitting among the people who had become my unexpected allies, contemplating a decision that felt like betrayal.

The idea of ending my pregnancy was a desperate thought. Even when we had gotten rid of Tyler’s body, I had never felt quite as anxious as this…and I couldn’t help but wonder if this was another symptom of the pregnancy.

Justin paused as he looked at me. "You holding up okay? I mean physically. I know we’re all a mess, but you’ve got like…a little more going on than the rest of us.”

"Yeah," I lied, forcing a smile onto my face. "Just tired, you know?”

Guilt gnawed at me with every beat of my heart. They trusted me, believed in me, and yet here I was, contemplating a betrayal that would shatter them–

I froze just as Justin’s head snapped toward the door. “Did you hear that?” he whispered.

“Is there…”

There was no way. This building was empty, Nathan had it locked up tight. I could have sworn I heard voices, footsteps, the sound of the elevator. Maybe I was wrong.

But then—three sharp raps at the front door.

That…shouldn’t have been happening. No one knew this place existed–save for Nathan. I’d given the address to Jack so he could track us down if needed, but he was hours away in San Diego.

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