Alan’s POV
If guilt had a heartbeat, it would sound exactly like hers.
I could hear it through the quiet hum of my office — the steady rhythm of Ashley’s soft breathing as she sat across from me, pretending to read a file. Her fingers fidgeted against the edge of the paper, her eyes fixed on a line she clearly wasn’t seeing.
She looked fine — calmer than she’d been at the hospital — but I’d learned enough to know that “fine” meant she was about to fall apart.
It had been three days since the doctor said the word pregnant, and since then, everything inside me had shifted. I didn’t know what kind of man I was supposed to be in this situation — but I knew what kind I refused to be.
So I took care of her.
Every evening after everyone else left, she’d stay behind “to finish up,” and I’d p
