Too Close To Fake

Sophia Laurent didn't cry.

She calculated.

But even she hadn't planned for this.

Two pink lines glared up at her from the sink. The silence around her was thick-heavy in the way silence gets when it's waiting to become something worse.

Her hands didn't shake. Her breath didn't catch. But her stomach turned-tight, sharp, like the breathless seconds before stepping onto a stage.

Except this wasn't a performance.

This was permanent.

She stared at her reflection. The mirror was fogged at the edges, but her face stayed clear. Too clear. Pale skin, mascara smudged beneath her eyes, the faint red imprint of the test still pressed into her fingers. Her eyes looked wide and hollow-like she'd already floated out of her body, watching from above as her life split down the middle.

The bathroom tiles chilled her bare feet. Her silk robe-the pale pink one with her initials embroidered near the sleeve, a gift from her father's last business trip-suddenly felt childish. Thin. Like something worn in a life that didn't belong to her anymore.

She glanced down at the test again, almost hoping it had changed. That she'd misread it. But it stared back, cruelly unchanged.

"Get up", a voice inside her said. "Fix it".

But she didn't move.

Because deep down, she already knew-

This wasn't the kind of mistake you could sweep under a rug.

She already knew she wouldn't tell Jared.

And she already knew who she had to call.

Just three nights ago, he'd touched her face like it meant something. Like she meant something.

She'd whispered "I love you" like it was a secret she couldn't hold back any longer. Like maybe, just maybe, he would say it back.

But he hadn't.

He'd smiled.

Not cruelly.

Not kindly.

Just... softly. Pitying.

"We're not those kind of people, Sophia."

That's what he'd said. Like it explained everything.

Like love was a currency he couldn't afford to spend on her.

Now here she was-future on pause, dignity curled in the corner of the room, alone.

Not broken. She didn't believe in broken.

But cornered.

And corners made people dangerous.

She looked down at the test again. One last time. Then wiped her hands, picked up her phone, and scrolled to a contact she never used unless she had no choice.

Contact: Father.

Dominic Laurent.

The man who'd spent her entire life turning emotions into flaws.

The man who wouldn't ask why she was calling-only how she planned to fix it.

Calling him meant giving up control.

But not calling?

That meant being alone in this.

And for once, even Sophia Laurent couldn't stomach that kind of silence.

She pressed the call button.

It didn't even ring twice.

"Sophia," her father answered, voice flat as a bank vault.

She didn't cry. She didn't plead.

She gave him the facts. Bone-dry. Stripped of panic or performance.

She was pregnant. Jared didn't know. She couldn't stay.

Silence.

For a second, she thought the call had dropped.

"You'll be gone before anyone notices," he said finally. "I'll handle the rest."

Just like that.

Like she was a minor inconvenience.

A PR issue to be managed, not a daughter unraveling.

When the call ended, her hand was still steady. But her chest buzzed-cold and wrong.

She stayed in the bathroom a little longer-still, quiet, not ready to move just yet.

The robe hung looser now, like even it could feel her slipping away.

She opened the bathroom door quietly and stepped out into the dim hallway, one slow foot in front of the other.

The house was still. Too quiet. Every light dimmed. Every corner shadowed. It wasn't even midnight, but it felt like morning would never come.

She passed the music room-silent now, though her mother used to play piano there every Sunday morning. Before the lessons stopped. Before the smiles became polite.

At the end of the hall, a door creaked open. Ms. Renard. Her father's fixer. Always in heels, never surprised. She didn't speak. Just offered a quiet nod. The car was already waiting.

Sophia turned away and stepped back into her room. The suitcase by the dresser was already packed.

She changed quickly-trading the silk robe for a plain black sweater, soft and oversized. It wasn't stylish. It wasn't polished. But it felt quieter. Like something worn by a girl who didn't have to pretend to be perfect for a few hours.

She turned away from the doorway and crossed to the dresser.

Opened the top drawer.

At the back, behind neatly folded scarves, was a small clutch. Midnight blue leather. Slim. Silent.

She tucked the pregnancy test into it.

Hesitated.

Then reached for the tiny silver music box her mother had given her years ago. It didn't work anymore. But it still smelled faintly of lavender.

She held it in her hand for a moment.

Then slipped it inside too.

It wasn't a plan. It wasn't even a goodbye.

But it was something to hold.

And right now, that was enough.

As she went to zip the clutch closed, her eyes drifted toward the jewelry tray near the edge of the dresser.

The necklace was still there.

A slim silver chain with a tiny book-shaped charm-simple, unpolished. Jared had given it to her for her last birthday, after teasing her for annotating Jane Eyre like it was her job. "Borderline obsessive," he'd said, half admiring, half alarmed.

She didn't pack it.

Didn't even touch it.

She told herself it didn't match the image.

Didn't fit the persona.

But the real reason sat heavier in her chest:

It made the goodbye too real.

She closed the drawer gently.

At the top of the staircase, she paused.

Below, the marble foyer stretched out in polished silence.

Framed on the far wall was the photo she hated-twelve years old, grinning stiffly between her mother and father, back when she still thought everything could be fixed by just being good enough. Before legacy turned into pressure. Before love turned into performance.

She held the railing tighter.

Then descended the stairs slowly-like a guest in her own life.

The marble was cold beneath her feet. The air outside bit at her skin the moment the door opened. She didn't look back.

The town car waited. Sleek, soundless.

When the door shut behind her, it felt final.

As the car pulled away, she turned to the window, watching the mansion shrink behind the iron gates until it was just shadow and distance.

Her fingers drifted, without thinking, to the hollow of her throat.

Empty.

She lowered her hand slowly.

No more pages.

No more chapters.

Just the end of a story she never meant to start.