When I wasn't your's

What we can't undo

Chapter 13

The silence in the apartment was thick with tension.

Noah paced back and forth, running his hand over his face for the hundredth time. He had texted Mia hours ago. Asked her to come over again. She replied with a simple “On my way.” No questions.

He wasn’t ready for this conversation. But it had to happen.

She arrived just after sunset, still in office clothes — blouse slightly wrinkled, her heels clicking across the floor like warning shots.

“You called,” she said, arms folded.

“Yeah,” he exhaled. “Come in.”

She sat on the same couch where they had... well, tangled up their grief just nights ago. Where passion and pain had blurred. But now, her eyes were cold. Guarded.

“I need to tell you something,” he began, heart pounding.

“Go ahead.”

He sat opposite her, elbows on his knees, hands clasped. “Lily had a daughter. Her name is Hope.”

“I know that,” Mia said flatly.

He looked her in the eye. “She’s mine.”

The words dropped like a grenade.

Mia stared at him, face blank.

He continued before she could speak. “I didn’t know. Lily never told me. Caleb didn’t either — not until now. He just found a letter. Lily confessed in it. She said the child was conceived the night she came to my place crying. You remember that week... when Lily and Caleb had that fight, and—”

“Stop,” Mia said sharply, her voice trembling.

Noah froze.

She stood slowly, hands clenched. “So let me get this straight. You slept with her while she was engaged. You got her pregnant. You raised a toast at her wedding. Then married me, all while keeping that memory in your back pocket like it was nothing?”

“It wasn’t like that—”

She laughed. But it wasn’t joy — it was rage. “And you’re just now telling me? After everything? After dragging me into your storm, sleeping with me again like I mattered—”

“You do matter—”

“SHUT UP!”

The force of her voice cracked through the room like thunder.

Tears welled in her eyes, but she didn’t let them fall. “You ruined my life, Noah.”

He stood, moving toward her. “Mia, please don’t say that.”

“You did!” she cried. “I married you thinking I was your choice. I was your future. But you’ve been in love with a dead woman this whole damn time, and now? Now you get to have a child with her too?”

“I didn’t ask for any of this!” Noah shouted, voice cracking. “I didn’t even know! Do you think I would’ve lied to you if I knew? I loved Lily, yes — but I married you. And I never wanted to hurt you.”

Mia backed away, shaking her head like she couldn’t stand the sight of him. “And yet you did. Over and over.”

There was a pause.

Then, softly, almost brokenly, she whispered, “I want a divorce.”

Noah’s heart stopped.

“Mia…”

She looked at him — eyes full of betrayal, tears finally slipping free. “I can’t be second place to a ghost. I won’t raise another woman’s child with the man who never really loved me. I deserve more.”

“No,” he said firmly, stepping forward. “I’m not letting you go.”

“You don’t get to decide that.”

“I love you.” His voice cracked. “I know I’ve messed everything up. But I’m not letting this be how we end.”

“You don’t get to love me when it’s convenient, Noah,” she hissed. “You love me now because she’s gone. Because her ghost can’t talk back or ask for child support.”

He flinched.

Mia grabbed her purse. “Send the divorce papers when you’re done pretending this isn’t your fault.”

But as she reached the door, Noah blocked it.

“I’m not pretending,” he said quietly. “And I’m not letting you walk out of here again without hearing the truth.”

“I’ve heard enough—”

“No, you haven’t,” he snapped. “You haven’t heard how I stayed up every night replaying that moment with Lily, wishing I hadn’t done it. You haven’t heard how much I hate that I never got to say goodbye, or how I feel like I’m failing a child I just found out existed.”

His voice broke.

“And you haven’t heard how much I wanted us to work. How I never wanted to sleep with you out of guilt or grief. I wanted it because I still want you, Mia. Not just in my bed. In my life.”

Her eyes softened, just for a second — before they hardened again.

“But you already chose someone else. Even if she’s not here anymore, she still owns you.”

“I don’t want to be owned,” he whispered. “I want to heal. With you.”

The silence between them was unbearable.

Mia turned the knob.

Noah didn’t stop her this time.

But before walking out, she said quietly, “You need to decide who you’re grieving… and who you’re willing to fight for.”

Then she was gone.

And for the first time since Lily’s death… Noah wasn’t just heartbroken.

He was alone.