Chapter 6

The color left Jason's face entirely.

He gasped for air, both hands clenched in the fabric of his shirt at his chest.

"That can't be right..."

"You're lying. You have to be lying to me."

His head came up. A single tear cut down his cheek.

"I bought calcium supplements. I read that pregnant women need them."

The memory of the paper bag he'd pressed into my hands at the door hit me somewhere soft.

"If you'd been there — if you'd reached out a hand — maybe I wouldn't have fallen."

"If you'd come to the hospital, I wouldn't have had to face all of that alone."

"But Jason — you weren't there. And now I don't need you."

He opened his mouth. No sound came out.

Cold sweat rolled in beads down his forehead.

He reached toward me, trembling — fingers stopping just short of the hem of my coat.

As if he no longer had the right to close the gap.

I turned and opened the passenger door.

Daniel got back in the driver's seat.

The door shut, and the noise of the street disappeared.

In the side mirror, the dark shape of a man on his knees beneath a streetlamp grew smaller and smaller.