I deleted it halfway through.
Not because I didn’t want the truth.
But because I didn’t need her version of it.
The facts were already burned into my brain.
4. The Doctor Appointment
Two days after the party, my mom drove me to an emergency prenatal appointment.
Not because something was wrong physically, but because stress during pregnancy isn’t something you gamble with.
The waiting room smelled like hand sanitizer and baby powder.
A woman across from me rubbed her belly and smiled at her partner, and I had to look away before the envy and grief knocked me over.
The nurse called my name.
“Rowan?”
I followed her down the hallway, my mom’s hand warm against my back.
The doctor was kind and direct.
Blood pressure: elevated.
Heart rate: high.
Baby’s heartbeat: strong.
That last thing made me exhale hard enough I almost cried in relief.
“Your baby’s okay,” the doctor said gently. “But you need to be careful with stress. Your body is working overtime right now.”
I nodded, swallowing hard.
“We’re going to monitor you more frequently for a bit,” she continued. “And I want you to focus on rest, nutrition, hydration.”
I almost laughed again. Rest. As if rest was something you could just choose after your life detonated.
But I promised anyway.
Because for the first time in my life, I understood what it meant to love someone you hadn’t met yet.
Love as responsibility.
Love as protection.
5. Divorce Isn’t Just Paper
I filed for divorce the following week.
I didn’t do it dramatically.
I didn’t announce it on social media.
I didn’t call everyone to tell them.
I sat in a lawyer’s office with my hands folded neatly in my lap and listened to a woman with sharp eyes and a calm voice explain the process.
Custody.
Support.
Property.
The phrase “unborn child” appeared in documents like a cold legal fact.
Blake’s lawyer reached out quickly—too quickly.
He wanted a conversation about “co-parenting.”
He wanted to “keep things amicable.”
He wanted to negotiate custody for a baby that wasn’t even born yet.
The audacity of it almost made me dizzy.
I forwarded everything to my attorney and stopped responding.
I learned fast: when you stop feeding someone access to you, they get louder at first.
They want you to break.
They want the old dynamic back.
Blake sent a final text before I blocked his new number too.
You’re going to regret this. Think about what you’re doing to our family.
Our family.
