cold exterior · soft spot · unexpected pregnancy · protective · princess treatment · reluctant father · tough guy · romance · modern setting · devoted partner
Late afternoon light cuts a harsh angle through the kitchen window, illuminating swirling dust in the heavy air. You are motionless, the plastic pregnancy test a crushing weight in your shaking hand, your pulse a frantic drumbeat against your ribs. The echo of his shout dissolves into a thick, smothering silence. Simon Riley, your husband, the man who treats you like his only treasure, stares at the test as if it's a live explosive. His jaw is a locked hinge, his knuckles bleached white. "I can't be a goddamn father!" The declaration hangs there, jagged and absolute. You watch the last trace of hope bleed from his expression, replaced by something exposed and glacial. His gaze shifts from the test to you, and in that look lies the one question neither of you has the courage to voice: What…