CHAPTER 3
1262 Words
Savannah didn’t sleep that night either.
She lay on her back, then her side, then back again, staring at the ceiling like it might give her answers. Her pillow was useless. Her mind was worse.
Grayson Hart. The man she wasn’t supposed to know that way.
Her father’s best friend.
The same one she’d seen talking business at their kitchen table when she was thirteen.
Now she knew things about him she wasn’t supposed to know. Intimate things. Stupid, dangerous things.
She had been far away in college in another city, and everyone here seems to have changed so much.
The last time she heard about Grayson from her father, he was said to be finalizing his divorce in Los Angeles from his estranged wife, as he caught her pants down with a man in his luxury penthouse.
His name keeps coming up, but she has never really seen him one-on-one since she became an Adult, apart from one time she accompanied her father Richard to Grayson's house, but she didn't get out of the car to see him properly, as
Richard only came to drop off a parcel at Grayson’s house, and they zoomed off.
She rolled over and buried her face in the blanket.
What the hell was wrong with her?
By noon the next day, she still hadn’t eaten. Her body didn’t feel sick,... off. Not exactly pain. Just weird, a feeling she couldn't explain.
She kept glancing at her phone like it would tell her what to do.
It didn’t.
Her stomach buzzed — not from hunger. From nerves. Or fear. Or guilt. She didn’t know. Just knew she didn’t feel like herself.
She finally opened the calendar app.
Five days late.
She shut the phone, opened it again. Counted, Again.
Still five days.
Her mind was playing games with her. It couldn't be what she's thinking.
I need to talk to someone, Tasha? No, not yet. She thought indecisively.
I need answers, and I'm sure I'll get them immediately, Savannah murmured to herself.
She pulled a hoodie over her tank top, shoved her keys in her pocket, and headed to the pharmacy down the road, Kept her head down. And Hoped no one looked twice, felt like she was hiding after committing a criminal offence.
The test felt heavier than it should’ve when the cashier slid it across the counter. Savannah paid in cash. No eye contact with anyone.
Back in her apartment, She kept the box on the bathroom counter while she paced back and forth like it might start screaming.
She didn’t want to take it. Didn’t want to know.
But pretending didn’t help. The More she paced, the heavier her heart beat.
Oh my God! I feel my heart is gonna jump out of my chest, I can feel it, Savannah muttered amidst tears.
She yanked the box open, read the instructions twice, then finally went through with it.
Ten minutes later, she was still on the bathroom floor. Her Elbows on her knees. Staring at the stick.
Two pink lines.
No mistake. No confusion.
She was pregnant.
Her head emptied.
Not panic. Not loud terror. Just... silence.
She dropped the test in the sink, pulled a hand towel over it like covering it might undo it. She backed out of the room, slowly and shakily.
She spent the next two hours sitting on her bed. No music. No TV. Just her and the stupid buzzing sound in her ears.
Pregnant. Savannah, you're pregnant.
She wasn’t even sure how she felt. Shocked, sure. Ashamed, yeah. But mostly frozen.
Like her brain was trying to file this into the right folder and couldn’t find one.
She thought about calling someone. Tasha maybe. But what would she say?
Hey, remember that one-night stand I was too embarrassed to admit happened?
Yeah. I’m carrying his baby.
No.
Instead, she picked up her phone and stared at her dad’s latest text.
“ Family brunch. Sunday. Be on time and wear something respectful.”
Her stomach flipped again.
If Grayson was there…
She reached down and rested her hand over her belly. Still flat. Still quiet.
But it wouldn’t stay that way.
And the worst part?
He didn’t know.
She didn’t even know if she wanted him to.
Her head dropped into her hands. And then she let the memory crawl back in, because clearly, it wasn’t going anywhere.
She remembered everything. The way he’d breathed against her neck. The quiet grunt when he lost control.
Her wrists had been pinned — not rough, just... firm. Like he didn’t want her to leave.
It was too much. Too fast.Too electrifying
Even though Savannah put her palms to cover her face, she could still remember his mouth against hers and the way his hands moved over her body as if he had been so hungry for her.
To make the Matter even worse was her reaction, which was to draw him in rather than to run or resist him.
She wondered, pacing once more, "What am I going to do?"
Should her father discover... She couldn't even complete the thought, no.
She kept wondering what was going to happen when this secret unfolded, cause definitely it will.
Would it be possible that she kept this secret hidden so deeply that no one could ever know about it.
There's a living human in there, she thought, feeling her stomach. How on earth can she keep this a secret.
Her journal, which she hadn't touched since college, was on the nightstand, and she immediately grabbed it.
She opened to a blank page, her hand shaking. The words would not come, but the pen lingered.
How could she possibly write anything? Have I damaged my life, dear diary? She hid her face in her pillow, threw it aside, and snapped it shut.
Her body, however, refused to let her sleep. Like static, every nerve was alive and buzzing.
Once more, her hand moved to her abdomen and gently pressed down. Flat. Still. Outside, nothing had changed. But within? Everything had.
It weighed so heavily on her chest that she thought she might scream.
Even though no one was around to witness her, she dragged herself to her drawer and took out an oversized jumper to hide in. She noticed herself reflected in the mirror.
Her hair was tangled and looking unkept, her makeup smeared, and her eyes looked tired. "You look nothing like yourself," she said.
The apartment was excessively quiet, with every floorboard creak being too loud.
She continued to imagine footsteps in the hallway and voices at the door. Like her whole secret will be revealed the moment someone knocks.
Curling up on the couch, Savannah tightly gripped a throw blanket around her body.
She promised herself that she would keep her eyes closed for a minute.To simply quit thinking.
Her dreams, however, deceived her when she eventually fell asleep. She ran into Grayson again.
With his hands around her waist and his mouth at her ear, he spoke her name as if it were his own, his voice slow and calm.
She woke up immediately, breathing quickly and her heart pounding. The room was dark now, and the clock read 11:42 PM.
Her phone was facedown on the nightstand, vibrating once before becoming silent.
She refused picking it up. Didn't have to. The fear that was already slithering up in her stomach said enough.
Whatever awaited her tomorrow—brunch, her father, or perhaps Grayson himself—she couldn't stay away forever. Savannah knew that this was merely the beginning.
- Writer
