THE PREGNANCY TEST
977 Words
What happened next came as a huge shock and it felt like a train had hit Selena, and it was one truth that she could not avoid.
Standing in the bathroom, her gaze was fixed on the pregnancy test on the counter. She stood there with a mix of emotions; fear, anxiety, joy…. Maybe she almost wanted to look away, to somehow undo the moment, to force the test to change from what she could currently see, but that was clearly impossible.
The results in front of her were. Clear. Loud. Unchanging.
If this test result had come a few years back, she knew her only expression would have been pure joy and excitement but today the reality and situation were completely different.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered. The words were heavy. Solid.
Nothing around her changed and nothing was going to remain the same.
Back in the suite, the air felt different. Tense. Waiting. Keller was the first to notice a change in her compound and demeanor as she walked out of the bathroom.
She didn’t say a word. Just set the test on the table, like it weighed her down, and stepped away.
Keller glanced at the test. Something gentle flickered in his eyes, but then caution settled in. Daniel moved in closer, curiosity turning into understanding. The room changed, just like that.
Everything shifted.
Selena barely nodded, a tiny move, but enough to confirm what no one needed spelled out. The weight of it all pressed into the room, deeper than just surprise. Closer to urgency, or dread.
She glanced at Keller. Something had changed about him, too. The scruffy, burned-out man she’d met in Zurich was gone. Here, now, he looked like someone who had patched himself back together on purpose. His hair looked freshly cut, shirt crisp, energy steadier.
He seemed ready to be present for her—really present.
He stepped toward her, slowly—making sure she could back out if she wanted. She didn’t, so he placed his hand gently over hers, reassuring and steady.
No grand gesture. Just solid grounds.
“I’m here,” he murmured.
That simple promise surprised her.
Selena didn’t answer at first. Her hand didn’t move, not away but not toward him either—a fragile connection, but real enough. Keller’s thumb brushed over her knuckles, a little comfort, instinctive. Even his voice changed—gentle, stripped of calculation.
“You’re not alone.”
That was the thing that cracked something open inside her. Not fear now. Not anger. Something warmer, steadier.
She drew her hand back, slow, the feeling lingering after the touch ended.
Daniel caught it all without comment. He shifted his attention—reality settling back in, reminding them this wasn’t over.
Urgency returned.
Selena sat, one hand drifting to her stomach—a gesture she felt before she noticed. Only now did she understand what that instinct really meant, what could actually be at stake.
The clinic that Keller brought them to was tucked away, far off the main drag—nothing visible, nothing tied to Kingsley Biologics. Discreet, efficient, safe.
She survived the exam with practiced calm, her mind spinning behind her mask. The needle didn’t faze her. What really mattered was everything she’d endured before, the way her body had been manipulated. Not again. Never again.
When Keller got the results, he lingered over the screen too long. That alone made her chest tighten. She watched him, reading his face.
First came confirmation—the pregnancy was real, no wiggle room, all clinical facts. But relief wouldn’t settle in her gut. Because nothing in Keller’s face softened at the news. Concern just deepened, quietly.
Selena leaned in and scoured the data herself. Slipping into clinical detachment, she followed the numbers the way she always had.
Then a pattern jumped out.
Her composure cracked.
She knew the numbers; she’d seen them before. Her progesterone was too low. Not disaster-level—yet. But falling.
Her heart raced, a flood of old memories crashing back. She’d spent five years burying this feeling.
Keller didn’t sugarcoat anything. No hedging, no softened phrasing.
The numbers matched the old pattern.
The room felt smaller, heavier. The implications pressed in.
This wasn’t a chance. This wasn’t nature.
Her thoughts raced—protocols, hormone suppression, the possibility that Marcus never stopped his experiment.
So when her phone buzzed, she already knew who was calling. She answered in one sharp move.
Her voice was ice. No warmth. No more uncertainty.
She said what she’d learned. The silence on the other end was wrong—a careful pause instead of honest surprise. She listened as his calm, measured answer confirmed her worst suspicions.
He’d known.
He’d kept the protocol running.
Her body, her pregnancy, even now—he kept control.
By the time she ended the call, the truth felt thick and cold inside her. This wasn’t old trauma resurfacing. This was the same system, still grinding.
The silence settled over her again, but this time, it didn’t drown her. She focused.
Her hand pressed to her stomach again, purposeful this time.
“My levels aren’t dropping on their own,” she said. Her voice was steady but full of storm.
Fact, not theory.
This wasn’t natural. This was engineered. Controlled.
Keller stepped up again; whatever uncertainty he had vanished—replaced by hard resolve. Daniel was tense, sharp with purpose.
Selena looked at them, her eyes clear, unflinching.
“This time,” she said, letting the words come out slow and deliberate, “it stops with me.”
She glanced at the test, then at the cold data on the screen.
Two truths staring her down—life and threat.
She spoke again, softer but somehow stronger.
“I’m pregnant.” She met their eyes, holding the moment.
“And my hormone levels are dropping.”
- Writer
