Chapter 282 The call

Chapter 282 The call
Sage's POV

I thought about who I could call and went through the list in my head.

Not Jaxon again. Jaxon was already at the clubhouse dealing with Ryder and I was not going to pull him back here to sit with me when he was already doing something difficult.

Not Tommy. Tommy was Ryder's person first and always had been and even though I trusted Tommy and knew he would come if I asked, he was not who I needed right now.

Not Sarah. She betrayed me when she slept with Bradley.

Even though I forgave her and she and I were rebuilding, but we were not at the stage where I called her in the aftermath of a fight with my fiancé and expected her to know what to do with it.

I sat with the phone in my hand and thought about the people I could call and the list got shorter the more I thought about it and then one name came to the front that was very unlikely.

Diego.

Diego who had listened without agenda in Arizona. Who had made me tea and not filled the silence with opinions I had not asked for. Who had told me the truth about where I needed to be even when it meant sending me away from the only place I felt safe. Who knew Ryder and knew me and knew the history of both of us in a way that nobody else except Jaxon did.

I found his number and called before I could talk myself out of it.

He answered on the second ring.

"Sage." His voice was warm and immediate in the way it always was. No preamble. Just there.

"Hi," I said, and my voice came out smaller than I intended.

A pause on his end. "What happened?" he said.

I told him.

I told him about the pregnancy and about last night and about the ring and about the question Ryder had asked at the breakfast table this morning. I told him about the ring box hitting the wall and about Ryder leaving and about sitting on the kitchen floor. I told him all of it without stopping to manage any of it because Diego was one of the few people I had ever been able to talk to without managing and I was not going to start now.

Diego listened to all of it without interrupting.

When I finished there was a silence on the line.

"He asked if the baby was mine," Diego said finally.

"He asked about the timing," I said. "Which is the same thing."

"Yeah," Diego said. "It is."

"I know you and I never—" I started.

"Sage," Diego said, and his voice was quiet but firm. "You do not have to explain that to me. I know what happened in Arizona and you know what happened in Arizona and it was two people who cared about each other being decent human beings during a hard time. That's it."

"He doesn't know that," I said.

"He should," Diego said. "He should know that because he knows you. He should know that because he knows me. He should know that because he is not a stupid man and the evidence for you being faithful to him is literally the entire history of your relationship." A pause. "The fact that he let a six-week timeline override all of that evidence says something about him, not about you."

"I know," I said. "That's what's so painful about it."

"Tell me about the pregnancy," Diego said, shifting his tone deliberately. Moving to the thing he could see I needed to talk about separately from the fight. "How are you feeling?"

"Terrified," I said honestly. "And happy. Both at the same time and I don't know what to do when they're both there at once."

"That sounds about right," Diego said.

"I'm pregnant and I've just thrown an engagement ring box across my kitchen and told my fiancé to get out," I said. "That is not how I pictured this stage of my life going."

"No," Diego said. "It isn't." A pause. "For what it's worth, he's going to be completely destroyed right now."

"He should be," I said.

"He should be," Diego agreed. "I am not defending what he did. I'm just telling you what he's going to be." Another pause. "He loves you, Sage. Whatever his brain did this morning, that part is not in question."

"Love is not enough if the trust isn't there," I said.

"No," Diego said. "It isn't." He was quiet for a moment. "How bad is it? Really. Are you considering ending it?"

I looked at the ring on my left hand.

"I don't know yet," I said. "I'm too angry to know yet. Right now I just need to not be in the same building as him."

"That's fair," Diego said. "That's completely fair."

"I'm alone in this house," I said. "I didn't want to be alone but I also didn't want anyone here who knows Ryder better than they know me and I couldn't think of anyone who didn't."

"I know you," Diego said. "Better than I know Ryder."

"I know," I said.

He was quiet for a moment.

"I'm going to come," he said.

"Diego—"

"Not to make things worse," he said. "Not to get in the middle of anything. I'm going to come because you need someone in your corner who is yours and not his, and because I am the person who sent you back to him and I feel some responsibility for how this is going." Another pause. "I'll get a flight tomorrow morning. I'll be there by afternoon."

"You don't have to do that," I said.

"I know I don't have to," he said. "I'm going to anyway."

I sat on the couch with the phone and felt the particular relief of someone who had been trying to hold something alone and had just been told they did not have to.

"Okay," I said.

"Okay," Diego said. "Get some rest. Eat something. Don't sit down dwelling on what's past."

"How did you know I was sitting on the floor?" I said.

"Because I know you," he said. "Get up."