Page 113 of Forbidden Hearts
So, you had your sister text me?
Asher
I want you there, Phoebe. There are no lengths I won’t go to monopolize your time.
I really wish that didn’t turn me on.
I text Brynn back.
I just have a few things to do first, but I should be able to stop by.
I slip my phone back in my purse and there’s a knock on the door. “Hey, everything good?”
Lucy smiles and nods. “Everything looks good, but . . .”
The pause has me concerned. “Is it my thyroid again?”
She shakes her head. “No, it was something else. Phoebe, you’re pregnant.”
My entire world fades away, and I think I might be dying. The lights are dimming, and the world is shrinking in around me, cutting off my air. I don’t know what is happening because I swear she just told me I’m pregnant.
I can’t be pregnant.
I’m on the pill and take it daily. I’ve missed a few here and there, but I double up, just like you’re supposed to do. Except for that one time, Asher and I have never not used a condom.
My words won’t come out, I just keep shaking my head. “No.”
“I checked the urine, which came back as positive, and then I looked at your HCG bloodwork, and your levels are extremely high.”
The fog just keeps rolling in. “No. I had my period! I had a period, like, three weeks ago.”
It was lighter than normal, but my stress has been insane.
“And you’re having sex regularly.”
Oh God, Asher. He already has one surprise kid, and now I’m pregnant. This can’t be happening to me. He’s never going to be okay with this. What about school? What about this life I am working so hard to have? I can’t have a baby now.
I’ll never finish grad school before the baby comes, and . . . I can’t be pregnant.
“It was one time without a condom—one time, and I had just had my period. There’s no way I’m pregnant. We use condoms every time. I’m on the pill. Asher and I don’t have unprotected sex like that.”
Lucy moves in front of me, clasping both of my hands. “Listen, your levels are well above trace amounts. We’re running another test on the blood to be sure, but I’d like to do an ultrasound as well. It would allow us to measure the baby and see what’s going on. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am.”
“It would only be like two or three weeks.”
“We can see that in an ultrasound. If you want definitive answers, we should do it now, that way you know.”
My limbs start to tremble.
“So, you can see that you’re wrong.”
She nods. “We can see what’s going on. If you’re pregnant, we can measure the size of the baby, or if it’s nothing, we can see.”
My breath comes out in puffs. “Okay . . .”
I say a prayer that this is nothing.
twenty-nine
