Page 56 of Now You're Mine

I avoid her gaze. The truth is, I haven’t really made a conscious decision about it, but the more I think aboutnothaving the baby, the more my chest aches. And even now, the threat of something possibly being wrong has me completely freaked out.

“I haven’t officially made a decision yet,” I answer, staring down at my hands.

“You’re what, seven or eight weeks along?”

“Something like that.”

“Well—” She tilts her head to the side. “—you know thatnodecision is still a decision, right? And it’s okay if you want to keep it. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

I nod, swallowing hard. She’s right. It’s terrifying to think I could be a mother because God knows my own mother didn’t give me a great example of what parenting looks like. But I could do it. Plenty of people do schoolandkids, right?

“Yeah, you’re right. Thank you for that.”

She flashes me a smile. “Speaking of babies...have you heard anything from your baby daddy?”

I make a face at the termbaby daddy,then shake my head.“He still hasn’t texted me back,” I say with a sigh.

Wyn is looking down, playing with a thread on my comforter. “Oh, I was just wondering if he’d mentioned moving or anything.”

I pause at that, taken aback. “Moving? Why would he mention that?”

She looks up at me and shrugs one shoulder. “Someone said they saw boxes stacked up in his room like he was moving out.”

I sink back against my pillows, wincing again at the pain. Roman moving?No.His family has walked this campus for generations. Even his house is here, for God’s sake. Where would he go?

She takes in my expression, and clarifies, “Or, I don’t know, maybe he’s just remodeling or something? Could be anything. Forget I mentioned it.”

I swallow past the emotion rising in my throat. Roman basically ghosts me for two weeks, and now he’s moving away? I try to wrap my head around the idea that I may never see him again, and a deep, dark hole opens up inside me.

Tears sting the backs of my eyes, but I clear my throat and blink rapidly to keep them at bay. This is so stupid. Roman and I were never meant to be together. Things were so unbelievably complicated between us, and our toxicity was next level. So tell me why I’m suddenly emotional about the thought of him moving away.

I swallow. “Well, if you hear anything…”

“Yeah,” Wyn says quickly, placing a hand on my leg. “You want me to grab you some water for the ibuprofen?”

Oh, right. I fling my covers off and move to get up. “I think I have a bottle of water in my backpack.”

Wyn leans back with a gasp. “Oh, my God. Lux.”

My feet haven’t even touched the white linoleum floor. I look at Wyn,reallyconfused. “What? What’s wrong?”

Her green eyes are wide in alarm and focused on my mattress. I follow her gaze and blink. There’s something red spilled all over my sheets. Whatisthat?

“Is that blood?” Wyn gasps.

Oh, shit.The second she says blood, it clicks. The cramping. This is blood. I’m bleeding. Panic grips me, and I stand up despite the pain. I feel a slightgushand warm liquid trickles down my legs.

“Oh, my God,” I choke out.

Wyn gets to her feet. “I’m calling 911.”

I open my mouth to tell her not to call the ambulance, but a sudden wave of dizziness washes over me, and I have to sit back down on the bed.

There’s some delusional part of me that’s hoping this is normal. And if I just stay calm, then everything will be okay. But, even as I comfort myself with that possibility, I know in my gut this isn’t supposed to be happening. Something isvery, verywrong.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Lux

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