Chapter 19: The Aftermath
The days after the handover passed in a blur. Emily couldn’t remember exactly when she had stopped crying, but the tears had come, waves of them, each one more exhausting than the last. She had done what she thought was right—what she knew was right—but it didn’t feel right at all.
She had let the baby go. Her daughter. The child she had raised. The little girl who had become her world. And now, she was gone. Not in the sense that she had passed away, but in the sense that she belonged to someone else, to a family she had no claim to. A family that had a right to her—a bloodline that was real and undeniable.
James had barely spoken to her since the handover. His silence, cold and final, seemed to be the only thing that remained between them. Emily had tried to reach out, tried to break through the wall he had built, but every attempt had been met with a blank stare or a muttered response. He didn’t understand, and maybe, Emily thought, he never would. How could he?
She had given up everything for a child who wasn’t even hers. For a child who should have been in someone else’s arms from the start. But now, Emily realized that the cost of that sacrifice went deeper than she had ever imagined. It wasn’t just the baby she had lost—it was the relationship she had with James, too.
She stared at the phone in her hand. The messages from friends, from family, all asking how she was doing, if she was okay. How could she tell them? How could she tell anyone the truth when she could barely face it herself? She wasn’t okay. She was far from okay. She was drowning in guilt, in grief, in the loss of a future she had imagined, a future that had evaporated the moment she let that baby go.
The doorbell rang, and Emily jumped, startled by the sound. She wasn’t expecting anyone—who could possibly want to see her now?
Hesitantly, she went to the door, her heart racing as she opened it. And there he was. James. Standing on the other side, his face as unreadable as ever, his hands shoved deep in his pockets.
“I… I didn’t know where else to go,” he said, his voice quieter than she had ever heard it.
Emily stared at him, unsure if she could let him in—unsure if she wanted to.
“I’m sorry,” he said, and for the first time in what felt like ages, his eyes seemed to soften. “I didn’t know how to be there for you. I… I wasn’t there when you needed me.”
The words hit her harder than she expected, but they weren’t enough. Not yet. Emily didn’t know if they could ever go back to what they had, but she had to hear him out. She stepped aside, silently inviting him in.
To be continued…
What will happen when Emily and James finally confront their feelings? Can they rebuild their broken relationship, or is it too late? Find out in Chapter 20.