Chapter 70: My Last Warning

Chapter 70: My Last Warning

Andy

“No. I’m not going anywhere with you.” Maddie said defiantly. “I’m not getting rid of my baby.”

I wanted to scream. I wanted to pull out my own hair in frustration.

Maddie was being so damn difficult. Why couldn’t she understand that right now wasn’t the right time to be bringing a child into whatever was left of our relationship?

Everything was already fractured. Adding a baby to that mess felt like pouring gasoline on a fire that was already out of control.

“Maddie. Be realistic. You’re gonna have to do this alone if you insist on keeping that child.” I said honestly. The words came out harsher than I intended, but I didn’t take them back. “I’m not cut out for this. Heck, I never expected this! It’s a freaking surprise. Think about this please.”

She stared at me, eyes half-open in horror. “Alone? Wait you mean—” She paused, chuckling as she placed a hand on her hip. The sound was broken, nothing like the soft laughter I used to pull from her so easily. “You’ll abandon us? Because you don’t want to take responsibility for your actions?”

“It wasn’t intentional, Madison!” I screamed at her. The volume and tone surprised even me. “I never planned for you to end up like this.”

“Andy, you had sex with me when you were too drunk to pull out and you ended up getting me pregnant and somehow this is still all my fault?!” She raised her voice. “How do you even blame me for this?!”

“Because you were sober, Maddie! You should have thought of this!”

Damn you, Basil. This is all his fault.

If he hadn’t slipped something into that punch and made me drink it, this wouldn’t have happened.

We had been careful for years. Condoms. Timing. Pulling out when things got risky. I had built an entire system around not ending up exactly where I was standing right now—in Maddie’s bedroom with a positive pregnancy test on the floor and my future collapsing in real time.

I couldn’t pretend I hadn’t had a nagging feeling that what had happened that night in my bedroom might lead to unforeseen circumstances.

Especially since I was drunk and didn’t have a condom on. And basically couldn’t even remember everything clearly.

The gaps in the memory were convenient and terrifying at the same time. I remembered being on top of Maddie. I remembered her voice saying it was a bad idea. I remembered insisting because my entire body was on fire.

Beyond that, the night blurred into something I had been trying not to examine too closely.

Additionally, I trusted Maddie to be smart enough to handle the situation. I guessed that was my mistake.

How could it only take just one time for this to happen? For our lives to be ruined? Is it normal to be this fertile?

Fuck. Dad is going to be so disappointed in the both of us. How could history repeat itself so cruelly?

My father had spent years drilling into me the importance of self-control, of not letting one act of carelessness undo everything. He made me swear not to bring a child into the world unless I was fully ready, sure and capable of catering for one.

And here I was, standing in the wreckage of exactly that. I fucked up.

“I should have thought of this?” She repeated. “Andy you wouldn’t listen! Aren’t you listening?!”

“I am fucking listening, Maddie.” I roared. “And I am fucking losing my mind! You did this intentionally! I know you! You want to make sure that this wedding will happen!”

The accusation left my mouth before I could stop it.

Some ugly, panicked part of me needed someone to blame, and she was the only person standing in the room.

The more she spoke, the more annoyed I got.

Why wasn’t she seeing things from the right side? Why was she acting like keeping this baby was some noble stand instead of a decision that would chain both of us to a future neither of us had chosen?

Stumbling back, she shook her head. “No. You’re not the Andy I used to know.”

“Emotional blackmail isn’t going to work, Maddie. Stop it.”

“Emotional blackmail?” She sobbed. “Andy that’s what you call it? What about my life? What about my job? What about my parents? What about my reputation, Andy?!”

I just looked at her like she wasn’t making sense. Because she wasn’t. None of this was making any sense.

We were supposed to be planning a wedding. We were supposed to be the couple everyone envied.

Instead we were screaming at each other about a pregnancy neither of us had wanted and a night that kept rewriting itself depending on who was telling the story.

“You keep saying your dad is going to kill you. But what about my dad?! You think he’s going to be happy to hear that not only did my fiancé cheat on me with my sister, but he also dumped me, cancelled our wedding and gave me a child he doesn't even want?!” She screamed. “So, Andy… what about me? Why is it only about you?!”

“What about you? You’re the one who’s insisting on keeping that pregnancy. I want no part in it.” I pointed at her belly. The gesture felt cruel even as I did it. “Get rid of it.”

“I’m not going to do that! I’ll give birth to this child, with or without you!” She said defiantly. “And even if I have to fight every day to raise this child then that’s what I’ll do!”

“Maddie, you don’t know what you’re saying.” I chuckled. “You can’t raise a child on your own. Do you know the first thing about being a mom?”

“Do you know the first thing about being a dad?” She clapped back. “Don’t tutor me on subjects you know nothing about.”

She raised her hand and looked at the engagement ring on her finger. Then at me. The jewelry caught the light for a second, the same way it had the night I proposed—when everything still felt possible and clean.

“There’s no point chaining myself to you if you wouldn’t think twice about throwing me under the bus when things get rough.”

She forced the ring out of her finger and threw it at me. It landed on my chest before falling to the ground at my feet. The small metallic sound it made when it hit the floor felt disproportionately loud.

“Take your ring and get out of my house.” She said, “I don’t wanna ever see you again, Andy.”

I slowly bent down and picked up the ring. The metal was still warm from her skin. “Don’t be foolish, Maddie.”

She pointed at the door. “Leave! Else I’m going to scream my head off and alert the whole neighbourhood. We’re no longer engaged, Andy. You’re now my crazy stalker ex-fiancé.” She said, “Good luck explaining to the police how I ended up with a bruised cervix and your DNA inside me.”

The threat behind those words was one I couldn’t fathom. I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that Maddie could be mean enough to do such a thing to me.

The girl who used to fall asleep holding my hand was now standing in front of me ready to destroy whatever was left of my life with a single phone call.

“You’d really accuse me of that, baby?” I asked quietly, heart breaking loudly in my chest.

Without wasting a second, she replied. “Get out, Andy. This is my last warning.”

Clutching the ring tightly in my palm, I walked forward until I was standing in front of her.

I grabbed her hand, expecting her to struggle and fight back. But she didn’t. She just stood there, breathing hard, eyes wet and furious.

I slipped the ring back onto her finger. It resisted for a second, then slid into place like it still belonged there. “Don't ever take off your ring again.”

Then I pulled her into a hug. She struggled a bit—small, half-hearted pushes against my chest—before giving in, gripping my shirt tight.

I placed a kiss on her head and stepped back, resisting the urge to kiss her properly. still the same. Everything else had changed.

“Think about it, Maddie. I love you.”

She stepped away from me, eyes downcast. The ring glinted on her finger again. It looked like a temporary truce neither of us trusted.

With one last glance, I turned and left.

Outside, the air was too bright, too normal. Down the street a lawnmower hummed. A dog barked.

Life continued as if the girl upstairs hadn’t just threatened to hand my name to the police and as if the positive test on her floor hadn’t rewritten everything.

I sat in my car for a long time before I turned the key. My hands were shaking.

I had put the ring back on her finger, but I wasn’t sure it meant anything anymore. I wasn’t sure I meant anything anymore.

All I knew was that by tomorrow at ten, something was going to break.

And I was terrified it would be me.