Bianca's POV
The rooftop bar was exactly the kind of place I didn't belong. All glass walls and twinkling lights, with a view of the city that probably cost extra just to look at. People in designer clothes sipped cocktails that had names I couldn't pronounce, laughing like they didn't have a care in the world.
I sat at a corner table nursing a ginger ale that Chloe thought was a vodka tonic, trying not to throw up again.
"Isn't this place amazing?" Chloe gushed, gesturing around with her wine glass. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes bright. She'd had three drinks already, and happiness radiated off her like heat. "Alexander found it. He's always finding the best spots."
Alexander sat beside her, his arm draped casually over the back of her chair. He looked relaxed, comfortable, like a man who had everything figured out.
But when Chloe wasn't looking, his eyes found mine, and I saw the tension there. The questions.
"It's beautiful," I managed to say, taking another sip of ginger ale. The bubbles helped settle my stomach. Barely.
"I'm so glad we're doing this." Chloe reached across the table and squeezed my hand. "The three of us. Family time. It means everything to me, having you here, Bianca. Having my sister back."
Every word was a knife twisting deeper.
"Me too," I lied.
My phone buzzed in my lap. I glanced down discreetly.
Alexander: "You look pale. Are you okay?"
I looked up. He was staring at his own phone, pretending to check work emails while Chloe talked to the waiter about dessert options.
I typed back under the table: "I'm fine. We still need to talk. Later."
His jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
"Bianca?" Chloe's voice pulled me back. "You want to split the chocolate lava cake with me?"
"Actually, I'm not feeling great. I think I'm going to head out."
Her face fell. "Really? Already? But we just got here."
"I know, I'm sorry. I think I'm coming down with something. Long day at work, you know." I stood up, grabbing my purse. "You two stay. Enjoy your night. You deserve it."
Chloe looked genuinely disappointed, and that somehow made everything worse. "If you're sure…"
"I'm sure. Thank you for inviting me." I leaned down and hugged her quickly, breathing in her perfume, wondering how many more times I'd get to do this before she hated me forever. "I'll see you at home."
Alexander stood too. "I'll walk you out."
"That's not necessary," I said quickly.
"The parking garage is dark. I insist."
Chloe smiled up at him. "Such a gentleman. This is why I married you."
If only she knew.
I walked toward the elevator with Alexander a few steps behind. Neither of us spoke until the doors closed and we were alone in the mirrored box descending toward the parking levels.
"What's going on?" he asked quietly. "You've been acting strange all night. Stranger than usual."
I stared at my reflection. Multiple versions of myself, all looking equally terrified. "Not here. Memorial Park. Midnight. Like I said."
"Bianca."
"Please." My voice cracked. "Just meet me there. I can't do this right now."
The elevator dinged. I stepped out without looking back.
The drive to the park felt like driving toward my own execution. I kept checking the clock on my dashboard. Eleven forty five. Eleven fifty. Eleven fifty eight.
I parked under a broken streetlight, in the shadows where no one would see my car. The park was empty at this hour, just dark paths and the silhouettes of trees against the night sky.
I sat on a bench near the fountain, listening to the water trickle, trying to organize the chaos in my head into something that resembled a plan.
How do you tell someone they're going to be a father when they're married to someone else? When that someone else is your sister?
There was no good way. No easy way. Just the truth, raw and ugly and inevitable.
Footsteps on the path made me look up.
Alexander emerged from the shadows, his hands in his pockets, his expression unreadable.
"This better be important," he said. "I told Chloe I got an urgent work call. She's already suspicious about how much time I spend on my phone lately."
"It's important." I stood up, my legs shaking. "You should probably sit down."
"I'm fine standing."
"Alexander. Sit."
Something in my voice made him comply. He sat on the opposite end of the bench, maintaining distance, like even now he was trying to do the right thing.
Too late for that.
I took a deep breath. Then another. The words sat in my throat like stones.
"I'm pregnant."
The silence that followed was deafening. Even the fountain seemed to go quiet.
Alexander didn't move. Didn't blink. Just stared at me like I'd spoken a language he didn't understand.
"What?"
"I'm pregnant," I repeated, and saying it out loud the second time made it more real somehow. More terrifying. "I took three tests. All positive."
He stood up abruptly, running his hands through his hair. "When? How long?"
"About two months, I think. I just found out today." I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly cold despite the warm night. "It happened that night. The hotel."
"We used…" He stopped. Closed his eyes. "No. No, we didn't."
"No. We didn't."
He paced in front of the bench, and I watched him process it. Watched the realization hit him in waves.
"Are you sure it's mine?"
The question shouldn't have hurt, but it did. "I haven't been with anyone else. Not before you, not since. So yes, I'm sure."
He stopped pacing and looked at me, really looked at me, and I saw something crack in his expression. Fear. Raw, genuine fear.
"This can't be happening."
"Well, it is."
"Chloe…" He said her name like a prayer. Or maybe a curse. "Oh God, Chloe."
"I know."
"She can't find out." He turned to me sharply. "She can never find out about this."
"And how exactly do you propose I hide a pregnancy, Alexander? Wear baggy clothes for nine months and hope no one notices?"
"I don't know!" His voice rose, then he caught himself, lowering it to a harsh whisper. "I don't know. But we can't tell her. It would destroy her."
"You think I don't know that?" I stood up, anger flaring hot in my chest. "You think I want to tell my sister I'm pregnant with her husband's baby? You think I planned this?"
"Of course not."
"Then don't act like I'm the only one responsible here." Tears burned behind my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. "We both made this mess. We both have to deal with it."
He sat back down heavily, his head in his hands. "What do you want to do?"
The question hung between us.
What did I want to do?
I'd been asking myself that same question all day, and I still didn't have an answer. Every option felt wrong. Every path led to pain.
"I don't know," I admitted quietly. "I haven't figured that part out yet."
"We could…" He hesitated. "There are options. Medical options. No one would have to know."
Abortion. He was talking about abortion without saying the word.
My hand instinctively went to my stomach, even though there was nothing to feel yet. Just cells dividing, a collection of possibilities that hadn't formed into anything recognizable.
But it was there. Real. Growing.
"Maybe," I said. "I need time to think."
"How much time?"
"I don't know, Alexander. This isn't exactly something I've dealt with before." My voice shook. "I'm scared. I'm terrified, actually. And I don't know what to do."
For a moment, he just looked at me. Then, surprising me completely, he moved closer and pulled me into a hug.
I stiffened at first, but then I let myself lean into him, just for a second, just to feel like someone else understood how completely screwed we were.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly against my hair. "I'm so sorry."
"Me too."
We stood there in the dark, holding each other like we were drowning and each other was all we had to grab onto.
Then his phone rang.
We jumped apart like we'd been electrocuted.
Chloe's name lit up the screen.
"Answer it," I said, stepping back. "She's probably wondering where you are."
He accepted the call, his voice instantly shifting to something warm and easy. "Hey, babe. Yeah, sorry, call ran long. I'm heading home now."
I couldn't hear her response, but I could imagine it. Sweet, trusting, completely unaware that her husband was standing in a dark park with his pregnant mistress.
"Love you too," Alexander said, and hung up.
The words felt like another knife.
"I should go," I said.
"Bianca, wait."
"What?"
He looked at me with those grey eyes that had gotten me into this mess in the first place. "Whatever you decide, I'll support it. I'll help however I can. Financially, logistically, whatever you need."
"How generous," I said bitterly.
"I mean it."
"So do I." I turned away. "Goodnight, Alexander."
I walked back to my car without looking back, and I didn't let myself cry until I was safely inside with the doors locked and the windows up.
Then I sobbed. Deep, ugly, body shaking sobs that made my chest hurt and my throat raw.
I was pregnant with my brother in law's baby.
And I had no idea what I was going to do about it.