I looked at her belly. There was no swell yet, but the posture was unmistakable.
The realization hit me like a splash of ice water. The questions about vitamins. The interest in my symptoms.
She wasn’t just curious. She was comparing notes.
“David,” Jessica said, her voice dropping to a desperate whisper. “You can’t do this. I’m pregnant.”
The silence was absolute. The monitor beeped—a countdown.
David went still. Michael’s eyes widened in shock. He didn’t know either.
“Pregnant,” David repeated. He looked at her stomach. For a second, hope flickered in his eyes—the instinct of a father. Then, the math hit him.
He looked at Michael. Then back at Jessica.
“It’s yours!” she rushed to say. “We were trying, remember? It’s yours, David! I swear!”
But the lie was too thin. By hiding it until this moment of desperation, she had turned the news into a weapon.
Michael looked sick. He looked from Jessica to me, to my eight-month belly, then back to her. The symmetry was grotesque. A mistress carrying a child while his wife carried his heir.
David looked at Michael. “You,” he said, his voice filled with disgust. “You shook my hand. You ate at my table.”
Michael tried to sit up. “David, let’s talk…”