Ch. Sorry Hayden, I’m Seven Months Pregnant with Another Man’s Baby 12 Sorry Hayden, I’m Seven Months Pregnant with Another Man’s Baby 12

#Chapter 12 

Hayden did not leave. 

He stood outside my parents’ house for the entire night. 

The next morning, I opened the window for some fresh air and saw him leaning against the old oak 

tree downstairs, his head tilted up as he stared straight at my bedroom window. 

He looked as if he had been dragged out of water, his lips pale. 

I pulled the curtains shut and went back to sleep. By noon, I had returned to the city 

After that, Hayden seemed like a different person. 

He started texting me from new numbers. I blocked one, and he switched to another. 

His texts went from [Nora, I know I was wrong.] to [Can we meet just once?] and then to [I’m not 

asking you to forgive me. I just want to see you.] 

I never replied, so he waited downstairs outside my office. 

Carter picked me up from work every day, and Hayden would stand across the street, watching us through the traffic. 

Once, Carter deliberately kissed my forehead in front of Hayden. I saw Hayden’s shoulders sag, as if 

a mountain had finally collapsed. 

The day before my maternity leave started, he did not show up. 

I thought he had given up. 

The next day, my dad called and said Hayden had gone back to my hometown and knelt outside my 

parents’ front door for an entire day. 

“He just knelt there. No one could pull him up. Your mom felt bad for him and poured him a glass of water. He took it, said thank you, drank it, and kept kneeling.” 

My dad’s voice was complicated. “Nora, he… he seems to have lost a lot of weight. He doesn’t look 

right.” 

I said, “Dad, close the door. Don’t bother with him.” 

After hanging up, I sat on the couch, my fingers unconsciously resting on my belly. 

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Carter came up behind me, wrapped his arms around me, and rested his chin on my shoulder. He 

did not ask anything, and he did not say anything. 

He never asked about Hayden. 

He knew I did not need him to ask, and I did not need to talk about it. 

The last time Hayden came to see me was in winter. 

It had been three months since I gave birth, and my body had not fully recovered yet. I was holding my daughter on the balcony, letting the sunlight warm us. 

The doorbell rang, and Carter went to answer it. 

I heard a voice so hoarse I could barely make it out. 

“Can I… just take one look from a distance? Just one look.” 

Carter turned back to look at me. 

I held my daughter and did not move. 

“Let him look,” I said. 

When Hayden walked in, I almost did not recognize him. 

He had wasted away until his features looked hollow. His eyes were sunken and dark, his cheekbones jutted sharply, and half his hair had turned white. 

He stopped three steps away from me, looked at me once, then lowered his gaze to my daughter in 

my arms. 

“She looks like you,” he said, his voice rough as rusted iron. 

I said nothing. 

He stood there for a while, then took something from his pocket and gently placed it on the coffee 

table. 

It was a champagne-gold wedding favor box. 

“I kept this all along,” he said softly. “I couldn’t remember where I’d seen it before. Later, I finally remembered. It was the one you chose.” 

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I did not look at the box. 

“Leave,” I said. 

He nodded and turned to go. When he reached the door, he stopped for a moment without looking back. His voice was very soft, almost like he was talking to himself. 

“So that dream was real after all.” 

The door closed. 

Carter walked over, threw the wedding favor box into the trash, then crouched down and looked into my eyes seriously. 

“What do you want for dinner?” 

I looked at him and smiled. “Braised short ribs.” 

He smiled too. “Okay.” 

Only later did I hear from someone else that after Lila played Hayden for a fool, he was humiliated and furious. Then he came back and discovered that I had married someone else and had not waited for him. After that, he drank himself numb every day and lost all sense of day and night. 

By the time he was diagnosed, it was already late-stage stomach cancer. 

After his divorce from Lila, he lost half his company shares. He stopped managing the company and 

refused to see anyone. 

During his final days, those hiking buddies took turns taking care of him. 

They called me once and said Hayden kept saying my name, asking whether I could come see him. 

I said, “You have the wrong number,” and hung up. 

The day Hayden died, I was at home teaching my daughter how to walk. 

She toddled toward me unsteadily, giggling as she threw herself into my arms and smeared drool all over my face. 

Carter walked out of the kitchen carrying a plate of fruit. When he saw our daughter and me laughing together, he laughed too. 

In that moment, I suddenly realized that happiness is not something you wait for. 

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It is something you choose. 

[The End] 

Chapter 1 His Dignity is Shattered