I picked up the phone, and what I found was not one message but months of conversations, hotel bookings, inside jokes, and promises about a future that did not include me.
I sat on the kitchen floor reading every message while the shower ran, feeling like each word cut deeper than the last.
When Tyler came out and saw me holding his phone, all I could ask was, “Why,” and his face drained of color instantly.
That night I did not scream or call Victoria because I quietly saved everything, took screenshots, and backed them up in multiple places.
Two weeks later I discovered I was pregnant, and I sat on my bathroom floor staring at five positive tests while the city moved on outside without noticing my world collapsing.
When I told Victoria, she went silent before whispering, “You don’t know if it’s his,” and I replied calmly that I knew the timing.
The next day she came to my apartment with an envelope containing a twenty thousand dollar check and said, “Disappear until after the wedding.”
I looked at her and asked, “You want me to go away,” and she corrected me by saying it was only temporary while avoiding my eyes.