The silence between us crackles with everything unsaid. Jake's chest rises and falls with controlled breaths, his jaw tight enough to shatter.
"You think I abandoned you." He says it quietly, but the words carry weight. "That's what this is really about."
"You left." I grip the bedsheets, anchoring myself against the emotion threatening to pull me under. "What else am I supposed to call it?"
"I left because you asked me to." His voice drops, raw with honesty. "You literally thought I was controlling you. Like your father did for years. But that wasn't the case. I was worried about protecting you." He takes a step closer, his eyes burning into mine. "I swore I'd never be that man. Never make you feel trapped or suffocated by my presence."
The confession lands somewhere deep in my chest.
"So leaving wasn't abandonment." He continues, each word deliberate. "It was proving I trusted you enough to make your own choices. Even when those choices meant walking away from me."
"Jake—"
"I never imagined you'd choose silence over conversation." His hands curl at his sides, frustration bleeding through the controlled exterior. "Not about something this significant. Not about our child."
The accusation stings because it's true.
"You've been here almost two weeks, Adison." His voice cracks on my name. "Two weeks of sleeping down the hall. Two weeks of meals together and arguments and moments where I reached for you." He shakes his head slowly. "And you still couldn't find a single moment to tell me?"
I look away, unable to hold his gaze. The guilt I've been carrying settles heavier on my shoulders.
"I would have told you eventually." The admission scrapes out of me like broken glass. "I just hadn't decided what to do about the baby yet."
The words land between us with devastating impact.
Jake goes still. His expression shifts from hurt to something deeper—something almost desperate. The color drains from his face as he processes what I've said.
"You hadn't decided." He repeats it slowly, testing the shape of the words. "About our baby."
"I didn't know what you wanted." My voice breaks despite my best efforts to hold it together. "I didn't know if you'd even want children. If you'd want this life with me after everything I put you through."
"Of course I want this baby." The words explode out of him, fierce and immediate. "More than anything else in the world."
I stare at him, stunned into silence.
"I want this baby." He crosses the remaining distance between us, dropping to his knees beside the bed so our eyes are level. "I want you. I love you, Adison—I never stopped loving you, not for a single moment." His hand finds mine, gripping tight. "And I already love this baby. Our baby."
Something breaks open inside me.
The tears I've been fighting for weeks finally win their war. They spill down my cheeks in hot streams, blurring Jake's face into soft edges and impossible hope.
"Do you mean it?" The question comes out barely above a whisper. "After everything I did? Sending you away? Hiding this from you? Do you truly still love me?"
Jake laughs—a broken, beautiful sound that carries more emotion than any declaration.
"You foolish woman." He cups my face in his hands, thumbs brushing away tears as fast as they fall. "Of course I love you. I've loved you since before I understood what that meant. I loved you when you showed up at this ranch with your designer luggage and your Manhattan attitude." His forehead presses against mine. "I missed you so terribly these past weeks I could barely function. Tommy thought I'd lost my mind."
A sob escapes me—half laugh, half cry.
"I made my own mistakes in this mess." Jake continues, his voice rough with honesty. "I should have fought harder. Should have called. Should have trusted that you needed me more than you needed space."
"I'm sorry." The apology tears out of me with force I didn't know I possessed. "I'm so sorry, Jake. Your absence destroyed me. Every silent day felt like dying slowly." I grip his shirt, pulling him closer. "I told myself I was protecting both of us, but I was just scared. Terrified that if I let you in completely, you'd have the power to break me."
"I'd never break you." His hands tighten against my face. "I'd spend every day for the rest of my life putting you back together if you needed it."
"I love you." The words spill out, desperate and true. "I love you, and I've been so afraid of losing you that I almost lost you anyway."
"You could never lose me." He pulls back just enough to meet my eyes. "I'm yours, Adison. I've been yours since before either of us knew it."
We collapse into each other.
His arms wrap around me, pulling me against his chest with careful attention to my healing body. I bury my face in his neck, breathing in cedar and leather and something that feels impossibly like home.
His mouth finds mine.
The kiss starts gentle—a question, a promise—then deepens into something more urgent. Weeks of silence and fear and longing pour between us, and for one suspended moment, nothing else exists. No hospital rooms. No secrets. No fear. Just Jake and me and the tiny life growing inside me that we created together.
"Adison."
Zachary's voice cuts through the moment like ice water.
We break apart, both breathing hard. I turn to find him standing in the doorway, my phone gripped in his hand. His expression carries something complicated—acceptance mixed with resignation.
"I answered your phone while you were resting." He holds it toward me, his voice carefully neutral. "Victoria Snyder. She insists on speaking with you directly."
Jake's forehead rests against my temple, his breath warm on my skin. Whatever Victoria needs, whatever crisis is waiting on the other end of this call—we'll face it together.
For the first time in months, I actually believe that.