Six months after our divorce, I never thought I’d hear from Travis again. But that morning, as I lay exhausted in a hospital bed with our newborn sleeping quietly beside me, my phone buzzed insistently on the bedside table.
The name on the screen made my heart skip a beat: Travis Whitlock.
I stared at it, torn between ignoring the call and answering. Fatigue weighed heavily on me, but curiosity won. I pressed the answer button, trying to keep my voice steady.
“Why are you calling?” I asked slowly.
His voice was oddly light, almost cheerful. “I’m getting married this weekend,” he said casually. “I thought I should invite you.”
A bitter laugh escaped me. “Travis, I just had a baby a few hours ago. There’s no way I can come to your wedding,” I said quietly.
He paused, then his tone shifted to cold indifference. “Fine. I just wanted to let you know,” he said before hanging up.
I lowered the phone and looked up at the hospital ceiling, feeling a dull heaviness settle in my chest. The pain wasn’t sharp like before but the weight of old memories still lingered.
Thirty minutes passed in silence. Then the door burst open so suddenly that nurses outside gasped. My mother stood, confused, as Travis rushed in, pale and breathless.
“Where is she?” he demanded, scanning the room.
“Travis, you can’t just barge in here,” I said, struggling to sit up.
He ignored me and moved toward the crib. His hands trembled as he looked down at our sleeping daughter. “She looks just like me,” he whispered.
The room went silent. Nurses exchanged uneasy glances. Anger rose inside me. “What are you doing here?” I asked coldly.
“Why didn’t you tell me the baby was a girl?” he asked, confusion and desperation in his voice.
A bitter laugh slipped out. “Why would I tell you anything after you said the baby might not be yours?”
He ran a hand through his hair. “That’s not what I meant. My fiance9 told me you lost the baby.”
“She lied to you,” I said quietly. “And you believed her.”
What he didn’t know was that this was only the beginning of a night that would change everything.
That was the morning I realized nothing between us would ever be the same.
