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“Yes.”

She pushes away from the wall and walks into the bathroom while I stay where I am. The silence lasts only a few seconds, but something inside me tightens with every one of them.

When Chloe comes back out, I know before she says anything because her face has changed.

I stare at her. “What?”

Chloe hesitates. “It’s…positive.”

For a second, I genuinely think I misunderstood her.

“What?”

She glances back toward the bathroom before looking at me again.

“Both of them are…positive.”

I keep staring at her while the meaning of the words tries to catch up with me. My first reaction is disbelief, followed so quickly by fear that I can’t separate one from the other.

“No,” I say quietly. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“I know,” she says, her voice low and cautious.

“I’m on birth control.”

“I know that too,” she replies.

I look toward the bathroom as though the tests might somehow become less real if I can see them for myself, but I still can’t make myself walk through the door.

Chloe steps closer.

“Listen, don’t freak out just yet. We're going to make an appointment with your doctor and confirm everything properly. False positives happen. I had one before I had my firstborn, remember? So we’re not making any decisions, and we’re not panicking.”

I hear her, but I can’t make the words settle into anything that feels real. A doctor. An appointment. A false positive. She keeps talking, and I keep looking at her as though one of us is going to find the explanation that makes the two tests in my bathroom mean something else.

“Blaire?” Chloe says.

“I heard you.”

My voice comes out quieter than I expect. I look toward the open bathroom door, but I still can’t make myself walk in there and see them. My legs begin to feel unsteady, so I cross the room and lower myself onto the couch. Chloe follows and sits beside me, close enough that I know she’s there without having to look at her.

Neither of us says anything.

The bagels are still sitting untouched on the kitchen counter, rain taps softly against the windows, and two positive pregnancy tests are lying side by side in my bathroom.

I clasp my hands together and stare straight ahead in deafening silence, because two pink lines may have already decided a future I never got the chance to choose.

PART TWO

*SEVEN YEARS LATER — PRESENT DAY*

Chapter Nineteen

Blaire

Ilook over from the kitchen island, where I’m attempting to pack two lunches, answer an email and keep the eggs from burning at the same time.

“Mom, if I move the knight here, he takes my bishop in two moves, but if I move the rook first, then I lose the queen. That means the puzzle is wrong, right?”