A Secret in Her Father's House, A Pregnancy Neither Can Hide novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: Trenton at the Door

Trenton's grey Audi pulled into the driveway on Saturday at two in the afternoon.

Alana watched it from the kitchen window with a dish towel in her hands.

She had been expecting it for four days.

She had still not worked out how to feel.

"Do you want me out there?" Henrik asked behind her.

"No."

"Do you want me in the house?"

"I want you on the deck, where I can see you."

"Where he can see me, you mean."

"Yes."

He nodded once and went out the back door.

She heard his chair scrape on the boards.

She put the towel down, smoothed her hair and walked out the front door to meet the man she had nearly married.

Trenton Brindley got out of the car in a navy suit on a Saturday.

He was thirty-one and handsome, with neat blond hair and an expensive watch, and he held a bunch of white lilies.

"Alana."

"Trenton."

"You look tired."

"I've been working."

"You look..." He stopped and looked her over, and she watched him search for the word. "Different."

"I am different."

"Can we talk inside?"

"No."

His face tightened.

"Look, I know I handled the ring wrong. I know I said things about the wedding date."

"You said I scheduled our engagement like a quarterly review."

"I was upset."

"You were right," she said. "I did."

He blinked.

She had not planned that.

It came out of her with a strange lightness, and she felt it settle in her chest.

"I scheduled all of it. The proposal, the venue, the honeymoon. I picked you off a list because you checked the boxes, and I never once asked myself what I wanted."

"Alana, that's not fair to either of us."

"It's the only fair thing I've said in two years."

He held out the flowers.

She did not take them.

"I came all the way out here," he said. "I thought if you saw me..."

"I'm not coming back, Trenton."

"Because of what?"

"Because I'm done."

"Because of someone else?"

She did not look at the deck.

She did not need to.

"No," she said, calmly. "Because of me."

He stared at her for a long time.

Then he laid the lilies on the hood of the Audi and let out a short bitter breath.

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