The doctor had told me the timing of the pregnancy wasn’t certain. Even though Cohen had been abroad during that period, there was that weekend... when we had crossed paths.
I wanted to explain that there was no one else. That he was the only one.
But the coldness in his gaze froze the words on my lips.
Imogen, radiant as ever, was the center of attention that evening, the spotlight shining solely on her.
Whether by design or sheer coincidence, the crowd began to pass around my pregnancy report as if it were just another piece of gossip to share.
Cohen’s face grew darker by the second.
I stood frozen, stumbling over my words, my voice barely a whisper as I muttered endless apologies. "I’m sorry," I repeated, but the words felt hollow in the air.
He looked at me for a long, torturous moment, his eyes unreadable. Then, as if to shut down the whispers around us, he turned to the crowd. "Sorry for the commotion. Giselle and I are indeed getting engaged soon."
The expressions around us shifted, confusion and surprise flickering across their faces.
Just moments ago, the elders had been discussing Cohen’s upcoming engagement to Imogen. Now, the fiancée had changed, and so had the news: pregnancy was in the mix.
Imogen, ever the gracious actress, stepped in with a smile, taking my arm and guiding me away. But before she did, she leaned in with a sweet, almost mocking tone, saying, "Little girls can be so naive. Cohen, you must take responsibility for her."
With those words, what could have been a gesture of love turned into a heavy shackle of obligation for Cohen.
Now that the baby was gone, I felt an unexpected wave of relief, though it left a strange emptiness behind.
The doctor reassured me, his tone gentle but firm, that everything had been handled cleanly. He told me to rest well in the coming days.
"Where is your family? Weren’t there people who brought you here earlier? Why is no one with you now?"
His words hit me like a cold wind. My heart felt hollow, a gaping void where the family had once been.
My father had vanished without a trace. My mother had remarried. And then there was Cohen…
I had once believed that Cohen would be my family forever, but now, even that was a lie.
"May I borrow your phone?"
The doctor’s voice snapped me from my thoughts.
He asked the nurse to hand me a phone, and I took it, feeling a flicker of confidence rise within me.