This time…
I wasn’t sure if it came from the pregnancy…
Or the fear.
Because beneath the shock…
Beneath the panic…
Another realization quietly settled over me.
This wasn’t just a positive test anymore.
This was a baby.
A tiny life.
Growing inside me.
Completely innocent.
Completely unaware that the world waiting outside was already unimaginably complicated.
My hand moved almost instinctively.
Slowly.
Hesitantly.
Until it rested against my still-flat stomach.
I held my breath.
Nothing had changed on the outside.
But somehow…
Everything had changed.
Every plan I’d made.
Every decision ahead of me.
Every version of the future I’d imagined.
Gone.
Replaced by one terrifying question.
How was I supposed to tell the father…
When I didn’t even know who he was?
My hand re
