Too Late For Regret, Mr. Harper

"Congratulations, Mrs. Harper. You're six weeks pregnant."

Dr. Evans slid the report across the polished desk. The word "Positive" was printed in stark black ink.

Stella Kane's gaze fixed on it. The air in the sterile, quiet room seemed to thin, making it hard to breathe. This wasn't joy that tightened its fist around her heart. It was a cold, sinking dread.

Her hand moved instinctively to her flat stomach, her fingertips trembling slightly. A baby. A life she hadn't planned for, a complication she couldn't afford.

Dr. Evans offered a gentle smile, misinterpreting her silence as typical first-time-mother anxiety. "It's perfectly normal to feel overwhelmed. We'll schedule your next appointment and go over everything you need to know."

Stella forced a nod, but the doctor's voice faded into a dull hum. Her mind was racing, her brain completely consumed by a single, terrifying question: How would she tell Bryant?

She left the clinic clutching the ultrasound photo, the flimsy paper feeling like a burning coal in her hand. On a bench outside, the roar of New York City traffic was a distant noise. She felt utterly alone.

Taking a shaky breath, she pulled out her phone. She had to tell him. He was her husband. He had a right to know.

Her thumb hovered over his name at the top of her contacts: Bryant. After a long moment, she pressed the call button.

The phone rang for what felt like an eternity before he picked up. The background was filled with the clink of glasses and a murmur of conversation. Obviously, he was at a party.

"What is it?" His voice was clipped, impatient. A bucket of ice water over her head.

The words she'd rehearsed caught in her throat. Before she could speak, a woman's soft, playful voice drifted through the line. "Bryant, darling, come back. We're waiting for you."

Sienna Steele. The actress. A needle-sharp pain pricked Stella's heart.

Bryant's tone softened instantly for the other woman. "One second." Then, back to Stella, his voice was hard as steel. "Sienna's having a bit of an emotional issue. I need to handle it. If it's not important, I'm hanging up."

He didn't even give her a chance to answer.

"I—" she managed to whisper, her voice small.

"Tell Leo to handle it. Don't bother me."

The line went dead.

Stella stared at the phone, the dial tone a mocking buzz in her ear. The tiny flicker of hope she'd harbored was extinguished by his casual cruelty. She shoved the ultrasound photo deep into her purse, burying the secret.

She stood up, her legs unsteady, and started walking with no destination in mind. Back to their cold, empty house? Where else was there to go?

Her phone rang again, shattering the silence. The screen read: Aunt Martha.

She answered, and her aunt's frantic voice screeched in her ear. "Stella! It's your mother! She collapsed at the hospital!"

The world tilted on its axis. Stella gripped a nearby railing to keep from falling. "What? Which hospital?"

Martha sobbed out the address. "The doctors say it's serious. Acute kidney failure. She needs surgery immediately!"

The city blurred. The secret in her womb, the man who didn't care, and now, her mother, dying.

An hour ago, her biggest problem had been just a pregnancy.

Now, she was completely trapped in a nightmare.