Meryl's POV
The medical report trembled between my fingers as the doctor's words echoed in my mind like a death sentence.
"Congratulations, Miss Meryl. You're pregnant."
The sterile white paper might as well have been a funeral notice. Ashton ink spelled out my fate in clinical terms that made my stomach churn. The timing was unmistakable. The time since that forbidden night when everything changed.
The night Andre Dario destroyed me completely.
My stepbrother had come to my room like a predator stalking prey. I had welcomed him with trembling hands and desperate kisses. He had claimed every inch of my body with a hunger that left me breathless and aching. His mouth had branded my skin while his hands mapped territories that belonged to him alone.
The memory of his weight pressing me into the mattress made heat pool between my thighs even now. How he had filled me so perfectly, stretching me until I thought I might break. The way he groaned my name when he spilled himself inside me, marking me from the inside out.
Then morning came and he vanished like smoke.
Now his seed had taken root in my womb.
My legs buckled the moment I stepped onto the sidewalk outside the clinic. The busy street blurred around me as reality crashed down. This wasn't fear making my body shake. This was the phantom touch of his hands still burning on my skin. The echo of his voice whispering filthy promises in my ear.
He had ruined me for anyone else and left me with living proof of his possession.
How could I face my father? Tell my stepmother that her precious son had knocked up his own stepsister? That I carried the evidence of our sin beneath my heart?
The report crumpled in my fist as I pressed it against my chest. As if paper could hold together the pieces of my breaking heart.
I couldn't go home yet. Couldn't pretend everything was normal when my world had tilted off its axis. But eventually, I had no choice.
The sound of celebration hit me the moment I opened the front door.
Laughter bubbled through the house like champagne. My stepmother's delighted giggle mixed with my father's rumbling chuckles. A stranger's melodic voice joined the chorus. Then I heard the sound that made my blood turn to ice.
Andre's deep, masculine laugh.
My feet carried me forward against my will. Through the hallway toward the living room where happiness lived and I didn't belong.
The scene before me felt like a knife twisting in my chest.
Andre sat beside a woman who looked like she had stepped off a magazine cover. His large hand rested lightly on her lower back. She radiated the kind of polished elegance that money could buy and breeding could perfect. The diamond on her finger caught the light like a beacon.
My stepmother practically glowed with maternal pride while my father beamed approval.
I stood frozen in the doorway. Pregnant, forgotten, invisible.
"Meryl!" My stepmother's face lit up when she spotted me. "Perfect timing, darling. We have the most wonderful news to share."
My throat closed. I couldn't force words past the lump of devastation lodged there.
Andre's dark eyes found mine across the room. No recognition flickered in their depths. No guilt. No acknowledgment of what we had shared. He looked at me like I was a stranger.
"Andre's engaged," my stepmother announced with the enthusiasm of a game show host. "To Adelaide. Isn't she absolutely gorgeous?"
The world tilted sideways. My vision blurred at the edges as shock rolled through me in waves.
Engaged.
He was marrying someone else while I carried his child.
The cruel irony almost made me laugh. Almost made me scream. Instead, I stood there like a statue while my heart shattered into a million irreparable pieces.
Not once had he called. Not a single text message. No knock on my door in the middle of the night. I had waited like a pathetic fool, jumping every time my phone buzzed.
For nothing.
Adelaide turned toward me with a smile that belonged in a toothpaste commercial.
"Are you Meryl?" she asked, and I nodded. "You're so cute."
Little sister.
The words hit like physical blows. She had no idea that recently, this man had been buried deep inside me, claiming me as his own. That he had whispered my name like a prayer while he filled me with his release. That his DNA was multiplying inside my womb at this very moment.
"Congratulations," I managed to whisper through numb lips. "That's incredible news."
Andre's gaze flicked to me for one brief second. Something dark and unreadable flashed across his features before disappearing behind his mask of indifference.
I couldn't stand another moment of this torture.
"Meryl, sweetheart," my stepmother called as I turned to leave. "Won't you stay and celebrate with us? I was just about to bring out champagne."
The irony of champagne while carrying his baby nearly broke my composure.
"I'm exhausted," I said, forcing steadiness into my voice. "I need to rest."
"Of course, dear. You look pale. Go lie down and I'll bring you some cake later."
I nodded and escaped before my facade crumbled completely.
In the safety of my bedroom, I collapsed onto my bed as the tears finally came. Great heaving sobs that shook my entire body. I pressed my face into my pillow to muffle the sounds of my breaking heart.
He was marrying someone else.
And I was carrying his baby.