Page 38 of Silent Night Temptation

“Nyree,” she says softly, her voice cutting through the suffocating silence. There’s an edge to it, like she’s holding back a tide of emotion she’s not ready to let loose.

I don’t turn to face her. I can’t. My hands tremble more violently now, and I know if I speak, my voice will crack, revealing everything I’ve tried so hard to hold together.

“Are you really leaving?” she asks, stepping into the room. Her footsteps are soft, hesitant.

I nod, unable to look up. There’s a lump in my throat that makes it impossible to speak, and the panic that’s been rising inside me threatens to spill over.

“Nyree, please don’t,” she says, and there’s a tremor in her voice now. “Please don’t leave like this. We need to talk.”

Talk? How could we talk after everything that happened? After the mess I’ve made? I shake my head, still staring at the wrinkled shirt in my hands. “There’s nothing to say,” I manage, my voice hoarse, barely audible.

“There’s everything to say,” she insists, stepping closer. “I’m still angry. I’m hurt. But I don’t want you to just walk out of my life like this. You’re my best friend, Nyree.”

Best friend?How can she still call me that after everything I’ve done? I betrayed her trust. How can she still care?

“I thought you’d want me gone,” I mutter, my voice shaking.

“I don’t,” she says, her tone soft but firm. “I don’t want to lose you. I just… I need to understand.”

The depth of her words presses down on me, and the dam I’ve been holding together starts to crack. The tears I’ve been fighting back burn in my eyes, but I refuse to let them fall. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen,” I whisper. “I never wanted to hurt you, Coco.”

She steps closer, her presence both a comfort and a reminder of the pain I’ve caused. “I know you didn’t,” she says quietly.

“I’ve ruined our friendship,” I say, my voice breaking. “I ruined everything.”

“You didn’t ruin everything, Nyree. We all messed up.”

I look at her, my heart breaking all over again. She’s right. We all made mistakes. But the gravity of my own feels like too much to bear. “I don’t know how to fix this,” I admit, tears finally slipping down my cheeks. “I don’t know how to make it right.”

Coco looks at me for a long moment, and then, to my surprise, she reaches out and pulls me into a hug. It’s tentative at first, but then it tightens, and I feel her tears against my shoulder. “We’ll figure it out,” she whispers. “Just don’t leave.”

The floodgates open, and I sob into her embrace, everything crashing down at once.

Coco pulls away from the hug slowly, her eyes red but no longer filled with anger. There’s something softer there now, a sort of truce forming between us, like we’ve both realized how much damage has been done and how neither of us want to make it worse. She gestures for me to sit with her on the edge of the bed, and I do, wiping my tears with the back of my hand, trying to calm my shaky breath. The room still feels heavy, but at least now it feels like we’re starting to dig our way out.

Coco takes a deep breath, exhaling slowly, like she’s gathering her thoughts. "I didn’t tell him about the baby," she says quietly,staring down at her hands. "Not because I didn’t want to. I just… I didn’t know how."

I glance at her, listening carefully. "Why not?" I ask, though I already have some idea.

She sighs, running a hand through her hair, her shoulders slumping. "You know how he is. Dad… he’s so protective. He always has been, ever since Mom died. He feels like he has to shield me from everything, like I’m still this little girl who can’t make decisions for herself. And I get it, I do. But sometimes, it’s like he doesn’t even hear me. Like what I want doesn’t matter because he’s already decided what’s best for me."

I nod. I’ve seen it, too. Marcus stepping in, taking charge. It’s not that he doesn’t care. He cares too much, in fact. But I can imagine how suffocating that must feel for Coco, especially now, when her life is changing so drastically.

“When Ethan and I first started seeing each other, it wasn’t supposed to be anything serious,” she continues. “We met at a party. It was wild, one of those nights where you don’t think about tomorrow. And I thought that was all it would be. But then we kept seeing each other. He made me laugh in a way no one had. I didn’t expect to fall in love with him, but I did.”

She pauses, her eyes misting over with memories. “There was this one time, a few months ago, when there was a picture of Ethan and his ex in the tabloids. I wasn’t prepared for how bad it made me feel, seeing that. We had this huge fight about it. I thought it was over. I really did. But Ethan didn’t want it to end. He came back, and… and then I found out I was pregnant.”

She’s been carrying this, not knowing how to tell her father, not knowing how he would react. I reach out and place a hand on hers, squeezing gently. “I get it, Coco,” I say softly. “I really do. You just want to live your life, without feeling like you have to answer to anyone, especially him.”

She nods, blinking back tears. “I do. I want Dad to understand that this…Ethan, the baby…this is what I want. This is my life now. I’m not asking for his approval. I just want him to accept that I’m not a little girl anymore.”

I know Marcus loves her fiercely, but he can’t keep seeing her as the child he lost her mother with. She’s grown now, and she’s going to make her own choices, even if they’re not the ones he would have made for her.

After a long silence, Coco shifts in her seat, her attention drifting toward me. There’s a vulnerability in her gaze that wasn’t there before. "What about you, Nyree?" she asks, her voice steady. "What I saw yesterday… Do you like him?… What was it?"

Her question hits me like a jolt. But the answer isn’t hard to find. It’s there, quietly growing inside me.

I swallow, feeling my throat tighten. "Yes," I whisper. "Everything happened so fast, I can’t even explain it, Coco. It’s so intense, the way he makes me feel. Being with him, it’s like… everything that’s always buzzing in my head… the anxiety, the worry… it just quiets down when he’s near. He makes me feel like I can breathe."

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