The Child I Carried Secretly

Freder

ere, slumped on the sofa, his usually impeccable hair disheveled. He looked utterly exhausted, the kind of bone-de

and smartwatch left carelessly on the coffee table. The screen of his phone lit up with a new

bs, a frantic bird trapped in a cage. Don't do it, Erika. Don't go looking for what you don't wan

we'd first met in college. A bitter laugh caught in my th

apps. My breath hitched. There it was. The familiar profi

felt like an invisible hand had gripped my heart, squeezing the

e satisfied with mere confirmation. I had to know everything. I scrolled to an

ontact labeled "Sweet Pea." My vision blurred. Sweet

ocent. Kandy. Kandy Romero. The ambitious, social media-savvy intern. She'd joined our compa

n we first started. So driven." Now I knew what he really meant. She remind

ent dinner." She'd gushed about how worried she'd been, how she'd

and of his socks, the exact temperature he liked the office thermostat. I' d brushed it

an who could spot a market trend from a mile away, who could dissect a competitor's strategy with surgical precision, had be

y, a lavish weekend getaway to a secluded cabin. "Anything for my Sweet Pea," he' d written

is and demands. "You' re mine, Braden. Don' t ev

when I'd asked if he still found me attractive, if he still loved me. He' d scoffed, "Erik

omplained about him being "tied down." Braden's reply had been chilling. "Soo

ed in my head, mocking the vows we' d exchanged,

y grandmother's jade bracelet, the one I' d given Braden to keep safe, a

was desecration. Everything I held sacred, everything I believed in, had been defiled. The air left my