Page 36 of Call Me Mrs. Taylor

Game recognize game.

I swipe over to Kamryn’s Insta. It makes me smile at the memory of the first time I went through her pictures. It’s where I first found Ace.

She has a few new posts, but it doesn’t matter how she poses or what angle she holds her face at. She’s still a waste of skin. And I’m mad she’s cute. She’s depriving me of something else to hate.

Then—wait.

A comment on the most recent pic catches my eye.

Period, sis. Tell the fam I said hey and I love them.

Fam?

Which fam?

Mynew fam?

I click on the profile.

Arnelle’sWorld.

Hmm. She’s pretty. Who the fuck is she, though?

I scroll faster.

Something in my stomach twists, a warning I don’t understand yet.

Then I see it.

A picture.

Her. In a hospital bed.

Ace. Sitting beside her. Staring down at her lovingly.

She’s holding a blanket.

Wait…

Oh.

It’s a fucking baby.

The caption is a punch in the stomach. It literally knocks the wind out of me.

I carried you for five months. We held you for 30 minutes before we let you go. Elijah Ace Taylor. We love you forever and always.

Tears well up in my eyes as the realization hits me.

Then the anger comes.

He didn’t tell me.

I could have comforted him.

Iwouldhave comforted him.

If he’d just…trusted me.

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