Chapter 191 *
Scarlett’s POV
I tried to remember. Counted backward. The dates blurred together.
Six weeks.
Maybe seven.
"Scarlett." Lily's voice was very calm. Too calm. "I think you need to take a test."
"A test for what?"
She gave me a look.
Oh shit.
My hands were shaking. I put them in my lap so she wouldn't see.
I couldn't be pregnant.
Could I?
I thought about the past few weeks. The exhaustion. The random waves of nausea. The way certain smells made my stomach turn.
Oh God.
"I need to get a test," I said.
"Yeah. You really do." Lily was already pulling out her phone. "There's a pharmacy two blocks from here. We can go right now."
"I have lab at two."
"Fuck lab. This is more important."
She was right. This was more important.
We left the dining hall and walked to the pharmacy. The whole way there my brain was spinning.
If I was pregnant, everything changed.
But not in the way most people would think.
Damon and I had wanted a baby. We'd talked about it constantly. Names. Nurseries. What kind of parents we wanted to be.
But we'd also talked about the possibility that it might never happen.
Cosmos-1.
We'd accepted it. Told ourselves that if it happened, it happened. If it didn't, we'd deal with it.
But I'd seen the look in Damon's eyes when we talked about it. The careful way he said "it's fine if we can't" while his hand rested on my stomach like he was mourning something that didn't exist yet.
I'd felt the same way.
And now there was a chance... We might be having a baby.
If this test was positive, everything changed.
Our entire future. Our family. The life we'd been afraid to hope for.
The pharmacy was small and crowded. I grabbed two pregnancy tests from the family planning aisle and paid for them without making eye contact with the cashier.
Lily and I walked back to campus. There was a bathroom in Butler Library that was usually empty this time of day.
We took the elevator to the third floor. The bathroom was deserted.
I locked myself in a stall and opened the first test.
My hands were still shaking.
I followed the instructions. Peed on the stick. Set it on the toilet paper dispenser.
Three minutes.
I stared at the test and tried to breathe normally.
Lily knocked on the stall door. "You okay in there?"
"Yeah. Just waiting."
"How long?"
"Three minutes."
"Okay. I'll wait out here."
I counted the seconds in my head. Sixty. One twenty. One eighty.
Three minutes.
I picked up the test.
Two pink lines.
Positive.
My legs went weak. I sat down on the toilet seat and stared at the test in my hands.
Pregnant.
I was pregnant.
"Scarlett?" Lily's voice was muffled through the door. "What does it say?"
I opened the stall door.
Lily took one look at my face and knew.
"Oh shit."
"Yeah." My voice came out thin. "Oh shit."
She pulled me into a hug. I let her. My brain was still trying to process.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I don't know." And I didn't. I felt a thousand things at once. Shock. Fear. Wonder. A strange kind of joy that I wasn't ready to examine yet.
"What are you going to do?"
"I need to tell Damon."
"When?"
"Tonight." I pulled back from the hug. "I'll tell him tonight."
We left the library and walked back across campus. Everything looked the same but felt different.
I was pregnant.
There was a life growing inside me.
A tiny person who was half me and half Damon.
The thought made my chest feel tight.
I skipped lab. Went straight home instead. Arthur picked me up from campus at three and drove me back to the house.
Damon wasn't home yet. He was still in meetings.
I paced around the living room for an hour. Then I made myself sit down. Made myself think.
How was I going to tell him?
I could just say it straight. "I'm pregnant." Simple and direct.
But that felt too abrupt. I wanted it to mean something.
By the time Damon came through the door at seven, I'd decided on a plan.
He found me in the kitchen. I was making dinner. Pasta and salad. Nothing fancy.
"You're cooking," he said. "That's new."
"I cook sometimes."
"You heat up leftovers sometimes. Actual cooking is rare." He came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist. "What's the occasion?"
"No occasion. I just felt like making dinner."
He kissed the side of my neck. "How was class?"
"Fine."
"Just fine?"
"Organic chemistry was boring. I skipped lab."
He turned me around to face him. "You never skip class."
"I had a headache."
His eyes searched mine. "Are you feeling okay?"
"Yeah. I'm fine now." I took a breath. "Actually, there's something I need to tell you."
His expression shifted immediately. Concern mixed with wariness. "What is it?"
I stepped back and pulled the pregnancy test from my pocket. I'd been carrying it around all afternoon like a talisman.
I held it out to him.
He looked down at it. His brain processed what he was seeing. I watched the realization hit.
His eyes went wide. "Is that—"
"Positive." My voice was steady. "I'm pregnant."
The silence that followed felt like it lasted forever.
Damon stared at the test in my hand. Then he looked at me. Then back at the test.
"You're pregnant." His voice came out rough.
"Yeah."
"You're sure?"
"I took two tests. Both positive."
"How long have you known?"
"Since this afternoon. Lily made me take the test after I almost threw up in organic chemistry."
He was still processing. I could see his brain working through the implications.
Then his face broke into the biggest smile I'd ever seen.
"We're having a baby." He said it like he couldn't quite believe it. "We're having a baby."
"Yeah. We are."
He picked me up and spun me around. I laughed and held onto his shoulders.
When he set me down, his hands were shaking.
"I can't believe this." His voice cracked. "You're pregnant. We're going to have a child."
"Are you happy?" I needed to hear him say it.
"Happy?" He cupped my face with both hands. "Scarlett, I'm fucking ecstatic."