The Rooftop Breakdown
731 Words
Chapter 12
The second Nathaniel Hayes pushed open the hospital room door, he knew something was wrong.
Dinner trays were shattered across the floor.
The curtains had been thrown wide open.
And Hailey Hayes
was standing outside the window.
One hand clung to the frame while the other protected her stomach. Her thin silk nightgown whipped violently in the wind as tears streamed down her face.
“Nate”
Her voice cracked dramatically.
“I can’t do this anymore…”
Nathaniel’s entire body locked up.
“What the hell are you doing?!” He lunged forward instinctively before stopping himself. “Get down right now!”
For the first time in weeks
he genuinely panicked.
No matter how suspicious he’d become lately…
No matter how many things no longer added up…
Hailey was still the woman he believed had once saved his life.
And she was carrying his child.
That alone was enough to send adrenaline surging through him.
Hailey shook her head violently, tears dripping from her chin.
“I can’t let my son grow up being called illegitimate.”
Her voice trembled beautifully in the night air.
“Everyone already thinks I destroyed your marriage…”
She lowered her eyes.
“Maybe disappearing would make everything easier.”
Then
She lifted one foot slightly.
Like she was actually about to jump.
Nathaniel’s heart nearly stopped.
“Hailey!”
He took a step forward
and froze when she screamed.
“Don’t come closer!”
Only then did he notice the phone propped beside the window.
Camera on.
Recording everything.
Nathaniel’s expression darkened instantly.
She was filming this.
Maybe livestreaming it.
Down below, voices were already gathering outside the hospital entrance.
People were watching.
Hailey sobbed harder, perfectly framed by the city lights behind her.
“I just don’t want our baby growing up ashamed of who his mother is…”
“You have no idea what people online are saying about me…”
“They think I got pregnant on purpose to steal you from Claire.”
She looked straight at him.
Eyes wet.
Voice shaking.
“They think our child is a mistake.”
Nathaniel clenched his jaw so hard it hurt.
His mind was already hanging by a thread.
Claire gone.
The divorce was finalized.
The empty house.
The investigation he secretly started behind Hailey’s back.
Everything felt like it was collapsing around him at once.
And now this.
Now Hailey was forcing him into a corner, too.
“I’ll take responsibility,” he said hoarsely.
But Hailey immediately shook her head.
“That’s not enough!”
Her voice suddenly sharpened beneath the tears.
“What happens after the baby’s born?”
“What am I supposed to tell people when they ask why the father of my child refuses to marry me?”
Nathaniel closed his eyes briefly.
Exhaustion slammed into him so hard he almost felt numb.
Then finally
he understood.
This wasn’t fear.
This wasn’t love.
This was pressure.
A trap.
She was using the baby.
Using public opinion.
Using the Hayes family reputation.
Using him.
To force his hand.
Hailey bit her lip softly.
“If you don’t agree…”
She glanced downward.
“…then tomorrow morning, your son and I will become the biggest scandal on the internet.”
Silence swallowed the room whole.
Nathaniel stood there for several long seconds without moving.
Then slowly
he pulled out his phone.
Opened the Notes app.
And typed:
I, Nathaniel Hayes, agree to marry Hailey Hayes.
Every word felt like dragging broken glass through his chest.
When he finished, he turned the screen toward her.
“There,” he said flatly. “Happy now?”
Hailey stared at the sentence.
For one split second, pure triumph flashed across her face before she quickly masked it again.
Tears returned instantly.
She climbed carefully down from the window ledge and rushed into his arms.
“Nate…”
“I knew you wouldn’t abandon me…”
But this time
Nathaniel didn’t hug her back.
His arms hung stiffly at his sides.
No guilt.
No tenderness.
No instinct to comfort her.
Only exhaustion.
Heavy, soul-deep exhaustion.
Because for the first time since all of this started
A terrifying thought crossed his mind.
Maybe the woman he destroyed his marriage for…
was never who he thought she was.
And maybe
the person he truly betrayed
had been Claire all along.
- Writer
