Page 101 of Modern Romance January 2025 1-4

For a moment it seemed she wasn’t going to say anything. Finally she gave a jerky nod.

‘Everything’s been going well and I keep telling myself things will turn out okay. But I’m scared. Today is thirteen weeks and two days into the pregnancy.’ She gulped in a breath that sounded like a muffled sob. ‘That’s when I lost our first child.’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

ATFIRSTTHEwords made no sense. Lex’s brain refused to process them.

Portia had lost a baby?

Losttheirbaby?

For the longest time, frozen, he could only stare into her grief-stricken features.

Finally his body made sense of the words though his brain still reeled. Gently he pulled her to him, wrapping his arm more closely around her back, threading his fingers through hers as if he could ward off the chill enveloping her.

His own body felt like it had been dipped in ice. Parts of him felt numb. But his chest started to prickle painfully like when blood began to flow into frostbitten extremities.

‘You were pregnant—’ he cleared his throat ‘—before?’

She nodded, the movement jerky.

‘When you were seventeen? You were pregnant then?’

He heard himself asking obvious questions even though her meaning was already clear. It was as if he couldn’t grasp it. It was too momentous. Too shocking.

But the truth was there in her distress.

‘You miscarried as a teenager.’

At least this time he managed to make a statement rather than the question.

Something spasmed in his chest. ‘Our baby.’

Portia’s bottom lip trembled and she bit it, nodding.

‘Chrysi mou.’He leaned in and kissed her hair, cuddling her to him. ‘I’m so sorry.’

Words weren’t enough. He could barely comprehend the enormity of what had happened. They’d made a baby but it had died.Theirbaby. It might have been a happy ten-year-old now, maybe with Portia’s big brown eyes and determination.

The thaw was complete now, numbness replaced by searing pain, so sharp it stole his breath.

He pulled back just enough to look into her face. ‘What happened?’

She paused before answering. ‘It came out of the blue. There was no warning. I was feeling well and then suddenly...’ She shook her head. ‘The doctor said sometimes these things just happen, but I...’

Lex watched emotions race across her features. ‘What is it, Portia?’

Another pause. He felt her tremble. ‘I was working multiple jobs, trying to support myself. Knowing there’d be more expenses when the baby came.’

The jab of pain in his chest became an enveloping ache as he imagined teenaged Portia facing that alone.

‘I was working as a stablehand. Long hours of physical work.’ Her eyes met his. ‘But I stopped riding as soon as I found out I was pregnant. I was trying to be careful.’ Her mouth twisted. ‘At night I worked stocking supermarket shelves. I didn’t have qualifications and I couldn’t go back home. I didn’t trust my father.’

The ice was back, enveloping Lex, yet somehow the pain was there too. At the thought of a teenaged Portia trying to support herself and care for her unborn child, afraid her father would force her into a termination.

And where were you, Lex? You’d fallen for his lies and left her to carry this burden alone.

Lex was a proud man who took satisfaction in doing the right thing. He felt anything but proud now.

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