Chapter One
1118 Words
Amelia's pov
The doctor’s words still echoed in my mind, threading through every breath as I stepped out of the hospital into the crisp Manhattan air.
“You’re pregnant.”
Two words. Just two, yet they had set my entire world alight.
I pressed my hand against my still-flat stomach, my fingers trembling as though I might feel something already…. life, heartbeat, promise.
Nothing stirred, of course, but I smiled anyway, a secret blooming inside me. I had always dreamed of being a mother.
But to carry Ethan’s child?.
To have something of him and me together… our blood, our love, our future.. it was more than a dream.
For the first time in months, hope felt real.
The city bustled around me, horns blaring, people rushing past, but I floated through it all in a haze of fragile joy. I imagined the look on his face when I told him.
Ethan wasn’t good with surprises he hated being caught off guard,... but this would be different. He’d be shocked at first, maybe even silent in that maddening way of his, but then… he’d soften. He’d gather me into his arms, bury his face in my neck, and the distance that had grown between us would finally close.
This baby would fix us.
The thought kept me smiling all the way home.
By the time the elevator swept me up to the penthouse floor, my heart was pounding with anticipation. I stepped into the apartment, greeted by silence. Too much silence. No music, no clink of glasses, not even the sound of footsteps echoing down the marble floors.
I found him where I always found him when something weighed on his mind standing in front of the massive windows, his hands tucked into his trouser pockets, the skyline burning orange behind him as the sun dipped lower.
“Ethan Blackwood, my husband. My love. My stranger.”
He didn’t turn when I walked in. His shoulders were rigid, his posture carved from stone.
“Ethan,”... I whispered, setting my bag down on the console table. I tried to steady my voice, tried to keep the bubbling excitement from spilling too soon. “I have new…. ”
He turned then, and the words died on my tongue.
His face was unreadable. That wasn’t unusual… Ethan had mastered the art of wearing nothing, showing nothing. But his eyes… God, his eyes weren’t mine anymore. They were flat, detached, the gaze of a man who had already left.
My stomach clenched. “Is something wrong?”Bea… I asked
He inhaled slowly, like a man preparing for battle. “Amelia,” he said flatly, his voice as cool as the glass behind him. “We need to talk.”
I tried to smile, though nerves scraped my chest raw. “That’s funny. I was just about to say the same thing.” I stepped closer, clutching my secret like a talisman. “Actually, I think….. ”
“I want a divorce.”
The floor gave out beneath me.
I blinked, unable to process. Surely I misheard. Surely that wasn’t what he said.
“What?”!!!
My voice cracked on the single word.
His jaw tightened. “I want a divorce. The papers are already being prepared. You’ll be taken care of.”
“Taken care of!!!!
Like I was an….inconvenience.”
Like I was nothing more than another business contract he wanted to dissolve.
Blood rushed in my ears. My mouth went dry. My hand trembled against my stomach, protective by instinct.
“A divorce,” I whispered, tasting the word like poison.
“Yes.” His tone didn’t waver. “It’s over, Amelia.”
It’s over.
Two hours ago, I had stood in a sterile white room, holding back tears of joy as a doctor told me I carried a piece of both of us inside me. Two hours ago, I had believed in second chances.
Now he was tearing it all apart.
“Why?”
My voice broke. “After everything…why now?”
He looked away, back to the skyline, as if the glittering city lights mattered more than I did…
“Because this marriage stopped working a long time ago.”he said..
My chest splintered. I shook my head, stepping toward him. “Stopped working?” My voice sharpened. “We’re not a business deal, Ethan. We’re not something you can file away and forget about. We're…. ”
“Don’t,” he cut in, his voice low, warning. “Don’t romanticize what’s already broken.”
His words sliced through me. Romanticize?!!
Was that what he thought I’d been doing… clinging to scraps, pretending we were still us?
“You don’t mean this,” I whispered, though part of me already knew he did.
He met my eyes then, and for a moment I searched desperately for the man I fell in love with…. the man who once touched me like I was made of glass, who kissed me like I was oxygen. But all I saw was steel.
“I do,” he said quietly.
The tears I’d held back spilled hot down my cheeks. My heart screamed to tell him, to stop this madness, to fight for us with the only weapon I had left: I’m pregnant.
But fear choked me. What if he didn’t care?
What if the baby wasn’t enough to change his mind?... What if he saw this life growing inside me as nothing more than another chain he didn’t want?
My hand tightened over my stomach, shielding the tiny secret he didn’t yet know.
The silence stretched between us, heavy and unbearable.
“Fine,” I whispered, forcing the word out though it tore at my throat. “If that’s what you want.”
He nodded once, his face unreadable again. “It’s for the best.”
Best. The word twisted bitterly inside me. Best for him, maybe. For me? For the baby I now carried? It felt like ruin.
I turned away before he could see me crumble, before he could see the raw, broken pieces of me scatter across the floor. My vision blurred as I stumbled down the hallway to our bedroom, closing the door with trembling hands.
The dam broke the second I was alone. I slid down the door, clutching my stomach, sobbing into the silence.
I had walked in tonight ready to give him hope, to remind him of us. Instead, he gave me an ending.
But inside me, a new beginning already stirred. And no matter how much Ethan Blackwood thought this marriage was over, I wasn’t just fighting for myself anymore.
I was fighting for our child.
And that changed everything…
- Writer
