No Longer yours

We’re pregnant

“I didn’t know coming here would make you this angry, Mara,” Vivienne said softly, her voice shaking like she was barely holding back tears. “I’m so sorry… Just forget it. I’ll leave.”

She took a slow, dramatic step backward, clutching Lena’s hand tightly as if she were really about to walk out into the night with nothing.

Before she could take another step, Daniel moved fast, reaching out to stop both of them. “Wait…”

But Mara had already stood up from the bed she was sitting.

In one quick motion, she grabbed Daniel’s arm. “Don’t…”

She didn’t even finish the sentence.

Daniel reacted on pure instinct.

He shoved her. Hard.

Mara’s balance vanished instantly. She stumbled backward, arms flailing, and crashed to the floor. Her side slammed straight into the sharp edge of Lily’s wooden dressing table.

A blinding, white-hot pain exploded through her stomach.

For a split second, everything went blank. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. Just pain, sharp and deep, radiating through her abdomen.

“MOMMY!” Lily screamed from the bed, her small voice cracking with terror as she tried to scramble out from under the covers. “Daddy, don’t hurt Mommy! Please!”

Mara curled instinctively on the cold floor, one hand flying to her stomach as waves of agony rolled through her. Her breathing came in shallow, ragged gasps. She couldn’t move properly, every tiny shift sent fresh pain shooting through her.

Even Vivienne froze for a heartbeat, her eyes widening in genuine shock at the force of the fall, before she quickly stepped back, distancing herself from the mess she’d helped create.

Daniel stood frozen in place.

For the first time, real shock flashed across his face.

“What… what did I just do?” he muttered, almost to himself, voice hoarse.

Then panic crashed over him.

He dropped to his knees beside her. “Mara… Mara, I didn’t mean that. I swear, I wasn’t thinking straight…”

Mara could barely hear him through the roaring in her ears. Her face had gone deathly pale, sweat beading on her forehead as she pressed both hands tighter against her stomach, trying to breathe through the pain.

Lily’s cries grew louder, heartbreaking. “Mommy, please don’t die! Daddy, don’t hurt Mommy again! Please!”

Something in Daniel seemed to crack at the sound.

Without another word, he scooped Mara up into his arms like she weighed nothing. Her body was tense and trembling against him.

“I’m sorry,” he kept repeating, voice unsteady as he rushed out of the room with her. “I’m so sorry, Mara. I didn’t mean it…”

Vivienne stepped forward, her tone sharp with barely hidden frustration. “Daniel, where are you taking her?”

He didn’t even glance back. “Stay here with Lily,” he snapped. “I’m taking her to the hospital.”

Vivienne hesitated, her face tightening, but she forced a nod. “Fine,” she said quietly. Her eyes, though, were dark and stormy.

She watched Daniel carry Mara out of the house, then slowly turned back inside with Lena. The moment the door closed, her gentle expression melted into something colder. Much colder.

Daniel drove like a madman, weaving through traffic, hands gripping the wheel so tight his knuckles were white.

Mara sat slumped in the passenger seat, barely conscious, one hand still protectively cradling her stomach. The pain was sharp and unrelenting, but what hurt worse was the man beside her, the same man who had once watched her fall from a rooftop without a flicker of regret.

Even now, after everything, a tiny, stupid part of her remembered the Daniel she had once loved. That memory only made the ache in her chest heavier than the pain in her belly.

At the hospital, Daniel burst through the doors carrying her.

“Doctor! Nurses! Somebody help, please!” he shouted, voice cracking with urgency.

Staff swarmed them immediately, gently taking Mara from his arms and rushing her toward a treatment room.

Daniel followed close behind, face tight with fear, refusing to leave her side until they made him wait outside.

Mara saw that fear in his eyes as they wheeled her away.

Instead of softening her heart, it only hardened her resolve.

Because she remembered.

She remembered exactly how little that fear had mattered the first time around, when she had needed him most and he had chosen someone else.

Hours dragged by in a blur of tests, blood draws, scans, and quiet beeping machines.

Finally, a doctor emerged, holding a file.

“Are you the husband?” he asked.

“Yes,” Daniel answered quickly, standing up straight. “How is she?”

The doctor handed him the report, his expression neutral. “She’s stable. We’ll need to keep her under observation for a few days to be safe. You can go in and see her now.”

Daniel didn’t wait. He moved straight toward the ward.

Inside the quiet hospital room, Mara lay on the bed, pale and exhausted but fully conscious. Her hand rested gently over her stomach, fingers trembling slightly.

The door opened softly. Daniel stepped in, looking rattled and unsure of himself for once.

The moment he saw her lying there, his expression crumpled. “Mara…” He moved closer quickly. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to push you like that. I wasn’t thinking, I was just trying to stop everything from getting worse.”

Mara turned her head slowly to look at him. Her eyes were calm. Too calm. Almost unnervingly steady.

“You pushed me on instinct,” she said quietly, voice hoarse from the pain. “Because you were protecting Vivienne from me… right?”

Daniel opened his mouth, then closed it again. He couldn’t find the words. Guilt and defensiveness warred on his face.

He exhaled slowly, then held up the report the doctor had handed him outside.

“Mara…” His voice came out strange. Unsteady. “You’re pregnant.”

Silence settled over the room, thick and heavy.

Mara lay still, both hands now resting protectively over her stomach. She already knew. She had felt it the moment the pain hit her, some deep, instinctive part of her recognizing what was at stake before any doctor could say a word.

The word echoed in her head anyway, bringing a rush of memories so violent they made her chest tighten.

This was the exact moment from her first life, the moment she had been told she was carrying her second child. The child she had later lost because she had trusted the wrong people. Because she had been too blind, too hopeful.

Her eyes burned with unshed tears, but she refused to let them fall.

This time is different.

I won’t lose you. I swear I won’t.

Her mind kept drifting back to the past, how overjoyed she had once been at this news, how she had thought it might finally fix everything between them.

How wrong she had been.

She exhaled slowly, the sound shaky.

This time, I will protect you myself.

No one will take you away from me. No one.

Her vision blurred for a moment with tears she stubbornly blinked back.

Then she turned her head toward Daniel again.

For the first time, he looked genuinely unsure. Almost small.

As if trying to patch things up in one desperate move, he forced a small, awkward smile.

“We’re… pregnant,” he said, attempting to sound happy, hopeful. “Isn’t that amazing, honey?”

Mara looked at him for a long, quiet moment.

Then she gave a small, quiet nod.

“Yes,” she whispered softly.

Her expression shifted just a little, becoming firmer.

“Call my sister, Sofia,” she added. “I want her to come take care of Lily until I’m discharged.”

Daniel paused immediately, the smile fading.

He shook his head. “Come on, honey… I already asked Vivienne to look after Lily. She’ll be fine with her.”

Mara’s eyes darkened instantly.