The day moved on, sunlight filling the room, but Beth felt hollow. She didn’t know if Mel was gone for good, if he would come back, if she would ever see him again. But she knew, with a fierce certainty, that no matter what happened, she would find a way forward. For herself. For her baby. For the hope that one day, she would not wake up alone.Beth replayed their conversation in her head the entire day while staring at her phone screen, willing it to light up, to buzz, to give her some sign that Mel was thinking of her. Of them. Of the tiny life growing inside her. But like before, days passed, then weeks, and it stayed stubbornly silent except for the occasional work email or automated reminder. Each time she saw Mel’s name in her call log, her chest squeezed so tightly she thought she might suffocate.Like a recording on repeat, their words replayed the night she told him over and over, like a film she could not stop watching. The relief she’d felt when he pulled her close, the pro
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