Lyra stepped out of the clinic with a strange heaviness in her chest. The heartbeat had been strong. The doctor said everything looked fine. But something else was bothering her — something she hadn't told Zane.
She kept walking even as her phone buzzed. Again. And again.
It was her mother.
Reluctantly, Lyra picked up. "Hello?"
"Where are you?" her mother's voice was sharp, urgent. "I heard from someone at your old job… Are you pregnant?"
Lyra stopped walking. Her heart sank. "Who told you?"
"That's not the point," her mother snapped. "You're carrying a child and living with a man we don't even know? What would your father say?"
"Dad's not here," Lyra said quietly. "And I'm not a child."
There was silence on the line. Then her mother sighed. "Come home. You need to think this through. That man—he's not one of us, Lyra."
Lyra hung up without answering. Not one of us. The words echoed in her head. For the first time, she realized that maybe… she wasn't one of them anymore either.
Back at the penthouse, Zane was waiting. She could see it in his eyes — something had shifted in her, and he felt it too.
"Everything okay?" he asked.
Lyra shook her head, but said nothing.
Because for the first time, she wasn't sure if it would be.