“I stood right there and watched you press your hand over the zipper like you were burying a secret.”

Ben closed his eyes, his shoulders slumping.

The fight seemed to instantly drain out of him, leaving him looking incredibly tired.

“I just didn’t want to tell you yet.”

Those six words made her heart drop straight into her shoes.

Didn’t want to tell you yet.

The phrase echoed in the quiet room, a terrifying omen of delayed devastation.

Her mind moved faster than logic.

Faster than reason.

Human panic is a spectacular, horrific thing.

In a matter of seconds, she thought of every possibility she didn’t want to think of.

Medical results from her last blood panel that her doctor had called him about instead of her.

Financial trouble—had the mortgage not cleared?

Bad news from a family member he was waiting to break to her.

A plan to postpone something important.

A terrifying decision he had made without her.

She hated how quickly fear could dress itself as absolute certainty, eclipsing the pure, radiant joy of their impending parenthood with the cold shadow of the unknown.

Her voice came out quieter this time, hollow and fragile.

“Ben… what is in that envelope?”

He looked at her for a long, agonizing moment, and for the first time all day, the frantic, humming movement left his body completely.

He saw the panic rising in her chest, saw the way her hands were shaking where they rested on her belly.

He stepped closer, slower now, like he could feel the terror radiating from her and hated himself for causing it.

“It’s for the hospital,” he said, his voice thick with an emotion she couldn’t quite place.

“That doesn’t answer the question,” Erin whispered, a single tear breaking free and tracking hot down her cheek.

“No,” he admitted softly, his gaze dropping to the floor between them.

“It doesn’t.”

She held his gaze, refusing to let him look away, refusing to let him retreat back into the safety of his secrets.

“Then answer it.”

But instead of speaking, instead of explaining, Ben slowly turned away from her and reached for the bag.

And that was the exact moment Erin realized whatever was inside that envelope was about to change the entire hospital stay in a way she never saw coming…

Ben’s fingers, normally so steady, were visibly trembling as he gripped the small brass zipper.

He pulled it back, the metallic teeth parting with a sharp hiss in the silent room.

He reached inside and slowly withdrew the thick parchment envelope.

He didn’t hand it to her right away.

He held it in both hands, staring down at it as if it were the heaviest thing in the world, the wax seal catching the afternoon light filtering through the windowpanes.

“I wanted to wait,” he said, his voice cracking, raw and thick with unshed tears.