Please Come Back, My Love novel Chapter 26

Chapter 26

I slid into our usual booth in the back corner and waited.

Sophia arrived forty minutes later, her designer bag swinging from one shoulder, oversized sunglasses pushed up on her head. She took one look at me and her face crumpled.

‘Oh honey.” She slid into the booth and pulled me into a fierce hug “What did that bastard do now?”

I hugged her back tightly.” Nothing.” I bitterly said.

When I finally pulled back, her dark eyes were scanning my face with the intensity of a detective. “If anything happens, you have to tell me,” she said firmly. ‘I’m always on your side.”

“I know you are. Thank you for that.”

“Let me get us some drinks,” she said, starting to stand. “What do you want? White wine? That fruity shit you always order?”

“No!” The word came out too sharp, too panicked.

Sophia froze. “No?”

I forced myself to take a breath. “I mean… can you just get me something room temperature? Maybe juice or water? My stomach’s still a little off.”

She sat back down slowly, her expression shifting from concern to something else.

“Elena.” Her voice was very quiet. “When’s the last time you turned down wine?

“I just-”

“When’s the last time you had your period?”

My hands clenched in my lap. “Sophia-”

“Are you pregnant?”

The words hung in the air between us like a bomb waiting to detonate.

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.

Despite everything, I felt my lips twitch. “Don’t go to prison for me.”

“Oh, I’d make it look like an accident.” But her expression softened as she took my hands. “Seriously though… what are you going to do?

“I don’t know.” I stared down at our joined hands. ‘I can’t tell him. He’ll either force me to get rid of it or… I don’t know. Use it against me somehow. Claim I trapped him again.”

“So you keep it secret? For how long?”

“As long as I can.” My hand moved to my stomach. “And then… I don’t know. Maybe I leave before he finds out. Take the baby and just… disappear.”

Sophia was quiet for a long moment. Then she squeezed my hands.

“You know what the worst part is?” she said softly. “We’re both in the same boat. You and me.”

I looked up, confused. “What do you mean?”

Her smile was bitter. “We’re both in love with men who can’t love us back. Who are too fucked up by their own shit to see what’s right in front of them.”