Chapter 156 156

Chapter 156 156
CHAPTER 156
RYAN

Emily didn't argue with me or demand to know what I had discovered because the look in her eyes told me she had long since stopped expecting anything from me, and somehow that quiet acceptance hurt more than any accusation she could have thrown in my face.

She held my gaze for only a few seconds before turning toward Zara, and although her face remained composed, I could see how much effort it took to keep herself together. 

"Come on, sweetheart," she said gently, forcing a smile that looked painfully fragile. "It's time for us to go."

Zara looked between us with wide, uncertain eyes. She wasn't old enough to understand the history that had brought us to this moment, but she was old enough to recognize when the adults she loved were hurting. She hesitated for a second before hurrying toward Emily, slipping her small hand into her mother's as naturally as breathing.

I wanted to stop them.

I wanted to tell her that she had never deserved any of it and that I was ashamed it had taken me this long to see what had been happening right in front of me.

But I stayed exactly where I was because I knew those words belonged to a man who should have spoken them years ago, not one who had only found the truth after someone else forced him to face it.

Emily never looked back.

She simply walked toward the front door with Zara beside her, and when the door closed behind them, the sound echoed through the room with a finality that settled heavily in my chest.

Nobody spoke.

Morgan watched the door for several long moments before slowly turning toward Aaron, who answered her questioning look with nothing more than a helpless shrug. She sighed quietly, glanced back toward the hallway as though debating whether she should give Emily some space, and then shook her head.

"I should go after her," she murmured. "She shouldn't leave feeling like she's alone."

Aaron nodded. "Go."

Without another word, Morgan hurried after Emily, and a few seconds later the front door opened and closed again, leaving Aaron and me standing in a silence that somehow felt even heavier than before.

I kept staring at the place where Emily had disappeared, wishing I could rewind the last several years and become the man she had deserved from the very beginning. 

Aaron shifted beside me before finally speaking.

"What happened, man?"

His voice wasn't loud, but it broke whatever fragile control I still had.

The breath caught painfully in my throat before my vision blurred, and despite every attempt to hold myself together, tears spilled down my face. I covered my eyes with one hand, embarrassed by how completely I was falling apart, but there was no stopping it now.

"My mom..." I whispered, my voice cracking beneath the weight of everything pressing against my chest. "She hurt Emily so much."

Saying the words aloud made them real in a way they hadn't been only minutes earlier.

"I knew they didn't get along in recent times. I knew Mom could be controlling, and I knew Emily never trusted her, but I honestly believed they just couldn't see eye to eye. I thought it was nothing more than stubborn personalities refusing to compromise." I laughed bitterly, shaking my head at my own stupidity. "God, I was such an idiot."

Aaron remained silent, allowing me to keep talking instead of interrupting with empty reassurance.

"I did so much evil to Emily. My breathing grew uneven as another memory surfaced. "And after everything she already put Emily through, she still wants custody of Zara. She still thinks she has the right to take that little girl away from the only parent who's ever protected her."

Aaron rubbed the back of his neck and muttered a quiet curse beneath his breath.

"Jesus... that's messed up."

I nodded slowly, unable to disagree.

"It isn't just messed up." I swallowed hard. "It's unforgivable."

The realization settled inside me with crushing clarity.

I felt my knees weaken beneath me until I slowly lowered myself onto the hardwood floor, resting my back against the wall because standing suddenly felt impossible.

"It's over," I whispered, staring blankly at the opposite wall. "I think I've already lost her."

Aaron looked at me for a long moment before lowering himself to the floor beside me, moving with the awkward uncertainty of someone who had never really known how to comfort another man in the middle of heartbreak. He rested his elbows on his knees first, then after what looked like an internal debate, he reached over and placed a hand on my shoulder. 

The gesture was stiff and almost uncomfortable, but I knew him well enough to understand that it meant more than any speech he could have given me.

"I don't know if it's over," he said quietly. "I think you're just seeing everything clearly for the first time, and that's a brutal place to be."

I let out a humorless laugh and rubbed my palms over my face, wishing I could scrub away the shame that clung to me like a second skin.

"It doesn't matter when I finally saw it," I admitted. "What matters is that Emily had to survive all of it alone."

The words tasted bitter.

"You didn't know."

"I should have."

The answer came so quickly that neither of us spoke afterward.

I should have known.

A husband was supposed to notice when her smile became forced, when her shoulders tensed every time his mother walked into the room, when she insisted on handling things by herself because somewhere along the line she had stopped believing he would stand beside her.

The worst part wasn't discovering what my mother had done.

The worst part was realizing how many opportunities I'd had to protect Emily and how many of them I had wasted.

Then, almost as if someone had switched on a light inside my head, another face pushed its way into my thoughts.

Miranda.

I straightened immediately.

If my mother had gone to such lengths to separate Emily and me, then how much of Miranda's story had been real?

I reached into my pocket and pulled out my phone.

Aaron frowned.

"What's going on?"

I unlocked the screen and searched for Miranda's contact.

"It's time to deal with Miranda."

He watched me for a second before his eyebrows lifted.

"You think she's lying too?"

I stared at her name on my screen before answering.

"I don't know what to think anymore, and that's exactly why I'm done making assumptions."

His eyes widened slightly.

"The baby..."

I nodded slowly.

"If she's even pregnant."

The words hung between us.

Aaron blinked twice before letting out a low whistle.

"Damn."

Without giving myself another chance to hesitate, I pressed the call button.

The phone rang several times before she finally answered.

"Well," Miranda purred, amusement already dancing in her voice, "to what do I owe this surprise?"

There had been a time when hearing her flirt would have made me uncomfortable.

Now it only irritated me.

"Where are you?" I asked evenly.

She laughed softly.

"I'm around. Why? Were you missing me already?"

I ignored the question.

"Do you have a few minutes to spare?"

There was a brief pause before she answered.

"For what?"

"So we can have a conversation."

"What kind of conversation?"

"The kind two mature adults should have."

She was quiet again, and for a second I wondered if she had sensed something different in my tone because she no longer sounded quite as playful when she finally spoke.

"...Fine."

I glanced toward Aaron before standing to my feet.

"There's a café a few minutes away from St. Matthew's Hospital. I'll send you the address."

"The hospital?" she repeated.

"It's close by."

She hummed thoughtfully.

"Alright. Give me thirty minutes."

"I'll be there."

I was already pulling the phone away from my ear when she laughed again.

"See you soon..."

There was a deliberate pause.

"...baby daddy."