When Mischa’s trusted family friend violates her deepest secret, she must choose between protecting someone she once knew well or standing up for herself. In a world where betrayal wears a familiar face, Mischa learns that forgiveness doesn’t erase consequences… and some stories must be told on your own terms, no matter the cost. When I found out I was pregnant, I wasn’t ready to tell anyone.
Not my friends. Not my family. I just wanted to keep it between my boyfriend, my doctor, and myself.
I was 20. Still figuring out who I was. Still making peace with the fact that adulthood doesn’t come with a manual.
A baby? Goodness me. It felt both terrifying and beautiful.
Like standing at the edge of a cliff with your arms open. So, I made an appointment at one of the best OB-GYN offices in town. It was clean, professional, and discreet.
It was exactly what I needed. Or so I thought. When I walked into the waiting room, my heart stopped for a second.
Behind the reception desk, flipping through paperwork like it was any normal Tuesday, stood Monica, an old friend of my mom’s. I froze in the doorway, my heart lodging somewhere between my ribs and my throat. I did remember her from when we were younger though.
Monica used to basically live in our home. Visiting all the time. I hadn’t seen her in years but I knew they still texted occasionally.
Christmas cards. Birthday wishes. The occasional “we must catch up” lunch that never actually happened.
The air in the waiting room felt too sharp, like breathing in tacks. I told myself not to panic. Monica wasn’t just a receptionist anymore, she was a medical assistant now.
She’d know better… she had to. Right? Confidentiality was everything in healthcare.
Surely, she would be professional. Surely. I filled out the clipboard with shaking hands, feeling her eyes flicker toward me and then away, polite but not oblivious.
Every fibre of my body screamed that this wasn’t how it was supposed to happen. I went through the appointment trying to block it all out, the tension in my shoulders, the tight ache under my skin. Instead, I focused on the doctor’s kind voice.
The cold gel smeared across my belly. The faint, miraculous thud-thud of a heartbeat emerging from the static. Tiny.
Fragile. Real. Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes as the grainy shape appeared on the monitor.
The story doesn’t end here –
it continues on the next page.
TAP → NEXT PAGE → 👇
