"What if he’s right?" Bella’s voice cracked, panic rising. "What if sothing happened that I didn’t know about? What if I’m the one mistaken? What if I was drugged and.... maybe I don’t rember anything––"
Rachel pulled back slightly, cupping Bella’s face in both hands. "Oh, my God, Bell. Don’t say that. You’re not mistaken. You know what happened. You know who the father is. He’s the only one so stop saying those things."
Bella’s lips trembled. "Then how do I explain this? How do I explain being pregnant if he really can’t have children?"
Chloe exchanged a quick, pained glance with Rachel. "Well, sotis things go wrong with those procedures," she said quickly, clinging to hope. "They’re not always perfect. Maybe his wasn’t. Maybe—"
"But he’s sure," Bella whispered. "He’s so sure that it worked."
Rachel exhaled through her nose, shaking her head. "Then he’s wrong about sothing. Because Timothy looks just like him, Bella. The sa eyes, the sa way he tilts his head when he’s thinking. You can’t make that up."
Bella pressed her hand to her chest, her voice breaking again. "But he doesn’t believe . He looked at like I was soone he couldn’t trust. Like everything between us was just a lie."
Chloe’s eyes filled with tears. "He’s scared. That doesn’t make his words right, but he’s scared. The last ti soone told him that, it broke him and instead of healing, he built a wall out of it. Tonight you tried to climb it, and he panicked."
Bella gave a shaky laugh. "I thought love ant breaking through walls together."
Rachel sighed, stroking her sister’s hair gently. "Sotis it does. Sotis it ans standing outside the wall and waiting until the person inside is ready to open the gate."
Bella didn’t say anything, not because she didn’t hear what Rachel had said but because she was too tired to try to understand it.
For a long mont, no one spoke. The three won sat there in the dimly lit living room, surrounded by the stillness of a night that felt heavier than any before it.
Then Chloe stood and quietly fetched a glass of water. She pressed it into Bella’s trembling hands when she returned. "Here. Drink, sweetheart."
Bella obeyed, taking small, careful sips. The coolness burned down her throat, easing nothing.
"I know Jake handled this the wrong way but I think that’s what makes him human. He’s been kept in the dark before by people he trusted with his life so knowing you’ve done the sa must’ve hit him wrongly. As much as I’m so mad at him and just want to throw him off this universe into soplace where he can’t say those hurtful words again, I think I understand his pain a little. I’m pretty sure he’ll regret ever saying those words to you when he finally realizes Timothy is his," Chloe said, sitting back down.
Rachel leaned her head on Bella’s shoulder. "You did what we told you to do. You told him the truth. You shouldn’t regret that. What’s left is what he decides to do with it. You told him the truth, that’s what matters."
Bella’s voice ca out small. "The truth ruined everything."
"No," Chloe said softly. "Lies did. You just tried to fix them."
Bella blinked, her vision blurring again. "It doesn’t feel like fixing. It feels like losing everything."
Rachel gave her a sad smile. "Sotis you have to lose the version of soone you loved before you can et who they really are."
Bella looked down at her trembling hands. "And what if I don’t like who he really is?"
"Then you’ll walk away," Chloe said quietly. "And you’ll still have us. You’ll still have Timothy. That’s more than enough to build a life on."
A tear slid down Bella’s cheek, but this ti she didn’t hide it. "I just wanted him to believe ," she whispered. "That’s all I wanted. For once, I wanted to be believed."
Chloe reached out, taking her hand. "He will. Maybe not tonight. Maybe not soon. But when the truth catches up to him which I know it will, he’ll know what he threw away."
Rachel nodded in agreent. "And when that happens, he’ll have to live with the fact that you told the truth while he doubted it."
Bella stared at the floor for a long mont, then finally spoke, her voice soft but certain. "I don’t want to hate him."
Chloe’s heart broke at that. "No one’s asking you to. You just need to heal, baby. Leave the hating for Rachel and I, okay?"
The silence that followed was different now. It felt less suffocating, and more exhausted.
Rachel helped Bella to her feet and guided her to the room where they both helped her to the bed. "Co on," she murmured. "Sit here. You need to rest."
Bella sank down, her movents sluggish, and drained. Chloe pulled a blanket over her shoulders, tucking it gently under her chin.
"Do you want to stay with you tonight?" Chloe asked quietly.
Bella shook her head faintly. "No. Just stay until I fall asleep."
Rachel brushed a strand of hair from Bella’s face. "We’ll be right here."
Bella leaned back, her breathing uneven but slowing. "He said I was trying to tie him down with another man’s child," she murmured weakly, more to herself than them. "But Timothy was the only good thing that ever ca out of my worst night. How could he not see that?"
Neither Rachel nor Chloe answered because there was nothing to say that would make it right. Only Jake had the power to do that.
So instead, Chloe took her hand and held it until Bella’s trembling eased.
Rachel lay on the other side, silent, watching the storm slowly fade from her sister’s face.
And when Bella finally drifted into an uneasy sleep, tears still glistening at the corners of her eyes, Chloe whispered softly into the quiet room, "He’ll realize it one day, Bella. He’ll co back. And when he does, I just hope it’s not too late."
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