Page 135 of The Savior

“Our office has been trying to reach you—”

“I’m pregnant!”

“Chelsea…” There wasn’t surprise in the doctor’s voice. “You didn’t receive our phone calls? The letters?”

Visions of unopened junk mail danced in her head, and if they’d called from a number she didn’t know, it hadn’t been answered.

“No.” She bit her lip. “Maybe. I’m not sure.”

Dr. Doyle didn’t seem to know what to say. They both knew her shots meant that Chelsea’d had no intention of becoming pregnant. The wait stretched until her doctor repeated, “You’re pregnant.”

“That’s what the tests say—I’m at the hospital.”

“Are you okay?”

“It wasn’t related. An… accident at work.” That was as good of a description as she could come up with on the fly.

“The pharmaceutical company that manufactured your birth control shot issued a recall.”

As if the blood and pee tests weren’t enough of a confirmation, now she had a reason for how it had happened. “I need an appointment with you.”

“Of course,” Dr. Doyle said. “We will go through your options—”

“Options?” Her thoughts rushed. The hold music tips had been clear. There was no room for error. There were rules. A playbook, perhaps. She was a planner, and planners needed material, task lists, goals—thenoptionshit Chelsea like the moment she’d heardpregnant.

“I don’t need options.” Dread interrupted her chaotic tumble of bliss. Would Liam wantoptions? The unexpected had taken his girlfriend away, and then more than a year later, the unexpected was about to jerk him to another, different reality.

Until the farmer’s market, Chelsea hadn’t considered a future outside herself. She closed her eyes and wanted to wish.But what for?That this hadn’t happened?It had. Chelsea needed to have faith—in herself, in her love for Liam, and in what she hoped for in the future.

Whatever the future had in store, she would survive. That conviction had pulled her through a critical childhood, Julia’s death, and it would help her with an unexpected pregnancy.

Her faith didn’t beg the future for everything to be okay. It was knowing she’d be okay with what the future gave.

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