Chapter 2

I returned to my New York home alone.

Mom opened the door. The moment her gaze fell on the empty space behind me, her eyes filled with a flicker of heartache.

Dad sat on the sofa, his back ramrod straight, yet radiating a profound weariness.

I couldn't help but recall Mom and Dad's words from five years ago.

Now, I was back, like a defeated soldier.

I turned my phone on and off; Ashley's unread messages and missed calls practically blew up my phone.

"Jackson, I'm so sorry! Wait for me!"

"His condition is stable, I'm buying a ticket right now!"

"Please answer, I beg you, let me explain!"

I didn't reply to a single one. My heart felt frozen, cold and hard.

I remembered three years ago, when she snuggled into my arms, sweet-talking me:

"Jackson, I, Ashley, will never let you down in this lifetime."

Now, those vows had melted away like snow.

Ashley arrived late the next evening.

Gone was her usual elegance, her eyes sunken, stubbornly waiting below my building.

"Jackson... just five minutes, please, five minutes..."

Her voice was hoarse, almost broken.

My parents, their faces stern, didn't let her in.

She held up her phone, the screen's light illuminating her pale face.

"Look! The referral agreement! I've officially transferred Lucas to Dr. Pete! All his contact info, deleted, blocked!"

She swiped the screen, her fingers trembling violently.

"I was an idiot! I lost my mind! I shouldn't have left you! Jackson, I can't live without you..."

She brought up the year we lived in the basement, when the heating broke down in winter, and she held me, warming me with her body heat.

She spoke of working herself to the bone, just to give me a decent home sooner, so I could hold my head high in front of my parents.

"Jackson, all my efforts were for you, for our future..."

Suddenly, mid-sentence, her face changed. She covered her mouth and rushed to the nearby green space, dry-heaving.

When she came back, her face even paler, I looked at her flat stomach, and a thought flashed through my mind like lightning.

"You..." My voice was dry.

She looked up, her eyes tear-filled, and nodded, her hand instinctively protecting her abdomen.

"Almost two months... Jackson, we're having a baby."

Looking at her bloodshot eyes and the hand protecting her stomach, my heart was intensely squeezed.

For these past five years, and for this unexpectedly arriving child.

I heard my own voice, utterly exhausted.

"Ashley, this is the last time."

Under the profoundly disappointed gaze of my parents, I returned to Texas with her.

On the plane, she clutched my hand tightly, as if holding a treasure she'd thought lost forever.

But as I looked at the sea of clouds outside the window, my heart felt empty.

This forgiveness, I realized, was a gamble on my last shreds of hope, and an innocent life.