"The Baby He Rejected

Chapter 2: Shattered Promises

The morning light felt too harsh as it poured through the thin curtains of the apartment I had once called home. I hadn’t slept a wink. How could I? Every time I closed my eyes, the image of Ethan on one knee kept replaying in my mind like a nightmare I couldn’t escape. The applause from the restaurant crowd, the diamond ring sliding onto that woman’s finger, the way he looked away from me as if I was nothing. The pain was so deep it felt like a physical wound in my chest, making it hard to breathe.

I forced myself to sit up from the cold kitchen floor where I had spent most of the night. The small white gift box with the tiny baby shoes still sat on the counter like a silent reminder of everything I had lost in one cruel evening. I couldn’t bring myself to open it or even look at it for too long. Instead, I grabbed my laptop with shaking hands and started searching for one-way tickets out of the city. Anywhere far away. New York felt too close. Chicago maybe. Or better, Portland in Oregon. Far enough to disappear and start over.

My fingers hovered over the keyboard as memories flooded in without mercy. I remembered the first time I met Ethan at that charity gala where I was working as a waitress. He had tipped me five hundred dollars for one glass of champagne and asked for my number like it was the most natural thing in the world. “You’re different,” he had said that night under the city lights, his gray eyes intense and sincere. “Real. Not like the others.”

I had believed him completely. How stupidly, naively I had believed every word.

Flashbacks kept hitting me hard. Lazy Sunday mornings when he would try to make pancakes but always burn them, then serve them with that rare boyish grin that made my heart melt. The way he would pull me onto his lap during his late-night work sessions, kissing my neck until I forgot all my stress. The promise he made six months ago while holding me close after a long day: “One day, Ava, it will be just us. No more endless meetings. No more deals. Just our family.”

All of it felt like lies now.

A sob threatened to escape again, but I bit it back hard. No more crying for him. I had a baby to think about now. A little life that depended on me to be strong.

I booked the cheapest flight I could find to Portland. It left tomorrow morning. I had some savings from my freelance graphic design gigs. Not much, but enough to survive for a few weeks until I found a job. I started packing mechanically. Clothes. Important documents. My laptop. I almost left Ethan’s old college hoodie behind, but something stopped me. Maybe one day the baby would want to know what their father smelled like. Cedar and spice. I folded it carefully and put it in the bag.

My phone buzzed on the table. Ethan’s name flashed across the screen. I stared at it until it stopped ringing. Then another text came through.

Where are you? We need to talk.

Talk? Now he wanted to talk? After proposing to someone else while I was carrying his child? I didn’t reply. Instead, I turned the phone off completely and slipped it into my bag. Let him wonder. Let him feel even a small part of the emptiness he left in me.

By noon, I was standing in the doorway of the apartment we had shared for two years. The place still smelled like him. His expensive cologne. The half-empty bottle of whiskey on the counter. I considered leaving a note but decided against it. What could I possibly say?

Congratulations on your engagement. By the way, I’m pregnant with the child you’ll never meet.

No. Silence was better. Cleaner.

I locked the door behind me and didn’t look back.

The taxi ride to the airport was quiet. The driver tried making small talk, but I only nodded vaguely, my mind replaying the restaurant scene over and over. Who was that blonde woman? I had seen her face somewhere before, maybe in the society pages where Ethan was always mentioned. Some heiress or business partner’s daughter?

It didn’t matter. None of it did anymore.

At the airport, I bought a cheap prepaid phone and transferred the little money I had left. As I waited at the gate, exhaustion finally caught up with me. I sat with my hand protectively over my belly, watching other families and couples around me. A little girl ran past, laughing as her father chased her. The sight twisted something deep inside my chest.

Would my baby ever have that? A father who loved them unconditionally?

Tears pricked my eyes again, but I blinked them away quickly. I would be enough. I had to be enough for both of us.

The flight was long and uneventful. I slept fitfully, waking up to the announcement that we were landing in Portland. The new city greeted me with gray skies and light rain. Perfect for my mood. I found a cheap motel near the airport using the prepaid phone. The room smelled of stale cigarettes and cleaning products, but it was a roof over our heads. I collapsed onto the bed and stared at the water-stained ceiling.

Tomorrow, I would look for a small apartment. A job. Prenatal care. I would build something new from the ashes Ethan left behind.

But as sleep finally started to pull me under, my mind drifted to darker thoughts. What if the proposal wasn’t what it seemed? What if there was more to the story? The way Ethan’s eyes had locked on mine for that split second… it hadn’t been complete indifference. It had looked like pain. Like regret.

I pushed the thought away. It was too late for maybes.

What I didn’t know was that back in the city, Ethan Blackwood was already losing his mind searching for me. He had torn apart his office, called every contact he had, and refused to accept that I had simply vanished.

The secrets surrounding that proposal were far darker than either of us could imagine. And soon, those secrets would drag both of us and our unborn child and us into a storm we were not prepared for.