Page 58 of The Wedding Hoax

“And?”

“It said that I was pregnant,” I went on. “But that didn’t make any sense, so I wanted to get a second opinion.”

“It didn’t make any sense? Meaning you haven’t been sexually active lately or—”

“Oh. No. I’ve been sexually active. It’s just that we both know that I’m infertile. So, I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t something else going on.”

“I never said that you were infertile, Simone.” Dr. Carlson’s face turned serious. “There was always a chance of natural pregnancy, even if it was low. There might a ten percent chance of conceiving naturally, but that’s a lot higher than zero.”

“It didn’t feel a lot higher than zero.” I weakly laughed, even as painful memories threatened to play in the back of my mind. “It didn’t feel like there was really any hope at all.”

“Your odds went even higher if you considered IVF.” Dr. Carlson held up my chart, seemingly for emphasis. “Your chances of conceiving went up to fifteen to twenty percent. I always made sure to tell you and Jace that IVF was another option—”

“It wasn’t high enough.”

“What?”

“The odds weren’t high enough for him,” I murmured. “He didn’t think it was worth shelling out thousands of dollars for anything less than fifty percent. Maybe even seventy-five.”

“And is he still your primary partner?”

“No. Jace and I broke up a while back.”

“Just between you and me… good.” Dr. Carlson cleared her throat. “I know I’m not supposed to get involved in the personal lives of my patients, but I was always so worried about you with him, Simone. There was always so much pressure on you when you were here, like you were trying to pass some kind of test. It honestly broke my heart.”

“That’s how it felt. Like I was failing a test.”

“You weren’t. This was never a test, Simone.” Dr. Carlson placed my chart underneath her arm. “Even now, if this pregnancy fails for any reason—”

“You think it’s going to fail?” There was suddenly a lump in my throat.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat this. If you are indeed pregnant, then this would be a high-risk pregnancy. Not to mention that there could be adhesions in your womb that could make carrying the baby even more difficult.”

“Got it. I could be pregnant and everything could still go wrong.”

Dr. Carlson placed a soft hand on my shoulder. “Let’s take it one day at a time, okay? The lab will be in touch with you if your blood work comes back positive for pregnancy. And we can go from there.”

I nodded in agreement, even as the lump in my throat made its way down to my stomach.

I was terrified that I was pregnant. And terrified that I wasn’t.

The worst part was that I couldn’t tell anyone yet. I couldn’t tell Taylor because I didn’t want to get her hopes up. She knew how much I wanted a baby, and I wasn’t ready to hear the sadness in her voice if I had to tell her that the pregnancy didn’t quite take.

I couldn’t tell my mom, either, not with all her current tests and surgery preparations. She needed to be focused on her own health stuff. It wasn’t fair to burden her by bringing her back into my pregnancy chaos.

She’d been through enough already with Jace and me.

But what hurt the most was that I couldn’t even tell Harry. I already knew that he’d want nothing to do with this baby. Even if I managed a healthy pregnancy, it was going to mean nothing to him.

There was a chance I was finally going to pass the pregnancy test, and the person I’d be passing with couldn’t care less.

A familiar sting began to radiate pain through my skin as I left Dr. Carlson’s office and went in search of a vending machine, grabbing my mom a snack before I went back to the lab.

* * *

“You’re pregnant, Simone.”

“What?” I blinked slowly, confused by Dr. Carlson’s words. “I’m sorry. I think I heard you wrong?”

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