Escape from Mr. Whitman (Emma and Theodore) novel Chapter 406

Theodore acted as if he hadn't heard her. He unlocked his phone and saw the screen, still open to his email inbox, displaying the list of attachments.

"Theo… our baby… it hurts so much…" Cecilia feigned a stomachache, hoping it would be enough to distract him from the fact she'd been caught red-handed.

But Theodore remained unmoved, his expression cold and distant.

Cecilia pushed herself up from the table, her eyes welling with tears. "Theo, if you don't care about our child, I'll just go to the hospital myself… Oh, it hurts…" she whimpered, playing her last card.

She expected him to relent, to soften.

But after a long, tense silence, Theodore finally spoke. "Aren't you leaving? I thought Jared would be waiting for you."

The color drained from Cecilia's face. "Theo, what are you talking about?"

"Do I really need to explain?" he asked, his voice like ice.

Cecilia forced a laugh. "Are you talking about the phone? Y-yes, Jared asked me to look. He forced me… Theo, I'm sorry. You're not going to be mad at me over something so small, are you? Theo—"

Tears began to stream down her face again.

"I was talking about your baby," Theodore interrupted her drawn-out plea. "If you're in pain, shouldn't you be calling the baby's father to take you to the hospital?"

"Jared made you do it? You would never deceive me?" Theodore repeated her words, a bitter laugh escaping his lips. He wasn't laughing at her; he was laughing at himself.

All that talk of brotherly loyalty, of a love that wasn't about money… he had basked in those carefully constructed lies. How could he have been so foolish?

"Yes, Theo, my feelings for you have always been sincere… I never meant to lie to you…"

"Then what about the volunteer work? The paper cranes?"

Cecilia's sobs caught in her throat, like a goose being strangled.