Ch. Sorry Hayden, I’m Seven Months Pregnant with Another Man’s Baby 20 Sorry Hayden, I’m Seven Months Pregnant with Another Man’s Baby 20

Chapter 8 

His eyes glistened with tears. “I won’t accept it! I can’t lose you, Mia. It was six years ago-I fell in love with you a long time ago. Our feelings are real. “You’re the one who said it: a bad beginning doesn’t have to mean a bad ending. What if… what if all of it, the bet, the lies, was just some messed-up way fate brought us together? 

Maybe this crooked path was the only one that led to you.” 

I shook my head slowly, a sad, final gesture. “But my fate,” I said, my voice quiet and certain, “doesn’t involve spending it with someone whose legacy to me is wasted years, humiliation, and pain. 

Do you understand that?” 

He froze in place, tears falling unexpectedly. I’d rarely seen him cry over the years. People say men’s tears are a woman’s weakness-but now, they left me cold. Perhaps they were just crocodile tears. For someone who tramples on others’ feelings, tears are worthless. 

I turned and disappeared into the crowd. 

Early the next morning, the headquarters HR manager called-my dorm was ready; I could move in with just my luggage. I hurried over, eager to escape. Jake had stood outside the hotel all night. Despite repeated checks from security guards and the receptionist, he refused to book a room or leave. He just endured it, dozing against the wall when exhausted. 

It was still dim when I stepped out-and there he was. He looked utterly haggard; stubble covered his jaw after just one night. He reminded me of the boy who’d waited outside my building all night after I rejected him, catching a cold to guilt-trip me into staying with him at the hospital. 

Wrapped in his coat, shivering, he asked: “Mia, are you leaving?” 

I pushed my suitcase forward, ignoring him. He kept talking, desperate. “I’ve been thinking all night. I know you’re furious that I kept letting Luna get away with hurting you. 

It stops now. I had no boundaries. It was my fault, all of it. I’ll cut ties. I’ll keep my distance. Just… give me 

one more chance. 

I’m not asking you to forgive me. Just… just don’t shut me out compl-” 

Thud. His words cut off abruptly. Behind me, I heard him gasp in pain, followed by a security guard’s concerned voice: “Whoa, you okay?” 

Through the reflections of passing cars, I saw he’d fallen. I glanced back-his left cheek was scraped, his lip swollen. Just like mine. 

“Does it hurt?” 

His eyes welled up, filled with hurt. But unlike before, I didn’t rush to comfort him. I just smiled faintly. “Good. It should hurt. Every time you and Luna teamed up to prank me-yesterday, the day before, all those years-1 

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hurt a hundred times worse than this.” 

“Don’t flatter yourself, Jake. It’s not that you overstepped-you knew exactly what you were doing. You knew I was hurting, so you precisely timed your emotional appeals to string me along when I was on the verge of breaking down. You only regret losing me in this moment. Every other time, you enjoyed watching me suffer, loved the thrill of me chasing you.” 

“People like you don’t deserve a second chance. Goodbye.” 

A ride-hailing car pulled up. I didn’t look back, opening the door and telling the driver to go fast. The car roared away, his agonized cries fading from deafening to distant. 

Silence, at last. 

It was a deep, enveloping quiet I hadn’t realized I craved. My new work was challenging and absorbing. I buried myself in it, spending long hours in the office poring over documents and case studies, expanding my 

world one page at a time. 

Settled into the dorm, I became something of a recluse. For a full month, our paths never crossed. But I 

heard things, in the way one does in a new place-through casual office remarks. 

Every Friday afternoon, like clockwork, he’d be there. Lingering outside the company gates, a ghost from a 

past life, hoping for a glimpse of someone who had already walked away. 

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