Brent’s POV
I stayed on the court long after Betty left replaying the conversation over and over in my mind.
As I packed up my things, I pulled out my phone scrolling through old messages thinking of the past and what I’d left behind in the suburbs. But my thoughts were interrupted by a new notification and my heart sank when I saw the name.
“Megan.”
My hand froze as I opened the message, my heart pounding. I hadn’t heard from Megan in months—since before I’d moved to the city. We hadn’t left things on great terms, but I never expected to hear from her again. And definitely not with the words I saw on my screen:
“We need to talk. It’s important. The baby is yours.”
I read the message again, my mind spinning. “A baby?” I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Megan and I hadn’t been serious and I thought we’d both moved on. But now the weight of her message settled over me and I felt the ground shift under my feet.
I typed a shaky reply, my hands trembling as I pressed send.
“What? Megan, is this a joke?”
A few seconds later, the dots appeared as she typed then disappeared. Finally, another message popped up.
“I wouldn’t joke about something like this. I wanted to be sure before telling you, but now I am. We need to talk, Brent. I’m not asking for anything… but you deserve to know.”
My phone slipped from my hand as I stared into the empty gym, the silence pressing down on me. This wasn’t part of my plan. I’d left the suburbs to build a new life to find a future for myself. A baby wasn’t supposed to be part of it and neither was the weight of this responsibility that felt like it would crush me.
I reached for my phone again, typing a final message.
“I’ll call you. Just… give me some time to process this.”
Betty, Stacey, my future on the team—none of it felt solid anymore.
As I walked out of the gym, the weight of Megan’s message hung over me suffocating and unyielding. I had to tell Betty and Stacey.