He Chose Her So I Left Carrying His Heir novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Two Weeks Early

The box held a christening gown.

It was ivory silk, yellowed at the folds, with a hundred tiny hand-sewn pearls at the collar.

Cameron took it out on the cabin porch in the cold, and he stood holding it for a long time.

"My mother wore this," he said. "Then I did. Then she put it away."

"There's no note."

"She doesn't write notes."

I folded the gown back into the tissue.

I did not send a thank-you, and I did not send it back.

I put it in the bottom drawer, and I let it stay there.

On the fourteenth of March the wind off Lake Erie turned vicious.

By dusk it was a squall, with snow coming sideways across the lights on Main Street.

Cameron was still on the dock.

He had worked the fish trucks since the second week of January.

He came home every night smelling of diesel and cold water, and he ate two plates of dinner without speaking.

That night he washed his hands twice at the sink and put his face against my belly.

"Two more weeks," he said into my sweater. "Hold on, Fern."

At nine o'clock I got up for the bathroom and felt a hard tight band close around my middle.

I stood very still.

It let go.

At nine twenty it came again.

"Cameron."

"Mm?"

"I think we're not going to wait two weeks."

He was off the couch so fast he knocked over the lamp.

"How far apart?"

"Ten minutes. Maybe less."

"The highway's closed. They shut it at Fenton at six. The radio said." He had his coat on inside out. "I'll call the Pavilion."

"No."

"Melanie."

"I'm not having her in that building." I held on to the table as the next one rolled in. "There's a clinic six blocks from here, and a doctor who looked at my folder in November and asked the right question. Call her."

← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend